How technology has aided the human life?

Human beings rely far too often on modern technology. Take a look at the smart phone, an elegant device which can transform to a phone, messaging service, calculator, maps, video player, music player, game console, mini computer, the list goes on. Who says you have to go to school when you can just conference call your teachers on Skype and fancy a robot who keeps you organised and a robot which allows doctors to carry out life saving operations; this is technology which has advanced human life.

Nicholas Carr, author of “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains“, told BBC World Service’s Digital Planet program that although technology has made complicated tasks easier, the human brain learns more effectively when it is challenged with something difficult. If you do think about it, what do you consider as your best lesson? Was it from being patted on the back and told ‘you are excellent’ or was it that time that you really screwed up and you said to yourself,’ Well I am not going to do that again!’

Why do we need an education when we have a device which could do everything for you? Take a look at some of the ways technology has improved the human life. The cell phone; something which took 1 minute to dial a telephone number, yet having to dial it all again if just one digit went wrong, least forgetting the incapability to store numbers. Now you can have everything with a touch of a button, dial 3 numbers at the same time and even video call with someone on the other end of the world.

Backtrack half a century ago whereby people used to go to the library and come back with a rucksack full of books, ready to learn something new, and prepare for their assignments, now one may now ask what can be done without “GOOGLE” – over 80% of all users use this as their primary search engine, according to Ofcom.

Keeping in contact with friends used to be challenging, making sure you’re up to date with them, share your experiences and even wish them happy birthday. Mark Zuckerberg eased this with his idea of a book of faces, which is more commonly known as “Facebook” – one of the world most viewed websites.

So can there really be a device that could do everything? What about wireless energy transfer, which would get rid of all the long wires and could mean wires medical treatment from home, unlimited fuel supply to devices and energy sharing which will drive the economy in selling their energy ‘wirelessly’.

Teleportation is a mode of transport which people have been dreaming about, and now it is here, or should we say ‘quantum teleportation’, the key to the technology is controlling this phenomenon. It is no easy task but Chinese researchers recently teleported a photon’s state nearly 100 kilometers. Once perfected, the technology will revolutionise computing and communication speeds.

A robot which carries out everything for you; with so much technology, is this driving the world crazy or is this revolutionise the way we live? Can this really lead to a device, a computer or a “thing” which is smarter than the human brain?

Watching live football on your phone, sending an important email on your tablet, and surfing the web on your notebook; just some of the ways we take full advantage of the technology around us. Everyday we all hear about the latest technology where a new phone is released, and the world goes crazy; camping outside 5 days before but what they do not know is that the only improvement is that one new feature was added. This is how advertisement and product design causes a consumer frenzy. It is not fair to say technology has aided the human life but instead the human life has become so dependent with technology that humans are becoming “dumb”. What people do not realise is that with humans using technology means that the technology does all the work and the brain remains inactive. Now, technology has helped us a lot, it has improved our lifestyles and has made everything quick, quick enough for our brains not to register. I feel that technology should be used to assist the human brain and not as a primary source. After all do we really want to turn into self destructive robots who would not be able to say a sentence before taking a look at that vibrating device in their pockets? Do we really want technology to do everything, for one day, this very same article to automatically change to “How technology has taken over the human life”?

Contributed by Ehsaan Ahmad

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