Research on the Speed of Technological Development
The Speed of Technological Development
The span of technology from the Neolithic Revolution to the present is a process moving from simple to complex tools. Successive tool inventions have been fostered by previous ones, and in turn, social changes/revolutions have ensued. Of these, the threshold revolution was the Agricultural one: the divide between hunter-gatherer society and our post-industrial one. These advancements in technology can be recognized by the technological progress involved in this process. Clay-baked cuneiform tablets (the invention of letters) become the basis for the handwritten scrolls (and books) and the latter for machine-printed books and these in turn for computer screens (pages).
Beginning with the Neolithic Revolution, the development of lithic points gave humans an advantage other animals didn’t enjoy: the ability to kill prey, including stronger ones, in any habitat. This makes possible the spread of humans to different climates (hot, cold). As such, it contributes to the human domination of the earth. For hunting and foraging people they rely on oralcy for knowledge and organize around chiefs and shamans.
Lithic points in turn become the basis for the plowshare. Other agrarian tools (hoes, rakes etc.) are developed and animals domesticated for labour and food. Tilled land becomes differentiated from natural habitats and urban settlements are centered in them. The new field systems require accounting methods which lead to the first alphabet, as stored surpluses of food now exist and require tabulation and identification. These changes result in a rapidly expanding population (still growing) and new forms of social organization (kings and paid military retainers) and craft/service specialization principally for elites and less for those who serve them. The rise of literate culture, in turn, effects the development of the inward turn of personal ego-consciousness or individuality (Ong, 1995).
The Industrial Revolution (First and Second) builds on the tools of previous generations: weaving looms become spinning mills. The engines that power it enable mass production and machine-driven presses spread the dissemination of newspapers and books as well as diverse views and knowledge. The upshot of these advances are new educational institutions (formerly the domain of elites) to create an educated workforce. Starting with the steam locomotive, transportation expands trade and markets globally and initiates the era of mass travel. The development of telephones, made possible by electricity, changes patterns of social interaction. New wealth and upward mobility displace old orders of privilege and power and contribute to the apotheosis of the nation-state as well as national wars.
The Digital Revolution (Third Industrial) is built on the invention of the abacus and mathematical reasoning (Turing) and the printed page, as information is converted from analogue to digital format. The associated technologies of the personal computer, cell phone and fax machine empower individuals and groups unlike any previous technology. Access is the leitmotif of this revolution, be it for information, means of reproduction, or one-on-one communication.
This advancement means people within seconds find information that once was inaccessible because rare or restricted, and, with that, uncover/discover more than even the largest library can offer (Pagels, 1988). Moreover, the focus shifts from others’ interpretation of information (knowledge) to interpreting it for oneself and/or with others. Thus, people deconstruct/reconstruct information in ways previously not possible and create new information (knowledge) by so doing.
The impact on business is to give small companies extensive exposure depending on their software and web page design. In an age of multinational/box store competition it has given them a leg up, as has their use of on demand services. Other advances in the knowledge-base are a result of the cross-fertilization computers make possible and beget new disciplines. This process will continue, as information now increases exponentially. The diversity of information now available is unprecedented in history.
Computers keep increasing their speed of computation and power, as Moore`s Law recognizes (today`s desktop can do the computation once needed for the first moon shot). This is accompanied by increased miniaturization as nanotechnology makes possible programming at a cellular level to bypass electrical interference. Society is now on the verge of new breakthroughs with computing thousands of times faster than a present-day computer is capable of.
There has been concomitant exponential growth in production as the technology is applied to all areas of human activity. The speed of this development is connected both to the speed of the technology and the number of users worldwide; the digital revolution has spread to masses in the developing world. The accelerated rate of this change is no longer truly measurable. To appreciate this, it is necessary to recognize previous technologies were limited by their physical parameters: a monk using the tools of ink and paper could take years to copy one manuscript. Conversely, the computer, though a physical object, has no such constraints since all information is its potential domain. The technology engenders itself and continually develops/creates new (knowledge) products. The rate of change not only cannot be measured - it can no longer be effectively followed by specialists (a G.P. cannot keep pace with all the new developments in his/her area).
The mixed blessings of the Digital Revolution are various. New technical elites have arisen and labour jobs disappeared. Robotics has replaced bank tellers and cashiers. Algorithms that can do case law are replacing lawyers and paralegals and similar things are happening to radiologists. The consequent gutting of middle-income earners has altered the social fabric by creating a dichotomous new world. Digitization in the developing world has contributed to a huge urban influx as people migrate to mega-cities for better financial and status prospects.
Among the negative consequences of digitization are traders playing fast and loose with national currencies and the corporate control of wealth which let Wall Street banks and brokers make unchecked profits at the expense of investors and the global public. Other effects are an information overload and the speed on new developments that make it difficult for people to have an accurate mental map of their world. In addition, media saturation (negative/sensational stories’ coverage) darkens people’s worldview. Uncritical mass media coverage (eg. 911) contributes to social division between groups, abetting tribalism.
Other negative impacts include a diminution of communication skills as icon-stylized emotion is substituted for emotional insight and reflection. Net behaviours, such as game playing and shopping addiction, are counterproductive to personal development and contribute to social isolation and alienation. In the workplace, personal space becomes managerial presence with invasion of privacy by keystroke recording (the psychological equivalent to chaining people to machines in the early part of the Industrial Revolution). Employer access to personal information contributes to discriminatory hiring practices and along with mass monitoring (ubiquitous cameras) bodes for an Orwellian state of repression.
Further negative consequences of digitization include unsupervised exposure to hate literature, pornography, and violence on the Net and TV affecting children’s maturation as adults, as well as adult access to means for making destructive weapons. Visual and music artists are disenfranchised by free downloading. Finally, the public in general are not media savvy and can be misled by the proliferation of inaccurate information on the Net (unlike peer-reviewed journals) which is accepted as de facto truth and acted upon. An example of the latter is seen with the Stop Wall Street movement’s distrust of mainstream media. This lead some groups to manufacture dissent by manufacturing disinformation (much as intelligence agencies do) by manipulating digitized sound and images to provoke a generational reaction.
The Digital Revolution’s benefits are various. It has created new frontiers for scientific research and discovery: models for seismology, global warming, and quantum mechanics allow us to test and verify scientific theory. The health benefits of the Genome Project and genetic/medical research are immeasurable and a consequence of it. (Tapscott and Williams, 2006) It has allowed for the development of improved crops for developing countries, and fostered a global interconnected community hyperlinked by unprecedented trade and commerce. This has raised the living standards of billions of people worldwide.
The advent of talking-machines empowers people – especially those with disabilities – to be more independent. Likewise, GPS assists drivers and navigators and lost hikers or children to be located and rescued. Without digitization, satellites for monitoring weather and global warming and for mineral detection would not exist nor would space programs that advance scientific and technical research.
The Digital Revolution has created a divide between the computer literate and illiterate. The latter, who mostly do the hard/cheap labour (in First and Third worlds) are now the new marginalized. As the world’s projected population is to reach 9 billion the disparities between the two will grow because one group is empowered and the other is not. The prerequisites to become computer literate are adequate food, clothing and shelter, time to study, education (particularly literacy) and good health, things the computer illiterate don’t enjoy in the developing world. It is they who will suffer most from global warming, as desertification and dwindling plot acreage force them from their lands onto that of others, and the ensuing conflicts that result, or into the teeming mega-cities that lack adequate sanitation and living quarters for people, and corrupt police and government officials who exploit them.
At the same time, while there are commendable philanthropists like Bill Gates attempting to redress these imbalances, short-sighted G20 governments and corporations don’t make the connect between the computer illiterate and global warming. A conscious denial of these problems by the First world public erects even more roadblocks. (Homer-Dixon, 2008) These help maintain and/or increase the patterns of consumption that beget the problems in the first place, and themselves are one of the products of digitization. Like all closed systems, this self-serving loop will not change until conditions necessitate it. In this regard, while technology’s tools offer advancements, it is only the tool makers who can use it wisely.
Dixon-Watson, H. (2008). The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization. District of Columbia: Island Press.
Ong, W. J. (1995). Oralty and Literacy: The Technologies of the Word. New York, USA: Routledge.
Pagels, H. R. (1988). The Dreams of Reason: The Computer and the Rise of the Science of Complexity. New York, USA: Simon & Schuster.
