Forecasting the Future
Thinking about the future of technology and communication can be both exciting and scary at the same time. I often sit back and think about where it all started and where we will continue to go. In my twenty-one years of life I have watched technology advance more than I thought was possible. Just when I thought I couldn't be impressed more, something even more advanced comes out. I think it is safe to say that it literally blows my mind and I feel it hard to wrap my head around the technology we have today.
Starting from the beginning, the first computer was invented in 1822 by Charles Cabbage but he referred to it as the "Difference Engine". The government was using a form of internet in the 1960s in order to communicate with each other but at this time there were no mobile computers and the internet was not available to the public. Traveling through time to the year 1981, Adam Osborne made the very first laptop that weighed almost twenty-five pounds. Shortly after on January 1, 1983, the internet was born. The new way of communicating was now called Transfer Control Protocol/Interwork Protocol(TCP/IP). The World Wide Web became available to the public in 1991 and then around 1993-4 was when websites for everyday use became available. The first phone was created years ago on March 7, 1876, by Alexander Graham Bell. Almost one-hundred years later the cell phone was invented by Martin Cooper on April 3, 1973. Then nineteen years later the first smartphone was invented in 1992 by IBM and was called the Simon Personal Communicator. Now that we have taken a trip down memory lane let's take a look at what is going on in the world today.
Technology can sometimes make my brain hurt to think about it. My friends and I often find ourselves having conversations about how certain things in technology work that we just cannot grasp the concept. Bluetooth and wifi are two big concepts that come up in conversation and we never come to a conclusion. Even after doing research and trying to figure out the science behind the technology and we end up giving up. According to the Institute of Physics, Bluetooth works by "devices connected in a Bluetooth network communicate with each other using ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio waves. These are electromagnetic waves with frequencies around 2.4 gigahertz (2,4 billion waves per second). Basically, we have just come to the conclusion that all of this stuff floats through the air and ends up from one device to another essentially.
When I think of the future I think of flying cars and robots. I mean that literally. At the rate that technology is advancing, there is no limit to what is possible in the future. Companies are working every day to make the robots we have now more human-like and all I can picture is the scary movies where the robots take over the world and that is just a little terrifying if you ask me. On a real note, with the advancements of robots and things of that nature, you have to consider the number of jobs that are being taken over by machines. Let us take a dive into what has been going on in the technology world here recently.
Delivery robots have started to become quite the hit lately. These little robots on wheels have started making deliveries for shipping, food, and fast food companies. Even though this is still a new concept and not everywhere in the world has started to use this new technology, these robots have changed the delivery game. I will agree all day that this is a convenient idea, but what happens to all of the people who use to deliver for that company, and now they are out of a job because of a robot? This is just one example of how robots are taking over the jobs of humans.
Aren't these ladies stunning? Well I will let you in on a little secret, they are not real people but actually Artificial Intelligence models. These models are now taking the place of once-real supermodels. Kudos to whoever came up with this idea because they were onto something. A positive to this concept is that women will no longer have to worry about how small they are or what their body looks like in order to keep their job. These models appear scarily realistic and a benefit to these models is that you can design them to look exactly like your body type so that you will be able to see how an item fits on someone with your same exact body type, but again what about the real models that just lost their career to a robot?
A car that will drive itself? Sign me up! No, seriously our insurance might not be as high if I had a car that could drive better than I do. This cool new feature in cars is not necessarily taking the place of anyone's job it is just a luxury. Self-driving cars have been around for several years now and continuing to grow in popularity. This feature would be super helpful on a long drive but I cannot help but question if the reaction time is as good as you controlling your car.
Say hello to Ameca, also known as Ameca the Humanoid Robot. This robot is the most advanced AI robot in the world today. She can answer almost any question you throw her way while making human-like hand gestures and facial expressions. Just having one of these things around is a bit creepy, but could you imagine hundreds?
Comments
Post a Comment