Relationship Between Technology and Progress - Essay Example

The Relationship between technology and Progress The relationship between technology and progress has always been a source of disagreement despite the very obvious ways in which technology has changed everything around us. This debate started at the start of the industrial revolution. There were improvements in the quality of life the people led then, but with time, it was also noted that technology did not only bring about positive developments but also negative ones. With the even faster developments of technologies today, life and society is changing at an even faster rate. Therefore it has become necessary to ask this age old question once again. What exactly is the relationship between technology and progress? Is the change that is brought about by technology always positive? Is it at some point inevitable that once we accept the positive developments of technology we have at the same time have to accept its negative accompaniments? These are some of the questions that this paper shall seek to answer. There shall be a special focus on the book Thomas Edison and Modern America by Collins, Lisa and Gregory. There are three areas that I have identified in which the relationship between technology and progress is evident and straightforward. These areas are; an improvement in the quality of life, wealth creation, unemployment, the environment and transport and communication. I shall seek to discuss how technological inventions have brought about changes in the five named areas. This shall of course be done within the context of this book. Because it is obvious that the perspective to be gained here is mostly from Edison’s day, I shall also include a few sentences to provide the modern context. This shall make up for an all rounded understanding of this relationship (Changing Times, p2). The first area to be looked at is the area of quality of life. This is also the most controversial area as far as the relationship between technology and progress is concerned. The reason that there is a controversy at the centre of this area is because there are varying views on what quality of life means. What constitutes an improvement in the quality of one person might be an unnecessary vexation to another (Not Just An Idea, p 28).. There are several inventions made during Edison’s time that improved the quality of life of the people then. The light bulb for instance comes to mind. Before Edison invented the light bulb, many people used other rudimentary forms of lighting like oil lamps. These were known for the chocking fumes they produced and also obviously because there were not bright enough. It can’t also be ignored that oil came at a cost (Edison's Sparks of Interest noted in the New York Sun). The other lighting that was used in the day was gas lighting. It was however seen a dangerous. Edison used his skills to homes located in a square mile around Pearl Street, Manhattan. It is important at this point to however state that Edison did not invent the light bulb. The light had been scientifically and technologically available half a century earlier. He merely made it commercially available. He also built an electrical system around which it could operate (pg 60). There are many technologies in the present day that have affected the lives of people as much as the light bulb and the electrical system did the. The most important thing about the light bulb is that it allowed people to have the access to lighting and energy in general. The electrical system on the other hand, was the basis for several other inventions. It provided inventors with a source of light and energy from which other inventions were made (Notice from the Edison Company for Isolated Lighting, November 1885). Today, there is one technology that I can think of that has made as much impact. It is the computer. The computer by itself has been an amazing invention. We can use it for typing documents e.t.c. However, that is not where the main significance of the computer is to be found. The main significance of the computer has to be drawn from the plethora of other products, services that have been developed to operate alongside it. The best example has to do with the sort of impact that the combination of the computer and the World Wide Web have had on life. There has been a development of business online. The impact of the World Wide Web and computer also spreads to the area of socialization. To day we have a phenomenon called social media. Social media has completely changed how we relate with one another. It influences politics too, as evidenced by the Arab Spring which is also referred to as the social media revolution. These technologies have without doubt improved our quality of life. Ordinary people today live the kind of lives that were the preserve of royalty and aristocrats a century ago. In this sense, its clear that technology has led to progress as far as quality of life is concerned (Contexts For Technological Change, p 33). The next area that I shall look at is transport and communication. This is the one sector that benefitted greatly from the efforts of Edison among other in the age of the Industrial Revolution. These inventions without doubt brought about progress. They affected peoples lives directly and also made the way they carried out business much easier. They were also the first effort at making the world the ‘global village’ that it is today. Improved transport made previously hard-to-reach places very accessible. This in turn opened up new territories for business. New means of communication ensured that people, in some cases, were only a telegram away. On his own initiative, Edison invented the printing press. The ability of the printing press was huge. It meant that the printing of newspapers and even production of books and other educational materials was a painless process. The printing press also ensured that all this production happened on a large scale and therefore afforded the users the economies of scale that we are all aware of today. They helped other people like William Randolph Hurst establish newspaper production centre’s which in turn improved people’s access to information. In the transport sector there were other contributors who made even more impact. James Watt invented the steam engine in 1775. This was without doubt a huge step forward in transport. Transport grew around this convenient source of energy. This allowed steam ships and other locomotives to move around with greater ease. The Industrial Revolution could no doubt have happened without this invention (p 137). It was at the centre of the movement of people and goods to markets and to new places. That was not the only invention by Watt but by far his most successful. To highlight the significance he still has today, it’s important to note that the ‘watt’, a unit of measuring energy, is named after him. He also coined the term ‘horsepower’ to give an indication of how much energy could be drawn from his engines. Horsepower is also a term popularly used today. Still in the field of transport, there was the invention of the first airplane by the Wright Brothers. There is no doubt that the invention of the steam engine also laid the ground for the invention of trains that ran on steam engine. This heeled to considerably close down hitherto long distances overland. However, there was still a crying need to close much further distances, maybe continents away. Wright Brothers invention of the airplane essentially answered this question. The airplane could cover massively long distances. People initially moved from Europe to the Americas by bought. The vagaries of weather sometimes meant that they could not arrive safely and that in the case of an accident in the high seas, there was no way of conducting a rescue. Their fixed wing plane however, was just the start for invention in this field. At the same time, inventors were busy working on improving the speed and efficiency of overland travel. There were several who were working on producing cars. However, the most notable and successful among them was Henry Ford. He started working early as an apprentice and liked to experiment. He started from the construction of horseless carriages and never gave up until the first Model T was produced. He had huge ambitions too. He, in his own words wanted to build a car for ‘a great multitude’. He sold over ten million of other cars in the United States alone. The single most important thing he is remembered for, apart from the invention that is, is his successful use of the production line model . On the field of communication, there were few inventions at the time that could rival the telegraph and the telephone. They were invented by Samuel Morse and Alexander graham Bell respectively. The telegraph simply moved messages from one place to another through electric cables. Electric signals could be translated into a message on the receiving end. There had been several attempts before at making the telegraph but none of the products were electric. This invention set the stage for a revolution in the invention of electronic communications (The Site of Invention, p 50). The notable rival to the telegraph was the telephone. Both allowed people to relay messages over a long distance. However, the advantage of the telephone is that it enables the user to transmit speech electronically. The other limitation of the telegraph was its in ability to send multiple messages simultaneously, something the telephone was well made for. The telephone also ushered in the death of the telegraph (Invention of the fantastic Phonograph, p 65). The last area that I could like to explore as far as the relationship between technology and progress is concerned has to do with the creation of wealth and employment. All the endeavors we have talked about above could not have come into fruition without the input of several dedicated people led by the inventors themselves. When we credit the invention of the light bulb to Edison for instance, it’s easy to forget that there was a dedicated team in the background that implemented hid ideas. Edison employed an army of workers at Menlo Park who did several experiments that resulted in the incandescent light bulb. The same goes with Henry Ford. He introduced us to the concept of mass production of cars. At the top of his trade, his plant in Detroit product a chassis every 23 seconds. This is an incredible pace. There were several people whom he employed to bring this about. Even better still he introduced a three shift day and paid the workers per hour. This was creation of employment on an unimaginable scale at a time when not many people were formally employed. This job creation resulted in better lives for the workers and their families. It is also a fact that the town of Detroit grew exponentially as a result of this car manufacture business. Therefore technology indeed brings progress. This is especially progress on the part of those who are employed to bring the ideas into reality. There is another side to this progress which is more controversial. The inventors also became obscenely rich even by today’s standards. Take Jay Rockefeller for instance. His efforts in the transport and communications industry made him among the richest persons in America for a long time (Draft Report for Investors, September 1881). This is also the case with Andrew Carnegie who was in the steel business. Edison himself amassed a large fortune from the proceeds after the mass production of his inventions. However, in his case, the cost of litigation, at times against huge corporations, wiped that fortune (Money Matters, Original Correspondence, (October-December 1878). Technology of course cannot always be good. There is a dark side to technology. However, in the case of these technologies, the advantages clearly outweigh the disadvantages. There are more destructive technologies today. The internet is a case in point. It has opened up the world and there is unlimited information available on it. Therefore it has led to the viral spread of pornography among other ills. The other dark technology has to do with the production of bombs. They result in the unnecessary destruction of lives on an unimaginable scale. Other inventions have to do with military hardware. On the whole however, technology takes us several steps forward and only a few backwards. Take for instance the invention of the light bulb and the electrical system that supported it. This allowed other inventors to work on these products and produce other very important products in the process. There was also the huge step forward in terms of transport and communication that was witnessed at the time. It enabled the movement of people and products between paces. This is a massive advantage because initially people were not very aware of what lay just beyond their horizons and borders. The creation of jobs and wealth however is the one area where the relationship between progress and technology is most visible. Everyone indeed benefits when there are inventions. What is of great interest however is the realization that all these technologies that were invented by Edison and others still exist today although in vastly improved forms. There are telephones although today they are mobile. There are even Smartphone’s! The company he also founded is still operational today and very profitable. It is called General Electric. Cars, invented by Ford among others are very much around today. The company he originally founded also exists today as the Ford Motor company. This is proof in itself that these technologies brought progress and continue to do so today. Works Cited: Collins, Theresa M., Lisa Gitelman, and Gregory Jankunis.Thomas Edison and modern America: a brief history with documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002. Print. Top of Form Bottom of Form Read More