by
Frank Hatton

You know, when you look at the rate at which technology has advanced over the last hundred years or so, and then at the way in which life has changed because of those advances, it should fill each and everyone of us with amazement. I say should, because you know, and I know, that we all take the creature comforts that have evolved from these technical marvels, so much for granted. We want to speak to a friend or relative who lives maybe a couple of hundred miles away, or even across the ocean. So, pick up the telephone. We want to visit someone, or go on vacation, it could be to any part of the world. Just drive or fly. What about entertainment in our house? Maybe listen to that new stereo system we have, or look at the T.V., or watch a video, or play with the computer. The science of medicine, although not yet perfect, is very much better than just over a hundred years back,....... then they sawed your leg off while you were still conscious. Even the simple things, like, we want some food or drink, how far do we have to go to that fantastic supermarket? You may be lucky, and are living in a temperate climate, but, if not, maybe you have central heating, or air conditioning to keep you comfortable OK? --- Are you getting the picture? Now, just for a moment,.......think about how long our ancestors have been around on this planet of ours. We are talking about a couple of million years at least,........ and probably the greatest inventions they produced were fire, and the wheel. Not that I'm knocking either fire, or the wheel mind you. Both of them have proved to be very valuable to the advance of our civilisation, but sadly, most of the other advances of technology were in the art of killing each other. Not much to offer for two million years of progress is it? This now brings us to the point I want to make. The greater part of all this modern progress has taken place over the last hundred years or so, and if we measure this against the rate of progress over the last two million years, we can begin to appreciate the tremendous speed of our technology growth, and also at the fantastic rate it is accelerating. For example, think about how long we were stuck with the horse and cart, and then look at the growth of technology in the automobile and motor cycle. In 1912 there were 600,000 motor vehicles in the USA, By 1940, there were 32 million. By 1980 it had climbed to 160 million......... Look at air travel,.... and again, from the humble attempts at flight in the latter part of the last century, we are now able to put men into space, and land them on the moon. The bit that seems to scream out at me is, that if all this stuff has happened in the last one hundred years, and most of it in the last thirty to fifty years, then what sort of environment will we be living in, say in two hundred years from now? As a youngster, (1930's/ 40's ) I was quite an avid reader of science fiction,--- but never did I think in those far off days that I would live to see men going into space, and actually landing on the moon. As for the androids, and the science of robotology, I felt that they would not be seen for at least several hundred years. Now, just a couple of days ago, I saw a Japanese prototype of a robot that looked for all the world like a man in a space suit. It walked like a man, it withstood a push to try to knock it off balance, it pushed a trolley, it avoided obstacles, it walked up some stairs. The chap on the news programme showing this development, was almost apologetic when he explained that it could not yet think for itself. I get the feeling that the time is not so far away when robots will be reacting to voice commands, thinking for themselves, and doing lots of the menial tasks, both in the house, and at work. Now friends,..... my question is, should we be appreciative, or apprehensive? Already we are beginning to see and feel the results of machines taking over many of the jobs traditionally done by humans. We have higher unemployment through redundancies, with quite a lot of it being brought about by increased efficiency of machines and computers. This in turn will eventually bring about a change in the balance of people who are working and paying taxes, to support the folk who have no jobs to do. So, going back to the question posed earlier,--- >>>The bit that seems to scream out at me, is, that if all this stuff has happened in the last one hundred years, and most of it in the last thirty to fifty years, then what sort of environment will we be living in, say in two hundred years from now?<<< Will we be able to control this increase in people not having a job to go to? Will we be able to financially support them all, and how will they keep themselves from dying of sheer boredom? Will the ever accelerating advance in technology continue at the same rate? Or still more frightening,........... continue to increase in speed of discovery? Fortunately there is a degree of complacency always available to mankind, in that the lifespan of man is still relatively short, and we can always feel that we will be dead before any major changes may occur. In addition to this factor, we can look at the birth of our new citizens, and realise that they will be born into a world completely different to that which we know now, and, because this is all they will ever have known,.... they will accept it as it is. So,.... the saving grace in all of this, will be that none of us will be around to resent the changes which will happen to our way of living, and, those who are born into the modern world will accept it for what it is, because they know of nothing different. With that happy thought, I suggest we end this disturbing glimpse into the future, and just get on with our lives. ‘til next time, Frank Hatton

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