Vol 8: Is there Room for New Inventions?
The Radical Changes Occurring In Our Time.
Great minds often tend to change the whole world with just one invention. We would still be sending Pigeons on an errand as they were successfully used in Greece 3000 years ago to declare the winner of the Olympics abroad or sitting by a candle and writing a letter to get in touch with a friend, as opposed to unlocking your smartphone and logging into Facebook to contact a friend, if it wasn’t for certain inventions that were so incredible that they had enough impact to change the whole world forever.
Nikola Tesla, the man credited with inventing the first alternating current (AC) motor and developed AC generation and transmission technology described the modern-day smartphone, as a communication device so "simple" that we will be able to carry it in our "vest pocket," and wireless video streaming communication, back in a 1926 interview with Collier's magazine. Close to 100 years of Nikola Tesla forecast, we have gone farther than he might have ever think of.
The first world war began with cavalry charges as the military would call it and people on horses and it ended with aeroplanes, armoured tanks and trucks. If we want to continue to grow forever, we are going to need new technologies that radically change the way we do things. The first industrial revolution brought the inventions of machines that made raw materials like Iron and Coal very useful, not until the late 19th century when technological advances made the manufacturing process of Steel cheaper and the quality of the product much greater. No country in world history saw as many advancements as the United States in the 1900s, many of them made possible by advances and refinements in the steel production industry.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) could do to computers what steel manufacturing did to Iron by taking a technology that had helped economies for a long time and make it radically better and easier to work with. The lessons of history are clear and open, with the world entering another period of great upheaval, the situation is ripe for a new set of rules, and given Africa’s current position in the world, and the enormous volume of resources that the continent controls, I believe we are well-positioned to reset the game in our favour.
UNIVAC one of the first generation computers, the first mass-produced and commercially successful computer only had a memory of 225kb to store data, a few years from now we'll be using highly sophisticated computers with increased functional ability and large memory capacity to process information on quantum computing, using them to advance research in genetic engineering, progress in medical technology and AI performing in almost all sectors.
Entering the 1970s came the Personal Computer (PC) revolution, before this time computers were generally large, costly and owned by business organizations, governments, military etc. After the successful development of the Integrated Circuit (microprocessor), personal computers were low enough in cost that they eventually became affordable consumer goods, consumers became customers for personal computers. The Internet also came and aid the PC revolution. Computers today are almost inseparable from the way we live and work and they have made us as individuals far more productive, you hardly see an office desk today without a computer.
Here comes a concept in Technorealism which suggests that “a technology, however revolutionary it may seem, remains a continuation of similar revolutions throughout human history.” During these times of change, it is imperative for us to understand all these concepts; Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain Technology, advanced 3D printing, Global Internet access (5G), Quantum Computing, Climate Change and other technological innovations that will radically change the way our society works. By doing so we will better understand the concept of the 4th Industrial Revolution and better prepare ourselves to use them and utilize them in a beneficial way that will revolutionize our society and create a hopeful future.
200 years later another generation will be working and living based on our research and progress, it continues, never stops. Technology has been revolutionary and Our human Intuition has helped us this far. It will also be good to note that all these innovations won’t take jobs away from humans but rather they are enriching what people do by changing job descriptions and allowing people to do more creative and productive work. There has always been a change, there will always be a change and change can’t stop happening.
I hope you enjoyed learning.
Enjoy your weekend!
Faith.