The most memorable part of my life is, of course, childhood, especially the part from the point when I learned to read until the middle teen years - for me, it was the period of life when the empty bucket in my head rapidly started to fill itself with every piece of information it stumbled upon everywhere possible. When I look at that period from today's point of view, what comes to mind first is that it was a technology-free time. The state-of-the-art technology of the time was a color TV set with only two programs, with broadcasting ending around 9pm. Radio stations were at the peak of their popularity with small handheld AM receivers, and only a few owned an FM receiver with crystal-clear sound - that is, if you don't move quickly to avoid noise. The communication device of the time was a heavy pulse telephone set that required a hard table with a special place in the house.
But I don't connect my childhood with the technology gadgets of the time. Not at all; what pops to my mind now is a big cherry tree in our front yard with a hard concrete table in the middle of the yard where I spent almost all the sunny days of my childhood during springs and summers. I remember we enjoyed our family meals at that table with pleasant conversations talking about everyday's events, and on many occasions accompanied by friends, neighbors, and relatives. What I remember the most is the time when my parents were going to work and I was climbing to the tree to my special place about 8m from the ground—the' Y-shaped branch with natural back support perfect for reading comic books. I remember on Fridays I was always there reading my favorite magazine with comics, news, and interesting articles about various topics. It was especially enjoyable in the cherry season - all I had to do was to stretch my arm out and reach for the sweet treat.
Today everything is different, and among other things, we should blame the rapid development of the technology in previous decades. If you look around you, there are tons of everyday gadgets and electronic devices that become obsolete in a cycle of years or months. This is actually so rapid that the majority of people simply can't cope with all their features and functions. You can simply ask yourself, do you really know how to use the magnetic sensor of your smartphone or to actually measure a building's height with your phone camera? Do you really know all functions of your set top boxes - I know for sure that I needed 3 hours to manage to get surround sound out of my flat TV through an optical cable in order to connect it to an audio decoder before directing it to 6 speakers with 2 different amplifiers. Confused? I have no idea how I did it, and I truly hope I will not do it again. Good thing it is going to be obsolete next year, and I will have to buy a new state-of-the-art system again. Now even a digital washing machine requires pre-knowledge in various disciplines if you want your underwear to get out of it clean and not painted in red. Not to mention the horror of taking online airplane tickets from the airport booking consoles or setting up all the car gadgets or using all electronic sub-systems in the engine. Or should I mention the complexity of the internet and its services, where you have to learn new stuff constantly in order to keep using its new services and clouds?
Don't get me wrong, all these new devices are here to make our lives easier and happier, and in a way they do their job; it's just I can't get rid of the feeling that the evolution of technology is much faster than the evolution of humans, and today there is that gap where even though there are so many excellent and cheap electronic gadgets out there, we are simply not using them to their full capacity. For example, I know that my smartphone is capable of so many things, like GPS tracking and mapping, social connecting, or augmented reality, and yet I tried them all only once or twice and still keep using the phone for its base functionality and for email.
A couple of days ago I stumbled upon this video on YouTube where Louis C.K. explains this phenomenon from a funny point of view. Give it a watch; it's entertaining and educational at the same time.
I can't agree with him more, except for the line where he claims that all new generations are idiots - I am sure this is added in a satiric fashion, but I am also sure in the future people will evolve more in order to quickly accept technology changes. When that happens, and I guess it will be within a couple of the next generations, people will be born to live with technology much better than we are. I think this is already happening today - despite all our difficulties in co-life with technology and everyday's gadgets, I can say that I am coping with that much better than my father and people from generations before, and I am sure my son will need little time in the future to connect the device and understand its purpose.
I tried to write a glimpse of a technology three or four decades ago, comparing it to the technology today, but what do you think a smartphone will be capable of in the year 2050? I am sure miniaturization of the gadgets and computers will continue, and Viktor's tablet he is playing right now while I am writing this (and it is cutting edge this year with a quadruple CPU core and IPS screen), will probably be smaller and much faster with a projecting screen with variable resolution and many more embedded sensors with professional sensitivities. I am positive in the future a small smart gadget will be capable of finding a 2-3 kg iron meteorite located 2-3 meters in the ground. It will be one real tricorder. I also expect connectivity between two gadgets or electronic devices will be on a much higher level than today, and they will be able to connect with each other without human interaction. For example, it is not far from logic to expect two cars to communicate and take control from the humans in order to avoid a car accident between each other. Displaying the data will also change, and it will be thinner and thinner so you can glue it to the window or glasses with complete transparency.
So, enjoy the technocracy society as it is inevitable. I know I am trying to do it every day, but in the bottom of my soul I will always miss my cherry tree and clear night sky full of stars. Today, the cherry tree along with the concrete table is long gone; the old house is replaced with a large building, and pollution faded many stars out of the nightly sky and threw the birds out of the city, but this is a topic for a new post.
But I don't connect my childhood with the technology gadgets of the time. Not at all; what pops to my mind now is a big cherry tree in our front yard with a hard concrete table in the middle of the yard where I spent almost all the sunny days of my childhood during springs and summers. I remember we enjoyed our family meals at that table with pleasant conversations talking about everyday's events, and on many occasions accompanied by friends, neighbors, and relatives. What I remember the most is the time when my parents were going to work and I was climbing to the tree to my special place about 8m from the ground—the' Y-shaped branch with natural back support perfect for reading comic books. I remember on Fridays I was always there reading my favorite magazine with comics, news, and interesting articles about various topics. It was especially enjoyable in the cherry season - all I had to do was to stretch my arm out and reach for the sweet treat.
Today everything is different, and among other things, we should blame the rapid development of the technology in previous decades. If you look around you, there are tons of everyday gadgets and electronic devices that become obsolete in a cycle of years or months. This is actually so rapid that the majority of people simply can't cope with all their features and functions. You can simply ask yourself, do you really know how to use the magnetic sensor of your smartphone or to actually measure a building's height with your phone camera? Do you really know all functions of your set top boxes - I know for sure that I needed 3 hours to manage to get surround sound out of my flat TV through an optical cable in order to connect it to an audio decoder before directing it to 6 speakers with 2 different amplifiers. Confused? I have no idea how I did it, and I truly hope I will not do it again. Good thing it is going to be obsolete next year, and I will have to buy a new state-of-the-art system again. Now even a digital washing machine requires pre-knowledge in various disciplines if you want your underwear to get out of it clean and not painted in red. Not to mention the horror of taking online airplane tickets from the airport booking consoles or setting up all the car gadgets or using all electronic sub-systems in the engine. Or should I mention the complexity of the internet and its services, where you have to learn new stuff constantly in order to keep using its new services and clouds?
Don't get me wrong, all these new devices are here to make our lives easier and happier, and in a way they do their job; it's just I can't get rid of the feeling that the evolution of technology is much faster than the evolution of humans, and today there is that gap where even though there are so many excellent and cheap electronic gadgets out there, we are simply not using them to their full capacity. For example, I know that my smartphone is capable of so many things, like GPS tracking and mapping, social connecting, or augmented reality, and yet I tried them all only once or twice and still keep using the phone for its base functionality and for email.
A couple of days ago I stumbled upon this video on YouTube where Louis C.K. explains this phenomenon from a funny point of view. Give it a watch; it's entertaining and educational at the same time.
I can't agree with him more, except for the line where he claims that all new generations are idiots - I am sure this is added in a satiric fashion, but I am also sure in the future people will evolve more in order to quickly accept technology changes. When that happens, and I guess it will be within a couple of the next generations, people will be born to live with technology much better than we are. I think this is already happening today - despite all our difficulties in co-life with technology and everyday's gadgets, I can say that I am coping with that much better than my father and people from generations before, and I am sure my son will need little time in the future to connect the device and understand its purpose.
I tried to write a glimpse of a technology three or four decades ago, comparing it to the technology today, but what do you think a smartphone will be capable of in the year 2050? I am sure miniaturization of the gadgets and computers will continue, and Viktor's tablet he is playing right now while I am writing this (and it is cutting edge this year with a quadruple CPU core and IPS screen), will probably be smaller and much faster with a projecting screen with variable resolution and many more embedded sensors with professional sensitivities. I am positive in the future a small smart gadget will be capable of finding a 2-3 kg iron meteorite located 2-3 meters in the ground. It will be one real tricorder. I also expect connectivity between two gadgets or electronic devices will be on a much higher level than today, and they will be able to connect with each other without human interaction. For example, it is not far from logic to expect two cars to communicate and take control from the humans in order to avoid a car accident between each other. Displaying the data will also change, and it will be thinner and thinner so you can glue it to the window or glasses with complete transparency.
So, enjoy the technocracy society as it is inevitable. I know I am trying to do it every day, but in the bottom of my soul I will always miss my cherry tree and clear night sky full of stars. Today, the cherry tree along with the concrete table is long gone; the old house is replaced with a large building, and pollution faded many stars out of the nightly sky and threw the birds out of the city, but this is a topic for a new post.