Wednesday, July 10, 2013
MA 260 / Week Three Discussion: Wired or Wireless? How Did Radio Set off the Battle between Wired and Wireless Television, Video Service, and Internet?
Please describe the battle between wired and wireless technology in the past century. What's the true nature of this technological battle? Is technological progress a "natural" outgrowth of human genius or a social construction by which the powerful people, not the geeks, determine which technology flourish and which technology have to be quietly killed before they are "born." Think about how the electric car got killed by GM, the oil industry, and the California state government in the nineties.
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I think that for the most part, technological advances like the transition from cord to cordless telephone are accomplished by the work of "the geeks," who saw a way to improve an oft used product. However, the actual decision to go forth with making the improved product was probably the "powerful people." I think that it may be a mix. On one hand, there are millions of very very smart people who have ideas and eventually blue prints to better the technology we have. Some ideas are better than others, and sometimes good, solid improved technology is produced. On the other hand there are the big company heads who ultimately have the deciding power and sometimes just continuously push out product after product each with only small, and ultimately insignificant improvements because it will bring in more money for their company.
ReplyDeleteI believe that powerful people control new technology. They only let us know about the ones they want us to know about. There are many technologies that exist that the American people are not aware of because the government keeps them secret. One specific technology that has been hidden is free energy.
ReplyDeleteMany people think that the reason the world has not seen any change in the use of alternate energy fuels is because the alternative energy technology is not that available or is not reliable and tested to work. Many think that the technology is still in the “development” phase and that the reason it is not being used everywhere is because it is not ready. This is very false and not only are all the old technologies available, but there are a vast amount of new energy forms that are very complex and would take many years before people would even consider believing in their potential power.
For example, one can look no further than Nikola Tesla- Nikola Tesla was considered a mad scientist during his time period for his brain was hundreds of years into the future of technology and could not be comprehended by the mainstream public. Tesla had ideas of creating wireless energy broadcasting stations that could provide energy wirelessly to the entire earth. He is also the man who is credited for finding the alternating current as well as cell phone wireless technology, radio technology and any other wireless device. He experimented with high currents, voltages, and large electromagnetic fields. Tesla discovered things and understood concepts that are still being kept a secret to this day.
There are several technologies that are available and have not only been through the innovation and development period, but have also been tested and proven to work. Now one may ask if this is true then why am I not seeing this technology being used. The reason the world has not seen any major changes is very simple, power and money. People do not like to spend a lot of money and try to conserve as much of it as possible. People are so greedy that all they think about is the “now” and the short term and not the long term. If people can keep paying as little as possible, then they are happy and do not care about the future generation... never mind the several generations after that. They simply want the cheapest source of energy which happens to be oil. Oil is so popular because its use dates back to when the automobile was invented. When cars were invented the source of fuel was gas and so therefore the industry in oil took off. This industry then grew and turned into the largest industry in the world, turning trillions upon trillions of dollars per year. It then became the largest source of energy for the entire world, especially for more primitive countries. Now coal is in the rankings as well because again coal is very cheap and it is very primitive to create energy from. The process pretty much just involves burning coal which creates steam to turn a turbine- it’s not nuclear physics.
I firmly believe that the main reason to go wireless, was to make things more confortable and easier to have access to. I think TV and the Internet have help in advertise the commodity that a wireless phone has over a wired phone, advertising tell the audience that a mobile phone is the way to go since it can save you time, money, and even from a dangerous situation. Mass media communication have made society completely and absolutely reliable on the use of a mobile phone.We are nothing without a mobile nowadays, and we have convinced ourselves that we need it. Plus wireless communication has become even cheaper that a wired phone, but what we as a society need to think about is how much of or lives are we giving away for these products? Who is controlling all the information that goes on in these phones? we have become adicted to every single product that comes out even when we dont even know the real consequences or how much would they influence our lives.
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