Technology is the Answer, but what was the Question?

As the human race progresses forward, technology is taking an ever more prevalent role. In a span of little more than 100 years it has transformed both quality of life and our living standards.

Technology is freeing up human resources, allowing us to delve ever deeper into areas of personal interest. Instead of being in constant struggle for securing means of survival it enables us to pursue careers in any field of choosing. And the trend is speeding up, from the Industrial to the Silicon age; steam, internal combustion, jet power, electricity, telegraph, telephone, semiconductors and internet, all enablers in their equal right.

The solid state transistor devised by Bell Labs engineers in 1947 signalled a breakthrough that led to the rise of reliable and power efficient computing. Nevertheless initial semiconductor computers were huge, expensive and immobile, limiting their usability.

Steadily these limitations were overcome with the help of remote connectivity and miniaturization, progress put computing resources at the fingertips of scientists, engineers and enthusiasts, enabling them to offload simple time-consuming work and focus on evermore complex tasks.

The progress continues, and today we are carrying supercomputers in our bags and pockets. Comparing a recent smartphone to the total computational power of NASA during the Apollo missions or the IBM Deep Blue supercomputer which outplayed Garry Kasparov in 1997 highlights just how fast and how far we’ve come.

Internet provided yet another gateway, interconnecting people from all over the world allowing ever faster sharing of knowledge and experience.

But I believe we are not even half way there. There is still so much untapped technological potential left for us to harvest, so much we can improve and build upon, so many Googles, Apples, Microsofts and Facebooks to be founded, so many lives to be changed.

Though here we are in 2017 where most of us are using pocket supercomputers mainly for looking at GIFs, memes or reading fake news on the internet. Even if you are a pure productivity freak and use nothing but productivity apps like Trello and Spark you end up under-utilizing the full compute power of your device.

Mastering the immense potential of available technological resources grants us freedom.
Freedom to be efficient, freedom to succeed.

We live in the age of Technology. Embracing, Understanding and Using technology to it’s fullest will allow us to some of the mundane tasks, free our mind, allowing it to work on more rewarding tasks and come up with ideas that will improve our way of life.

Technology is the answer, but what was the question?
Cedric Price, 1966