Oh look, what do we have here? Yes, it's another airplane post with yet another ambiguous title providing no help whatsoever on the content and/or meaning of this post, but as I like to say, all in good spirit. So let's get crack'n!Before I continue, let me update you on the happenings of me. iOS 5. Great, but there is a much more interesting story. You know about MobileMe, right? The failed syncing service from Apple that I actually kinda liked... But anyway, Apple totally screwed up the transition to iCloud. What I wanted was one Apple ID for everything, iCloud, iTunes, AppStore, everything, but Apple, being stubborn, made me either use my useless MobileMe ID or work something out on my own (as Apple do not allow the merging of multiple IDs, which the world desperately needs!). So, I was up until about 12pm sorting out this catastrophe! To add to the stress, my iPhone and iPad were refusing to update, as Apple’s servers rejected the verification! Very "it just works", Apple, it was one of the easiest transitions ever!
Now onto the bulk of this post. Back in the day, year 7 to be precise, I had a great history teacher. I could never understand her instructions, but that was because I hardly listened as history was not an interesting subject for me, but regardless, she was one of the best teachers I ever had. During one lesson, we were studying the industrial revolution, where the advancement in technology was unprecedented; she said something that really stuck with me:
"we are also living in a revolution, the technological revolution, but you don't realize it, just like the people during the industrial revolution. You don't wake up and think 'oh, another day in the technological revolution' right?".
She could have not put it any better, but I think it's much more than technology that will change, but that's for later. Ever since IBM and Apple changed the concept of a computer from a mainframe to a personal machine all would be able to afford, technology had been advancing very quickly. Just imagine, the iPhone 4 could power the entire Apollo moon landings, from mission control to the actual capsule, and that for the duration of the program, Apollo 11 to 17! What's ironic about that is that this technology would not exist without the Apollo program. New methods and new computers had to be built for the program, using up 80% of the US chip output and providing a quantum leap in technology. In just 10 years, the US went from not knowing how on earth they were going to do it, to landing 12 men for the first time somewhere other than earth. Imagine that.
Another example. Look at an airplane. Did you know that a lot of the aerodynamic technology on that flying cylinder was actually pioneered by companies making tennis rackets and skis? Fischer makes parts for Learjet and I think Boeing as well!
The point is that new technologies emerge from the most diverse of things! Skis and planes, computer chips and moon landings. Who would have thought? Technology is advancing so fast, it is near to impossible to keep up, unless you are someone who does it for a living!
Back to the point that it’s not just tech that is advancing. Our culture is advancing, mostly for good. Let me take the example of Jonathan Mann, my favorite artist ever. He is just a guy in America living a normal life, but he makes a song a day, and he has been doing so for the past 3 years, without fail. Before the Internet, he would have never hit 10,000 subscribers, he would never be as well knows he is now and he would never have had the massive global outreach.
That, however, is just an isolated example. There is so much more happening in the world. The revolutions in the Middle East, throwing out corrupted and evil leaders, replaced by freedom and liberty. The "occupy wall Street" efforts of Anonymous and others, protesting the economic state of the world and how it all came down to a few twats in the top banks stealing cash (or so I have heard). [quote from Julian Assange in London after he was asked to remove his mask: so we don't have the right to be anonymous but Swiss bank accounts do?]. All this was aided through the advancement of tech and subsequently social media, but it is astounding how much that has, and will continue to change the world.
All in all, I completely agree with my old history teacher's comment, but I believe that the advancements in technology just aided the advancement of "the world community".
There was no real point to this post, it was just my random thoughts regurgitated on an iPad 30000 feet in the sky in a totally un-succinct form, as my teacher liked to say. I guess you could say that this post is about change, the world of change. It does not in anyway live up to that great quote by my teacher, but I have no better way to explain it. So, technically, yes. Technology has, and will, change the world, and possibly, in the near future, others as well. We just have to wait and see.
