Best of the Week: Technology Today and Tomorrow

Well, the other day, my teacher, Mr. Allen, went on another one of his famous rants about all the usual subjects: Art, Music, Writing... But there was a new subject that came about. Mr. Allen began talking about technology. Now, the great thing about this rant is that I have had this conversation with myself a million times. As we move on and progress in life, we create a million new advances in medicine, fitness, health and mostly, technology.

Mr. Allen made an interesting point today, he said, "Think about 1980, and then think about 2000". I was dumbfounded. I knew that technology was rapidly improving, but only in 20 years we went from big bulky landlines to little hand-held computers!!

These days, almost nothing is done without technology...  I mean, my homework right now certainly needs technology. Think about this, these days you can turn your house lights on and off with just a switch on your phone. You can start your car by using your phone, you can surf the web (that holds limitless information) on your phone, you can listen to music, download music... all on your phone.
 
I could honestly go on for days about all the technology and how we use it almost 24/7, but you already know all the facts, I'm sure.

But what really frightens me, is what we are going to become in the next 20 years?! I mean, I'm sure we're not far off from self-driving, computerized flying cars.

One thought that really freaked me out was the technology to program and download information into your brain. Like, that is going to put freaking teachers out of a job!
   I think it's extremely scary to think about what machines might do to the human race, will they be beneficial? or could they be the end of us? Yes, technology makes things easier, but I think it's taking away from what life has to offer... Like nature.

Mr. Allen said one other horrifying thought this week as well, he said, "They say, by the year 2040, you will no longer need a license..." Okay! WHOA THERE! No way. I personally was looking forward to being able to someday teach my children how to drive. That's a great relationship-beneficial experience of life! However, I do believe it's possible. I mean, since the computer became a house-hold object, my baby cousin never even learned how to ride a bike... and she's 11!

Anyways, now I'M ranting, but y'all get my point: Technology is a great thing, but don't let it consume you. There's a BEAUTIFUL world outside of cyber-space. So stop looking at blogs and go explore it!

Connection: Alan Alda and my Curious Cousins

In class recently, we've been doing a lot of examining of this crazy thing called "curiosity". While studying it and understanding it, we've read a couple articles, one of them being Pass the Plate, Mr. Feynman - from Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself by Alan Alda. While reading this article, being a child myself, I couldn't help but think "This guy reminds me of my baby cousin... just fascinated by everything she comes across". 

He explains his thought processes about why things are the way they are, or why things work and how they work. While sitting there, I'm putting this guy's face on a baby's body! 

Mr. Allen brought up this weird natural thing that we all did as kids which was, naturally, to put strange, unfamiliar objects in our mouths.. Now WHY would anyone do that!? Because, we're curious, and by doing this, Mr. Allen says, we get every sense and it helps us figure it out. So, tonight I took a picture of my cousins in action... and what do know... Nicole has a shark in her mouth.  

So, every week, on Monday nights, my baby cousins come over a tend to destroy my house... because their curious. Just like in the essay when Alda broke his mother's watch because he wanted to know how it worked. 

When I watch them play and break things and observe and even talk to themselves, I'm always forced to think about what will happen when they grow up, and get a formal education. Where will their curiosity lead them? Will they still have their curiosity? Or will it leave them, like it did so many of us? 

As Einstein once said "It's a miracle curiosity survives formal education". But what worries me, is what if it doesn't? What if education really just drains the curiosity out of these wonderfully curious kids? Hopefully it doesn't, never stop questioning what's greater than you. Curiosity is the greatest gift we are all born with, we just need to learn to keep it as close to us as possible.  

Todays Captured Thought: completely voice-activated cars

What if you were able to drive your car by just using your voice? Like, think about this, you can already talk to your car and have it do certain things with the radio and such, but what if you could tell it the speed by using your voice? So literally all you need to do is talk. You see the speed limit is 40, you just have to say "Car, go 40mph" and it does just that. It would have a built in GPS and then all you have to do is tell it where to go and it will bring you there. people will be able to get their licenses way earlier because all you have to know is how to talk. The car, by using the built in GPS, will be able to calculate the approximity of every turn and every destination, it will know the fastest routes to get you places, and if everyone were able to get one, car accidents would dramatically decrease because I know there is already a device that prevents cars from hitting others automatically, so why wouldn't this car have that? The possibilities are endless, which makes me wonder... with technology growing at the rate it is now, where will we be in 10, 15 or 20 years? This world can literally change in the blink of an eye and we've all seen it happen. think of the difference 1990-2000 made. Computers, little cell phones, voice activated cars?! Maybe this will be next, then again, we never really know.