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TECHNOLOGY, THEN TO NOW
by: Tony Jones
Throughout time, machines, no matter how simple or complex, have played
a vital role in the development of civilization into the future. In other
words, machines have played a part into helping our culture develop into
what it has become today. This dates back to the beginning of time when
early man used a stick and a fulcrum (rock) to make a simple lever.
Technology: The application of scientific knowledge to
serve man in industry, commerce, medicine and other fields.
Humans have always searched for a way to make things faster, stronger, smarter,
better....for mankind. This, it was widely thought, would make life easier.
With the advancements made in technology throughout the millennium, the
way of living did get easier. In the thousands of years that had passed,
man had gone from living in caves to living in houses, from speaking in
grunts to having a formal written and spoken language, from hunting and
teaching, to hunt for mere survival, to going to school and working in a
place of some sort to provide for your family, from barter and trade to
a formal monetary system, from clans to cities and states; yes mankind was
on the up and up, and blazing trails at record speed.
In the U.S., the period between 1820 and 1840 marked the introduction of
the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution marked a significant
technological change for Western Europe and the United States. It meant
the big switch from an agricultural society to a modernizing society based
on factory production. This switch obviously meant the introduction of machines
into the workplace, and the transformation of labor to fit the operation
of these machines.
Although the machines would increase productivity significantly, they were
not viewed as a Godsend by all. Groups such as the Luddites in England in
the early 19th century feared these machines because they understood that
this new technology would destroy their way of life. They were not entirely
wrong. The technologies introduced into the early factory system profoundly
disrupted the ways in which people worked and the rewards they received
for their work. For example, new machinery introduced as labor-saving devices
from the point of view of owners, eliminated certain artisanal skills and
displaced other workers. Many of those fortunate enough to still be working
in the factories with this ground-breaking technology viewed themselves
as machine tenders (someone whose sole purpose was to make sure that the
machine did not get off course....to tend the machine). The process of systematically deskilling
labor had begun to take effect (see Braverman).
Another downside that accompanied the development of factories was the pollution factor. As early
as 1838, Charles Dickens wrote of the belching smokestacks of industrial areas near
Manchester: "through miles of cinder paths and blazing furnaces and roaring steam engines, and such a mass of dirt, gloom and misery as I never before witnessed." (The Letters of Charles Dickens.) The work done by these coal-fired machines also pumped waste from the factories
into the air and the rivers, and this waste had no where to go except into
the surrounding environment of the cities that these factories occupied.
To this day, we are still praying for still newer and more advanced technologies
to solve the cleanup of that waste.
The early 1900's were marked by the emergence of what seemed to be effortless living (if
you were fortunate enough to own or operate a factory). With machines now
playing a vital role in society, people were losing their jobs left and
right, not ot mention their minds, trying to keep up productivity.
Around 1910, Henry Ford inaugurated his contribution to mechanized technology, the
assembly line. The assembly line involved breaking down sequences of complicated
tasks into several simple tasks. The assembly line was the essence of deskilling, simplifying labor into predetermined movements repeated over and over.
It took much of the guess work out of working, not to mention any intrinsic satisfactions. The assembly line too was
invaded by machines, which left those still working, to do nothing but tend
machines. The work became so numbing, so dull, so routine that workers sought
distractions (this would eventually translate into the notion that one could
seek one's satisfaction in consumption rather than work) or rebelled against
their employers. Though Ford's assembly line is lauded as the backbone of
American industrial strength, it also so alienated its workers that turnover
rates at the River Rouge Plant were astronomical, leading Ford to eventually
introduce the $5 a day wage (see worker alienation
for more information).
During the assembly line days, a minimum quota was established that each
worker had to produce each day. This quota would produce the most profit
for the company while extracting the maximum work from the worker, sometimes
burning him out. In conjunction with the piecework system, the rate buster was the one that beat the quota and thus gained a bonus, but this usually spurred managers to set the quotas higher and made the rate buster unpopular with fellow workers. Machines spurred on the
role of rate busters and frequently divided workers against one another.
The early 1900's also marked a significant turning point in world history. This was the time of what now seem like early inventions that not only made
the world a better, more convenient place to live, but they also made the
world a lot smaller. A few of these inventions that helped to start the
thrust into the 20th century included: electricity, the automobile, the telephone, radio, the mass reproduction of images,
and the airplane. All of these inventions in communication and transportation made an already shrinking
world that much smaller a place. They would eventually put everyone in the world;
right next door to one another. This new smaller world was in need of some
assistance. It needed more power, more speed....more productivity, which
it got; especially after the 1930's.
In 1930 there was an invention that would further spark the technological revolution -- it was the invention of the computer. American scientist Vannevar
Bush built a mechanically operated device, called a differential analyzer.
It was the first general-purpose analog computer. The first information-processing
digital computer actually built was the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator,
or Mark I computer. Completed in 1944, this electromechanical device was
designed by American engineer Howard Aiken.(1)
This was the start of the computer revolution.
When computers first came on the scene, they were big bulky monsters that
not only occupied large rooms but also nearby ears. They were also very
slow and generated lots of heat, using up countless energy. They also used
thousands of electron tubes to process the information given them. Skeptics
scoffed at the computer; it would never survive. Scientists kept at it,
trying to make the computer more efficient and user-friendly. In the late
1950's transistors replaced electron tubes in computers, allowing a reduction
in the size and power consumption of computer components. . . . Later, integrated
circuits were developed that allowed further reduction in component size
and increase in reliability. The introduction of a relatively easy-to-use
personal computer in 1981 ushered in a period of rapid growth in the computer
industry. (2)
By the 1980's computers had made a home for themselves in about 1/10th of
the homes in America (Estimated guess) . They were here to stay. When the
computer industry saw this, the advancements continued further, at an alarming
rate. Every year some major breakthrough was happening. The big and bulky
machines that occupied a desk at work, were now in the homes of the workers;
except they were not bulky, they were shrinking. As the computer industry
kept making strides in the relentless pursuit of perfection of these technological
breakthroughs, the popularity of computers kept on the rise. The advancements
made by the computer industry were just unbelievable. These computers were
not only smaller, but they were also faster too. Year after year, computers
kept getting smaller and smarter and faster. By the late 80's and early
90's a computer was on the desk of every major business in America and in
the homes of over half of the population of the United States, or every
one had access to one. The world was shrinking by the minute, and so were
the computers. They progressed from desktop giants to laptops. A laptop
is a computer about 1/3 to 1/4 the size of a regular computer. This was
not the last stop. They continued to shrink and came up with the notebook.
Which was approximately the size of a 1" thick binder. Next was the
palm top computers. These are computers that are about the size of an adult
hand. There are numerous specialties and features to all of them, but the
most interesting is the ability to "talk" to one another. Computers
that are made by a specific company are designed to read that company's
software and hardware, but with the mergers and various business deals happening
from day to day, somewhere out of one of those deals came a computer that
can handle everyone's software, for those that can afford that technology.
For those that cannot afford this technology, there is the internet and
e-mail, which also allows computers to communicate with one another.
Another advancement made was e-mail. This is a form of communication done
on-line through a computer (on line meaning on the internet or any other
information carrier) . E-mail is the combination of calling some one and
writing them a letter. It is a lot more useful than calling because one
can send their work to some one across the globe and have a reply by the
next day or in a few hours. As opposed to snail mail (the conventional way
of sending mail via the U.S. postal service), e-mail has helped to make
the world a much smaller place. Meetings that would usually have taken weeks
to arrange and organize are now done in a matter of hours by tele-conferencing
and e-mail (see telecommuting for more information
on how these technologies work).
Before the computer age, if there was something that needed to be known
or researched, it was looked up at the library. If there was an impossible
math or science problem to be done, it was struggled with and slaved over
on several pieces of paper and then a math instructor was asked to assist.
When you wanted a pen pal you would send letters and wait for a reply. If
you were going to be home late a phone call was made. When you needed to
go shopping you got in the car and drove there. The same with ordering food
and supplies. Computers have changed the way that we live and think, forever.
Computers are now a very important part of our everyday life. Those with
the knowledge of how to use them are going to be that much further ahead than
those without that knowledge. They are in every part of our lives today.
They are in our work, our homes, our schools, our leisure, and in our consumption.
They even help to keep our government running, and to help our government
to keep not only an eye out for our enemies, but also to help keep an eye
out on ourselves too. The computer, in this sense, has become a central panoptic force. Computers are also in space patrolling the galaxies
for additional intelligent life. They are in every possible outlet of our
life and they are getting smarter. There is no way to undo the things that
have been done. Not that all things that have been done are bad, but eventually
we are going to want to know our neighbors, and we are going to want to
go for a drive, and we are going to want more interpersonal communication;
but by the time we see this we will all be computerized and be ready for
some more reprogramming. I personally think that we are moving or have moved
into the Jetson stage, where our every pleasure or contact is done at the
press of a button. Watch out for push-button finger.