I first came across this question challenge via Frank Hamm’s blog post. Originally, it was the Seer of Souls who asked a series of questions about technology and its impact on our lives. His inspiration was that people kept asking him, how he had become interested in technology.
Weirdly enough, nobody asks me that type of question 😀 Yet here I am, answering the challenge questions anyway.
What does technology mean in the first place?
„The application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life—or, as it is sometimes phrased, to the change and manipulation of the human environment.“
Britannica.com
These days, we associate the word technology with computers and mostly electronic devices. However, my fascination with technology is generally based on how imaginative humanity is. How we shape the world around us, for better or worse, to have safer and more convenient lives than our ancestors.
When Did You First Get Interested In This Subject?
I was the type of kid that asked their parents how a combustion engine worked. Unfortunately for them, I came up with these questions while they were trying to focus on the traffic in front of them. Other times, I wanted to know how a nuclear bomb operated.
Growing up in the 70s my sister and I played with toy cars, Lego and Fischertechnik. So I find it hard to pinpoint when exactly my interest in this subject area began. I didn’t take apart devices as a habit. Instead, I was more interested in understanding how they worked on a theoretical level. So when I was younger I read a lot of non-fiction literature.
My first contact with a „real“ computer was when ALDI sold C64s as a special offer. I spent weeks with the manual and the BASIC course that was included. After that, the IT class in school was a bit of a disappointment. Our teacher gave all the girls lower grades than the boys. Even though we worked through the same problems and managed to solve them.
Later at university, one of my supervisors was a very old school person. He must have been over 70 years old back then, had a four-circle diffractometer that could be operated by hand with a brass crank and always liked to write his own software. He made me learn Fortran to analyse data. And he all around didn’t seem surprised by my love for computers or science. a bit of compensation for my earlier frustration in school 🙂
What’s Your Favorite Piece Of Technology All-Time?
With all its flaws and annoying developments, the internet is an amazing achievement. We have all of humanity’s knowledge instantly available, at least in theory. As long as you have the basic equipment and connection, you can join in the debate.
Online classes made teaching possible during the Corona shutdowns. Again, at least theoretically. There is more knowledge on hand in YouTube videos than I could ever get through completely during my lifetime. Which is brilliant in one way and FOMO inducing in another 😉
Obviously, in some regions this is easier than in others. People in richer countries tend to hoard old smart phones in their drawers, whereas others in less fortunate areas depend on laptop donations. Also, not all governments seem to agree with me in seeing the internet as a great opportunity for humans to grow and exchange ideas.
What’s Your Favorite Piece Of Technology Right Now?
This is a tricky one. I enjoy mobile use of the internet via my smartphone and my tablet computer very much, maybe too much even. This is all so much Star Trek coming true, including video calls, which as a kid I was doubtful I would see happen.
Right now, however, I would choose all the pieces of technology that we can use to avoid the worst in climate heating. Regenerative power systems are an amazing gift: They directly convert the energy that the sun sends our way in abundance and for free. They work in a decentralised way and help disconnect dependencies on a handful of regimes selling fossil fuels.
Heat pumps are similarly impressive. The principle behind them has been described in 1852. My home country Germany is a bit hesitant in getting enthusiastic about this technology, mainly due to political agendas. My own house already had a heat pump installed when we bought it, luckily.
With solar and wind power as well as heat pumps and electrical vehicles, I see a lot of potential for decreasing CO2 emissions. That makes them my current favourite.
Cool Piece Of Technology We’ll Have In 25 Years
One thing is certain: Our current model of feeding humans is not sustainable. So agriculture is another area that I would like to see some more progress in. There is already a lot of research in precision fermentation in food production.
We could drastically decrease use of land, water, and resources, if we were to convert waste plant matter into proteins directly. Not keeping that many animals would also reduce the risk of new zoonotic pathogens.
In the tree nursery museum close by we saw an agricultural robot. It detects weeds and other problems in a field and deals with them autonomously. This kind of device will save a lot of pesticides and herbicides as well as
It would be great if we could have a combination of these technologies running globally much sooner. But if we are still going to be here in 25 years, it will probably be also due to humanity rethinking their stance on agriculture.
Final Thoughts
This blog challenge took me down memory lane and into the future. It made me realise again how the human way of looking at and solving problems delights me and gives me hope.
I would love to hear what your relationship with technology s a topic is like. What are your hopes and fears? Is it something you are personally interested in, or are you just happy it works?
You can find more of my thoughts on being human on my blog!
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