Though technology, in its many forms, is commonly defined as the application of science, especially to industrial or commercial objectives, but in relation to this discussion, we should include telephone, fax machines as well as computers, PDAs and other high-tech equipment.
In my opinion, as the world has clearly seen in the past decades, computers have been the biggest industry-shaking invention of the 21st century. The days of filing cabinets, letter deliveries via post and text searching are gone thanks to the invention of computers. For better or worse, computers have infiltrated every aspect of our society. Today computers do much more than simply compute: supermarket scanners calculate our grocery bill while keeping store inventory; computerized telephone switching centers play traffic cop to millions of calls and keep lines of communication untangled; and automatic teller machines let us conduct banking transactions from virtually anywhere in the world.
Though our lives are already jam packed with gadgets and computer aided machines, we still have to realize the importance of the basic components that have made this lifestyle possible. Computers which took the place of a living-room then are now being made in credit card-formats. More and more areas are being taken over by the computer. As computers are capable of handling large amounts of data in a very short time, they are well suited for word processing and similarly many other tasks. Computers have gone through many stages, all in the matter of decades, from the early semi-automatic calculating devices, first generation computers to the relatively new fifth generation technology. Many advances in the science of computer design and technology are coming together to enable the creation of fifth-generation computers. For example, expert systems assist doctors in making diagnoses by applying the problem-solving steps a doctor might use in assessing a patient’s needs. It will take several more years of development before expert systems are in widespread use but the cycle as can be observed in a even our everyday lives, is one with enormous potential to change the way we live and think about life. Such things as voice operated lights, TV’s, and computers are just a few things in operation right now. They also are developing voice activated cars. All these inventions would not have been able to come about without the use of the computer. The computer is constantly changing the everyday life of many people. It has affected some part of everyone’s life. They will continue to benefit people in many ways. Some not even thought of yet but whatever future is there to come, we can certainly be sure that computers are going to play a major role in it, and hopefully we will not even have to life a finger to get to the airport.
