Technological Innovations and their driving forces.

compass needed

Less than a decade from now society may change tremendously. If only we could get a glimpse of the future. Visiting a smart home of the future, we see probably in every room monitoring devices connected to the internet. Most of those “things” around have something to do with cloud computing. In that new cloud- world, data analyzing all the apparatuses at home and abroad, is taking place around the clock. Using the cloud gives not only the possibility to increase our number of measuring points to find out what is going on. By connecting apparatuses near and afar, data streams may be combined to get new information exponentially increasing. We are warned by our smart watch and other displays not to forget our sporting daily exercises; we get our instructions for cooking, shopping, driving, taking medicine, entertaining possibilities, mass communication programs and a lot more. Our clothes and shoes will contain sensors and displays to monitor our condition and behaviour. We need of course also generators for electrical supply for them which are probably also build in. Identifiers make every person, object or other “thing” automatically traceable. The way our economy works will be influenced by those technology. Locally generating energy devices will like 3D printing machinery at home influence the economic structure. Economics therefore will become more and more bottom up instead top down as it is now in general.                                                        Robots will take over tasks from us more and more. They have to be made more flexible, self- learning to adapt themselves to various tasks.                                           All this speaks to the imagination. Science and technology has created miracles in the past. Will it go on like that? Maybe, but where will this end? Cisco estimates 50 billion devices to be connected to the internet by 2020.                                                         What forces are driving technology and its innovations? Have we anything to choose in the end? Or have we just to obey possibilities without some sort of a compass that tells us where we arrive in the end? For the near future some driving forces are clearly working already shaping our society.                                                                              - We certainly are driven by reducing costs and waste of materials. Efficiency of production processes has to be upturned. And of course easy handing devices and apparatuses is a must for mass use.                                                                              -  Scarcity of energy makes us decide whether or how much we need for using fossil fuels or seek sustainable energy solutions. Solar cells, wind turbines or biotech solutions and all other possibilities will be examined for efficiency and costs.                 – Reducing costs of labour and the number of employees in organizations and at home. Robotics could be useful to take over more and more jobs. Not only the dirty, difficult to reach or dangerous jobs such as handling radioactive materials, or working in deep water. But also for monotonous tasks in factories, gardens, shops and streets. But also for medical institutions, the entertainment industry, personal assistants etc.         - Scarcity of materials. This in the broad sense. Scarcity of clean water, clean air, and food are included. Reducing waste materials points towards cleantech for giving solutions.                                                                                                                      - Monitoring the environment seems essential. Things like sensors, measuring devices, identifiers for people and objects, all that sorts of apparatuses in the future will be everywhere.                                                                                                                  - And not only the environment but also the human body will be object for research and technical solutions for medical problems and manipulation. Where will all this it ends? Brain- computer interaction is studied for instance at the university of Cincinnati. Even mind reading with developing thought- controlled smart tech is coming. Robotic- human interfaces may be possible by measuring and manipulating the brain’s electrical activity.                                                                                                                      How should we oversee all this and guard our well- being? Technical inventions often have negative side effects as loss of privacy, over regulation and diminishing our own personal decision making. Linking technological activities with morals and values seems crucial. Our ideas and views about morals and values have to balance technological possibilities. Ideas about humans, technology and the environment have to be institutionalized anew. Ethics have to be involved in decision making whether we like it or not. Then laws and rules can follow. It seems some virtual, moral compass has to be constructed to know where we are going following driving forces behind all new technological inventions about to come. It is all about things and people.