TECHNOLOGY: WHY US?

TECHNOLOGY: WHY US?
Carmelo C. Soriano, Jr.

More Innovations. Developments. Improvements. Advancements. Modernizations. Convenience. These are words the we could associate to the future. You might be also thinking the same word I’m thinking that is synonymous to all those mentioned above – TECHNOLOGY. But what is it really? How does technology really help us improve people’s lives especially to us actors of change – the youth?
I know this is where the circle of specialization of the different courses in our college relies on. We’ve been through the years of amazing breakthroughs, high-tech equipments and fascinating inventions that could help us make our chores easier as we go deeper and deeper through time. It’s all because of unending imaginations of brilliant minds working together to form a single objective. This single objective really played a great role in our society at present. Government officials, manufacturers, industrialists, businessmen, and even a simple individual is in search of these innovations to help develop their own businesses, so as to compete in the fast-approaching urbanization. As tools increased in complexity, so did the type of knowledge needed to support them. It required libraries of collective information that has continually increased and improved. Engineers often require decades of mastery of sophisticated general and specific training.
Fact: Recent technological developments have lessened physical barriers to communication and has affected society and its surrounding in a number of ways especially for us engineers and architects. We all know that we are goal-oriented in making tools and systems to exploit natural phenomena for practical means and often we say technology is a consequence of engineering, thus we are called technologists.
Technology is a broad concept that deals with knowledge of tools and crafts. We can say that it really evolves faster than we think. As long as there are creative minds, it will exist and will never be diminished – even before the first discovery of the ability to control fire that increased available sources of food, the advancement of clothing that helped humanity to interact freely into global scale, there exists technology.
It was not so long ago when I started using Nokia 5110 (big cellular phone with antenna). But now we have recorded the smallest cell phone small enough to fit our secret pockets. We don’t really need to waste our time manually weaving our clothes and get pricked by needles, we have computerized weaver providing us accurate and perfect stitches. Manufacturers don’t need to manually pack our foods one by one; we have large machines ready to render their services for packing. Accountants don’t need to count millions of pesos manually. Instead, we have electronic counting machines ready to count even billions of it. We don’t need to mix large amount of sand, cement and gravel using shovels in order to build large infrastructures, all we have to do is mix them all in mixer ran by motor and alas! One big commercial building. Large desktops converted to pocket-size computers, gasoline-powered into electric cars, expensive texts to unlimited calls, coal-fired to electric stoves and many more. More developments everyday and indeed, we could say it is very conducive to our lifestyle.
The distinction between engineering and technology is not always clear, meaning technology is not usually exclusive products of engineering work, because they have to satisfy our utility, usability and safety. To be fair and just of what really is the perspective of our future innovators, we divided opinions to three faces:

THE TECHNICIST
“I believe that humanity will be able to control the entirety of existence using technology. We students will someday be able to master all problems and possibly even control the future using technology.” –Prexy, 20 y.o., CE4
THE OPTIMIST
”Technology over the years is having the beneficial effects for the society and human conditions as a whole, as long as it is used for constructive purposes. For me, technological development is morally good. I myself is a witness on how technology evolves and makes life a lot easier.” –Valkyrie, 20 y.o., CE4

THE PESSIMISTS
“I believe that technological societies are inherently flawed because this results to become even more technological at the cost of freedom and psychological health at the first place. Someday, everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it.” Anonymous, 19 y.o., HRM3

Whatever your opinions may be, it will serve as a challenge for us actors of change on how to balance, preserve and develop what God has given. Technology influences and influenced by such societal issues of factors. If we could recall the law of alchemy, if you want something, then you must sacrifice something in order to acquire it. Same as we speak of technology, there are benefits but there are costs opposite to benefit. In this lies the right question to all these interrogations--- Why you? Well it will remain a hanging question for us as we face technology through time.