As a class we are engaging in a discussion of what makes "a technology". Each student is blogging about what specific technologies have been important in their lives. Of course we are all English majors so the printing press, pens, pencils, paper, etc. are hot ticket items! As you see my blog is a scroll, just in case you weren't getting the picture yet. I have a feeling no one outside of the class will read this, so it seems strange, if not insane, to write as though there were some vast audience out there reading my fascinating posts, but here's hoping!
Technology is such an integral part of our everyday lives that I hardly notice what is or isn't a technology. I do, however, notice when technology
doesn't work! Like the time my computer crashed three days before my senior thesis was due in college. Yeah, I noticed that technology. I also notice technology and its importance, power, and prestige when I travel, especially to countries
where technology is less advanced or less integral than in the U.S. So although the internet, personal computers, ipods, etc. have undoubtedly shaped and influenced my life, the following technologies have had profound or vital effects:
- Inhalers/Breathing Treatments/Respirators: These saved the life of my asthmatic brother and myself many times in childhood! Lots of holidays spent in the ER.
- Antibiotics: Clearly a weak little child, I was sick all the time! Luckily amoxicillin in liquid form tastes like bubblegum.
- Iodine Tablets: My husband and I have traveled to some wild and desolate places where running or drinkable water is not exactly an option. These little pills make desolation a bit more hospitable.
- Flying contraptions/Trains/Automobiles: All of these technologies of movement and travel have been tremendously important in my life, especially because I have a love for foreign places and their:
- Wonderous Works of Architecture: Like the Eiffel Tower, the Colloseum, even the Golden Gate Bridge!
- Fiberglass: This invention or technological advance has impacted the world of sailing profoundly. Having lived on a sailboat for two years I can tell you it is very nice compared to a wooden or cement ship!
- Safety Glass: Car accidents...yikes, imagine if the windshield weren't made out of this!
- Pack Soap: A simple thing, but so magnificent! This biodegradable and eco-friendly soap can be used in any lake, stream, or river to wash the grime off!
- The Camera Obscura: This little box led to photography, one of my passions!
- Epidurals: I have had the honor/traumatizing experience of being in the room for three births, need I say more?
- Fax machine: A little odd, but without the fax machine I wouldn't have
been able to apply to graduate school in California from New Zealand and
life would be very different now!
Hey Jessica ~
ReplyDeleteLearned a lot about your childhood -- glad you are the picture of strapping good health now.
What were you doing living in NZ?
~ Cathy
We are immersed in technology here, to such an extent that we notice its lack far more than its presence. A fish doesn't notice water...But it certainly notices when it can't breathe or swim any longer.
ReplyDeleteYour link was well-chosen as a topic which relates to the strange role technology plays in our world today. Sexier technologies (broadband, fast cars, special effects) receive a great deal of airplay while having little useful impact for the majority of the world.
Technologies DO exist that have been specifically contrived for low-resource, low-income settings. Unfortunately, a wind-powered drill/water pump that can be built without tools from wood and scrap metal isn't sexy, even if it could help sustain a village during drought...So it gets a lot less attention. There are people whose sole focus in life is creating 'blueprints' of such devices and 'visual symbol instructions' to allow non-readers to build them. They've made huge strides in much of the world, made a difference in the lives of many people...But you aren't likely to hear about them on the nightly news or in a political debate specifically because those technologies by their very nature do NOT require government funding or participation. They are (as much as possible) self-sustaining. That makes them un-sexy to political activists and journalists.
Two categories of people who, if they thought about it, would probably live in dread of the idea of the entire world becoming self-sufficient and capable of getting along without them.