...Technology has become so helpful to our lives in so many ways. Technology is convenient and efficient. It aids us to live life more conveniently by allowing us to do more in less effort. It, then, becomes rather difficult to undermine the importance in which technology plays within our lives. Many people have benefited from the invention of technology and would most often find it complicated to do without. Year after year, technologies become reinvented through new ideas and the betterment of equipment and tools. Thus, if an old technology does not suffice, a new one will easily come in favour shortly after. Because of the rather innovative current forms of technology, new and advanced technologies are forming at an impeccable pace. The expressions, “I would die without Internet” or “I could not ever live without my cell phone” imply that life would be hard to live from the lack of such technologies. However, such expressions become rather ironic because life is already in harm’s way due to technology itself. The relationship between technology within society and environmental grounds are problematic. Technology serves as an efficient function to our lives yet can become detrimental to our health which is demonstrated through Ronald Wright’s theory of the progress trap and theories of environmental degradation (Cameron, par. 5). However, the repair and reversal of a damaged environment depends largely on technology through means for better water, cleaner air and conserving energy;...
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...Resources Progress is defined as a forward or onward movement towards a goal or destination. The film “Surviving Progress” explains the progress humanity as a whole has made and the progress we continue to make. Filmmakers Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks show how much progress humans are making and how we have become into a progress trap with too much progress eventually leading to disaster and dead ends. No matter what humanity is always making progress in our civilization, economy, technology, and more; only problem, we’re making progress non-stop creating an eventual crash and destruction of Earth’s natural resources. Ronald White argues that humanity is in what he calls a “progress trap” which he explains “I came up with the term progress trap to define human behaviors that sort of seem to be good things, seem to be, to provide benefits in the short-term, but which ultimately lead to disaster, because they’re unsustainable.” Humanity as a whole has reached what is considered a “progress trap” many times already and is in the process of falling into deeper “progress traps” than ever with technology and our economics. In the past, as an example given by Ronald White, Hunting turned into a dead end when our ancestors were hunting to make their living. They went from killing one mammoth at a time and struggling to do so, to killing a whole heard of mammoths by running them over a cliff. This pushed them into a “progress trap”. These new hunting techniques had been great progress made...
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...Technology: “Humanity has witnessed technology and innovation as being the most important stimulus for humans to ameliorate and improve their communication. I’m speaking of thousands of years of development, from the earliest traces of written communication all the way to our convenient pocket-sized computers. All the progress and the changes in our lives are enabled and accelerated by advances in communication. Innovation occurred to solve problems in our society and everyday life rather than simply amusing ourselves. In other words, communication is about immediate and practical needs. Like Mr. Moughabghab said, we live in exponential times. Where the speed of progress of change and technology is unimaginable and accelerating. On one hand, technology simplifies our lives by reducing number of tedious tasks to be performed. They have created applications that can be downloaded on your smartphone which give access to communicate with all major sectors. Such as, online shopping, online banking,online transportation (Uber), rent reservation for apartments (Airbnb) and many more. For instance, a person does not need to go to a bank to pay their bills or transfer money. They can just do so with a click of a button from the comfort of their home. People are more satisfied with these new applications due to it being less time consuming and easier to understand. On the other hand, there are some disadvantages regarding the communication between humans through machines. This has...
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...------------------------------------------------- Parte superior do formulário Globalization and Cultural Identity 29th August 2014 Globalization is such a commonly used term in the twentiethcentury. It simply means that the world has become integrated economically, socially, politically and culturally through the advances of technology, transportation and communication. In other words, it is the idea that the world is developing a single economy and culture. As mass communication and transport continue to grow societies are becoming more and more alike leading to a phenomenon known as globalization. In this essay the main discuss will be about how globalization has influenced all countries and the advantages and disadvantages about it. It is undeniable that globalization has resulted in both positive and negative effects which must be addressed accordingly. Supporters claimed that globalization has always had a great impact on cultural identity. Today, in an age when discrete cultures themselves are under threat, the question of cultural identity becomes newly problematic and takes on new urgency. The reason for this importance lies in the preservation of the traditional cultures and values that are carefully being forgotten into the globalization. Some people fear that globalization will inevitably lead to the total loss of cultural identity. Differences between countries become less evident each year. Nowadays...
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...about a new freedom of information and so narrow the technology gap between developed and developing countries. The Internet has emerged as the most rapidly adopted communication mean in history. For the last decades it has built bridges between almost all corners of the world and created the greatest depository of all kinds of information. Access to these new technologies enabled rapid development of all countries. Some states that were always lagging behind the leading countries now do have the possibility to use all facilities of the communicational breakthrough and as a result the difference between them becomes less and less noticeable. The onset of computers on the general population has given a boost to the economy in the world's market. People who weren't much aware of the world became drawn to computers, which in turn brought about the Internet, connecting the world all over. New technologies made it possible to get the information about all new inventions, to be involved in the current political and economical affairs. Third-world countries that have always been somehow separated from the other part of the world now are having the same informational base. They can apply the same technologies in their industry, use the same methods of treatment in medicine, etc. Moreover, now they have a chance to communicate with companies all over the world and get new business partners. All this helps them to get progress in the economical life and increase the level of life of...
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...Kaarel Tiidus Media Culture & Criticism 11.01.2011 Deification of Technology The term technology may have many different meanings to different persons and it can be used to describe many different things and ideas. We can speak about technology when the very first human beings realised that a regular stone can be used as a tool, that it can be sharpened and shaped, it can be piled up to build walls and houses. Round pieces of wood could be used as wheels and wheels can be used to help move cars etc. What I mean when I use the term technology in this essay is modern technology – from telephones and computers to stem-cell research and cloning. Currently we are living literally in the age of technology, meaning it is impossible to live without technology. In theory of course we could still survive or exist without technology, but what I mean by living is not surviving, or simply the physical qualities our bodies have while we are living, but being part of the society and being a more or less accepted human being among others. Living, in that sense, without using technology has been impossible for quite some time already. In order to work and keep up with our surroundings we are forced at some point to accept new technology that comes and has enough followers. In the 1980-s only few people had a possibility to use a personal computer, but now it is a common tool just as a sharp shard of rock would have been in the stone age. We have choices about what kind of computer we...
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...Technology has been a boon to mankind and it is a blessing in disguise. It has made the life of humans simple and easy to live. The effects of technology have largely been positive on human life. We have reached this modern era because of technology. The various technologies around us have made this world modern. In this modern life technological innovations have become integral to our lives Technological innovations are the most important aspect of human life and it is impossible to even think of our life without them. Technology is the greatest creation of humans and it has also enabled humans to create whatever they desire. I think that technology is indispensable in our modern life and it is a great positive force in our lives. The creativity in the field of technology has always resulted in remarkable innovations. We would not have reached such heights of development without the help of technology. Technology has influenced people in a positive sense. It has instigated people to create better and better innovations. We can never think of our lives without the basic amenities which technology has provided us with. Without such technology we would still be in the pre-historic age. We should be thankful to technology for our metamorphosis from a cave man to the modern man of present age. This modernism is the result of technology and it has made our life better and better with time. It is best tool that the humans have ever invented for self help. The technological inventions...
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...foundation for building and extending markets for new technology. Economists and policymakers are progressively realizing that to manage and encourage technological progress, there is a need of a framework of legal institutions that promotes its benefits but also limits its excess. The paramount difficulty of companies and individuals engaging in development of new technology of any kind is appropriating the fruits of their labor. In developed market economies, in spite of the presence of substantial intellectual property rights, the widespread imitation of intellectual property deems them imperfect and inadequate. Lax enforcement of domestic laws and regulations, and the absence of international treaties concerning the protection of international property rights further aggravate the problem. The framework and implementation of intellectual property rights shapes the success of major industries ranging from computer software, biotechnology to entertainment as it determines how they can market their products. Intellectual property is expensive to create but easy to reproduce. The fixed cost of producing intellectual property is high, but its marginal cost is low. For example, the research and development of a drug can cost billions of dollars, but its reproduction can easily be done at low costs. Lack of protection gives rise to free riding on the innovator’s production and kills the innovator’s incentive to produce more. Registering a trademark is facile, but protecting one...
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...increase production. It is also adequate to include human capital as investing in education and training can improve productivity and thereby create capital accumulation in an economy. Both kinds of capital accumulation mentioned are generally essential for economic growth. Investment is crucial for physical capital to be maintained as without it, capital would change over time due to depreciation. The neoclassical growth model helps us to examine how capital accumulation leads to economic growth. It assumes that a country’s resources are used efficiently and that there are diminishing returns to capital and labour when the two increase. This brings about conditional convergence. If we take two economies to have the same level of technologies and have the same value of parameters for savings, depreciation and population growth, the country that starts with a lower level of output per capita will have a higher growth rate of output per capita. This will mean that there exists a convergence of income per capita over time as the poorer economy catches up with the richer one. Conditional convergence is when an economy’s growth rate is greater the further away it is from its steady-state level or balanced growth path. The above diagram includes a horizontal line which does not change with the growth rate...
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...40L * One computer works 100 hours per week; each labor works 40 hours a week. If there are 2 worker then L=2; computer = 4 then K=4 * Assume economy is working at full potential * Capital is depreciated at constant proportionate rate, * L is assumed to be homogenous (everyone has same skill, education, productivity) and it grows at rate n. * If n>0 growing exponentially, n<0 declining exponentially, n=0 stagnant * Growth of labour is due to growth of population * A is defined as costless labour-augmenting technological progress * A multiplies the labour input, while leaving capital unchanged (e.g.: new organization routines, rearrangement of the flow of material in a factory, better management of inventory, other changes that do not require knowledge to be embodied in new equipment) * A is also known as index of productive efficiency or index of productivity or level of technology * A grows at an exponential rate of g; g is normally constrained to be non-negative * If the production function is Y = AF(K,L) then A in this case is the total factor productivity, it measures how much output is produced with a given combination of K and L. Assumption about production function 1. CRS: F(Kb, ALb) = bF(K, AL) = bY 2. Positive marginal products of each factor but diminishing in corresponding factor:...
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...[pic] WHAT IS GREEN TECHNOLOGY? The term "technology" refers to the application of knowledge for practical purposes. The field of "green technology" encompasses a continuously evolving group of methods and materials, from techniques for generating energy to non-toxic cleaning products. As the name implies green technology is one that has a "green" purpose. By green we do not mean the color, however, nature is quite green, and the long and short term impact an invention has on the environment is what we are talking about. Green inventions are environmentally friendly inventions that often involve: energy efficiency, recycling, safety and health concerns, renewable resources, and more. Green technology is the application of one or more of environmental science, green chemistry, environmental monitoring and electronic devices to monitor, model and conserve the natural environment and resources, and to curb the negative impacts of human involvement. The term is also used to describe sustainable energy generation technologies such as photovoltaic, wind turbines, bioreactors, etc. Sustainable development is the core of environmental technologies. The term environmental technologies also used to describe a class of electronic devices that can promote sustainable management of resources. The present expectation is that this field will bring innovation and changes in daily life of similar magnitude to the "information technology" explosion over the last two decades. In these...
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...Western Civilization has benefited from the world through technology, increasing the middle class, and developing moral value by helping the less fortunate. It is important to measure the past by examining the education system, and the financial progress of the less fortunate. Financial stability is important in Western cultures today for happiness but money is not the only stimulus for happiness. Happiness can only be measure by an individual’s prospective and not by the judgment of other. Western culture has made some net achements, and it is important to measure these benefits to determine if Western culture is happier or not. Western culture’s progress has been a net benefit to the world by developing modern technology, increasing the middle class and developing moral values. There have been advancements in technology through radio frequency, internet, and wide area networking through the telephone system. Although western culture has been able to develop these technologies, it has replaced social bonds which have caused a reduction in community social actives. The development of technology has increased the middle class population by providing profitable job for families’ financial stabilization. Some people believe that technology eliminates jobs for the working class and technology is not for people that cannot afford higher education. Researches prove that by increasing the middle class there are less unfortunate community. Another net benefit to the world was...
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...growth, it is natural for social scientists to look for underlying causes of that growth. Why does one country have a higher per capita national income than another? Or why do productivity increases differ in various countries? Concern for productivity and economic growth. Because of the disparity in national incomes and the problems caused in much of the world by incomes that do not allow for adequate subsistence, let alone the raising of cultural standards, the attention of world leaders and development economists has naturally turned to the need for increasing productivity. The necessities of economic development were thought to be the transfer of technology, education, and capital. But as important as these are, it is now recognized that advanced managerial know-how is essential and often overlooked as an element responsible for growth and improved productivity. Although one must grant that pure technical knowledge is necessary for economic growth, such knowledge is fairly easy to transfer between countries, and no nation holds a monopoly on it for very long. Even a technological development as sophisticated as that of the atomic bomb, whose secrecy was closely protected by the US, became known in Russia, France, China, and elsewhere in less than two decades. Most advances in technology are neither as complex nor as well guarded, and so their transfer is not likely to be difficult, particularly when one realizes that in any country only a few people need to...
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...Unethical Making of our own Monsters With the ongoing and advanced progress of scientific technology, we have the opportunity to create anything we want. However, in Mary Shelley's novel ‘Frankenstein’ and the Canadian Space Arm, we went beyond the boundaries of ethics, where we created objects which were incredulous, yet at the same time, they were monsters of our own making. Both creators were nothing less than admirable in their intentions. Nonetheless, in providing both creations with human- like names and features, they violated what I believe to be ethical limits, and as a result they ended up with unethical monsters. I do not believe that it is right to give inanimate objects human like features; when we...
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...becomes particular; enhancing dependence and competition, and while success becomes inevitable as well as failure due to the very nature of competition, interdependence and creation of social structures to facilitate the nature of modern markets has created a much globalized economy. Durkheim's ideas on division of labour & specialization is more apt at explaining the technology enhanced global capitalism that our world is practicing, which he calls 'organic solidarity' (1997, orig.1893); at the same time, his ideas on 'anomie' the possible collapse of moral values due to an increasingly individualized & competitive social situation serves to warn and encourages the creation of check & balances to prevent such collapse. The United States is a country that is rich in opportunities and culture. It is within this diverse culture, that modernization manifest itself in the United States society. There are four ways that modernization manifests itself within the United States society. These areas are communities, the aging population, personal choices, and the diverseness of the society as a whole. It seems that one thing most do not discuss on modernization is the growing rate of the...
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