Science Fiction And Technology Essay, Research Paper

The 90 s has been a decade full of controversial and world changing events. The first one I could think of would have to be the Persian Gulf War with Iraq. I think that war brought together the United States, stopped our fighting with each other, and helped us focus on one common enemy, Saddam Hussein. The next thing we did was send troops to Haiti and to Somalia to help protect the people and the failing governments. Once again the United States was brought together in a time of war. However, I believe that the one true Zeitgeist of the 90 s isn t the wars that brought us together but the information and technology age that will break us apart. The way that new products are being developed each day in the next 10 to 20 years almost everything will be automated and many being will be out of a job doing nothing.

The Internet is now one of the biggest things in the world today with the help of companies like American on Line, CompuServe, Prodigy, Phillips Web Tv and all the other companies that are trying to get rich off of it. They say people can stay in the safety of their home while they can shop, talk to people online and even send things like birthday cards thanks to companies that advertise on the web like Hallmark and Disney s family page.

The Internet also offers a way to get information from a wide variety of sources like Compton s Encyclopedia and other useful tools. The Internet offers all of this stuff for us to browse through without leaving our home that pretty soon no one will leave their home especially with newer technology coming out everyday.

Computers are the wave of the future and with modems and the Internet and now teleconferencing many more people will be staying at home while they work. New inventions like processing chips that can run billions of commands in a matter of seconds that soon will be able to take control of robots and other machinery that will make human work obsolete.

Detroit, Michigan home of the General Motors automotive company was once a huge flourishing community that had a huge population base. Now it is all made up of a few factories that have a very small population base that is mainly operated by machinery and giant robots.

Just recently both of my parents started to work out of there homes. My dad got a new IBM Aptiva that has a built in video phone that lets him see his associates back at work. It also has a built in fax machine and a answering service with multiple mailboxes. It is easier for them because they don t have to wake up early and they don t have to worry about morning traffic. They are confined to the house though because they get calls from the office constantly and must always stay on call. My mom would complain sometimes about having to stay in because she doesn t get to interact with anybody.

Technology is useful when we use it in the right places like for medicine and other complicated procedures that make things easier. But I fear that to many things are becoming automated and that leaves out any human interaction and pretty much makes a human being obsolete. Just look at the movies Terminator and Terminator 2. A future of death and destruction that was brought on by humans that made everything they could being controlled by computers and robots. I m not saying that the world is coming to an end but what will happen when everything is being controlled by a computer. What will be left for the people in this world.

The Internet was just the beginning as it started up back in 1994 and reached only a few thousand of people. But now it connects almost everyone and can be found in most large corporations as a tool for information but who is to say that the information we are getting off the Internet is correct. The expansion of Bill gates and the technology that he is creating is ridiculous. A billionaire that now controls and dominates the computer industry Gates and his Microsoft company are at the forefront for turning out new technology everyday. The future will be so advanced that it may look like it came straight out of a science fiction movie that will be have to called science fact. Wether it be a future that resembles a town with clones that terrorize people like the movie Bladerunner or the apocalypse that is Terminator the future will be none the less intriguing.