Infinite Technology

Something that came up briefly in class the other day that caught my attention was how in modern technological times, there is no endpoint in the creation of technology. Currently in my room i can give three examples of this. (1) There is three different sorts of eco-friendly water bottles on my desk (most likely a fourth type will be occupying space by the time the semester is over) (2) iPods. When I think of new technological gadgets, the Apple sears itself into my mind. Back in highschool i had like a 4th gen iPod, it played music, color screen....it was badass....now there is the iPod touch which I can not only listen to music on, but watch movies, play games, update my Facebook status, and even appear to be drinking a frothy beer. And (3) I have a drawer full of headphones, both new and old. I remember back in my elementary school days where I owned a portable CD player and thought I was the shit. It didn't matter what kind of headphones someone owned, as long as music came out of them, it was fresh. These days there are people working on headphones that may cost even more than the device that plays them.

Now, back to my original statement, there is no end to the current state in which new technology is created. This new technology is not concieved out of necessity, but to make more money, and appeal to the customer. So I will use my iPod example to give a scenario. So back in highschool, as stated earlier, my iPod would only play music and had a colored screen. Most likely even before that model was released, Steve Jobs was hard on his engineers, telling them that they need to make an iPod with the capability to store and play movies (why anyone would on such a small screen I have no idea) , but they did it. A year later my iPod was outdated, and watching The Pirates of The Caribbean on one's iPod was cool. Well this trend of continuously updating and "improving" the iPod continunes today, and for ALL of Apple's devices. Sorry anyone who purchased an iPad 2, they were already old before they were even shipped to its first purchasers. One of Apple's head engineers revealed specs about the iPad 3, which will have plug in USB capability and 3D graphics, and was set to be launched only a year after the iPad 2. (According to this the iPad2 was rushed, these features being put into the iPad 3 were not ready when the iPad 2 was set to launch)

To summarize and conclude, in a modern technological society, we are rapidly and continuously creating new technology, and for what? Spending a few hundred a year just to have updated gadgets is ubsurd. That iPad 2 that you bought earlier in the year will still be just as useful 5 years down the road, and when it does finally croak, it will make one hell of a drink coaster. What we should be doing as a society is creating new technologies to make a change, a betterment for human life. There's no doubt that engineers at Apple are extremely bright, however say we took some of those engineers' minds, and put them to use searching for a cure for breast cancer, alzheimers, an end to world hunger, a solution to the economy, or a solution to our dependence on fossil fuels. I'll be the first to admit, I'd rather be driving a kick ass solar car as opposed to cooking meals with an iPad 5.