TECHNOLOGY; PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

GLIMPSE FROM THE PAST  (SHARIQ AMIR)

Most of the technologies that were used in the past have been replaced by the significant technology that we use today.

It is believed that the development of technology has happened mainly in recent times. However, that is far from the truth. Indeed, technology, in all aspects, has been emerging over the course of eras. Technology builds on itself!

The best innovations in technology revolutionized our lives and our businesses; they changed the way we think about information and action.

Some exmples are:

Handheld Video Cameras

Kodak invented the Super 8/8mm film, a motion picture camera, in 1965. Soon after, handheld film cameras flooded the market.

Phonograph

The phonograph is a device, invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, for the mechanical recording and reproduction of sound. In its later forms, it is also called a gramophone.

Transistor radios 

Transistor radio, was a small portable radio receiver which only picked up on the AM band in the seventies. Their pocket size sparked a change in popular music listening habits, allowing people to listen to music anywhere they went.

Cassette Tapes

The compact cassette was originally developed for transcription purposes, and its users quickly realized that they could use it to record music and make “mixed tapes”.

Telegraph

The telegraph was the pioneer to telex and fax machines. Used by shipping operators and for military uses, required a skilled operator to send and receive messages.

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• THE GOOGLE RENAISSANCE (MARIAM HASSAN)

From Snail mail being the crucial source of communication to having arsenal of technologies that allow us to connect with each other within seconds or mere minutes. Inessential to say, technology has caused a complete shift in the way people experience the world and how they live their lives. 

Back in the pre-internet days, if someone asked you a tricky question, you had a couple of alternatives. Whichever one you opted for, it was almost unquestionably more complicated and time-consuming than what you’d do today, you’d simply: Google it. Cheers to technology that we no longer need to rest on our unreliable memory for random facts and pieces of information. But with all the knowledge are we outsourcing our memory to the internet? Yes we are, because now we are more likely to refer to the Google, thus making very little attempt to figure out the answer ourselves, even when the questions are relatively simple. Google isn’t just varying how we live and work but it’s truly altering our brains. When was the last time you bothered to memorize someone’s phone number? And what’s the point in learning the spelling of that complicated word when autocorrect will pick it up for you? What is the point of writing an essay when Google will help you write it? Google is one of the greatest inventions of the modern age; a magical gateway to information, communication and resources unlike anything we could previously have dreamed of. 

People prefer technology because it is popular, easy, timeless which clearly shows Google has taken over the human brain.

• THE AGE OF INTERNET (YUMNA MASOOD)

As the modern technology develops, internet offers more and more convenience. With internet, people can do a lot of things while sitting in the comfort of their homes; paying bills, watching movies, studying online and so on. Even shopping can be done with just a single click.

Technology has gifted people with internet. People, now, don't have the need to join long cues for paying bills. They can easily pay their bills through the internet. Previously, people used to squander a lot of their time in paying bills. Formerly, they could never have thought about such a facile life. They can easily use an online bill pay service and can set up an online secure account which lets them pay all their bills from one place. 

With the advancement of technology, people are able to watch movies free of cost through internet instead of going to cinemas or buying CDs or DVDs. With internet, they have the facility to watch all sorts of tv shows, be it Pakistani, Indian, Korean or any other at any given time.

Students, today, have technology available at their fingertips that improves their learning experience. Technology not only helps them study easily, but it also makes the process fun. It lessens the need of buying expensive books in hardcopy. Instead, students can download PDF versions online which are either less of cost or free in most cases. If a lecture is missed, students can easily avail video lectures on forums like Khan Academy and YouTube.

Apart from that, internet also connects people from different parts of the world. It gives them the opportunity to learn and embrace different cultures. It gives them a chance to voice their opinions on lots things that they couldn’t have done otherwise.

Internet is surely a blessing. It has given a lot of ease and comfort to the world. It has given opportunities that never existed.

• MEDIA TECHNOLOGY (MUHAMMAD AHMED)

Music technology is the use of any device, mechanism, machine or tool by a musician or composer to make or perform music; to compose, notate, play back or record songs or pieces; or to analyze or edit music. The earliest known applications of technology to music was prehistoric peoples' use of a tool to hand-drill holes in bones to make simple flutes. Ancient Egyptians developed stringed instruments, such as harps, lyres and lutes, which required making thin strings and some type of peg system for adjusting the pitch of the strings. Ancient Egyptians also used wind instruments such as double clarinets and percussion instruments such as cymbals. In Ancient Greece, instruments included the double-reed aulos and the lyre. Numerous instruments are referred to in the Bible, including the horn, pipe, lyre, harp, and bagpipe. During Biblical times, the cornet, flute, horn, organ, pipe, and trumpet were also used. During the Middle Ages, music notation was used to create a written record of the notes of plainchant melodies.

Around the turn of the 20th century, with the invention and popularization of the gramophone record (commercialized in 1892), and radio broadcasting (starting on a commercial basis ca. 1919-1920), there was a vast increase in music listening, and it was easier to distribute music to a wider public. The development of sound recording had a major influence on the development of popular music genres, because it enabled recordings of songs and bands to be widely distributed. The invention of sound recording gave rise to new subgenre of classical music, the Musique concrete style of electronic composition. The invention of multitrack recordingenabled pop bands to overdub many layers of instrument tracks and vocals, creating new sounds that would not be possible in a live performance. In the early 20th century, electric technologies such as electromagnetic pickups, amplifiers and loudspeakers were used to develop new electric instruments such as the electric piano (1929), electric guitar (1931), electro-mechanical organ(1934) and electric bass (1935). The 20th-century orchestra gained new instruments and new sounds. Some orchestra pieces used the electric guitar, electric bass or the Theremin.

Electronic and digital music technologies are any device, such as a computer, an electronic effects unit or software, that is used by a musician or composer to help make or perform music. The term usually refers to the use of electronic devices, computer hardware and computer software that is used in the performance, playback, recording, composition, sound recording and reproduction, mixing, analysis and editing of music

• THE FUTURE OF TECHNOLOGY  (HAFSA ARIF)

Technology in recent years has advanced very quickly. I remember just a few years ago using an Apple Computer where you had to type in commands for the computer to do anything. It also had very flimsy disks to run program, which could easily be damaged. Now we have computers that will almost run themselves. You no longer have to type in commands; you can either click on icons with your mouse or choose options from a menu. 
I believe technology is the fastest growing and advancing thing in our economy today. Almost everything is based on computers or some other form of technology to run it. Computers are constantly being updated.

Technology also frustrates us through its complexity and unreliability. I've Constantly had to reboot my phone every now and then. Then theirs Computer problems with limited cell phone coverage, Web sites that don't work the way they should, short battery lives and the irritating lagging and buffering in streaming and using the actual I quote “smart phone” which makes us question is a smart phone really smart?

The question we ask now is what’s in store for the future? Well promising to be the most disruptive technology since the World Wide Web some changes will be surprising.

Predicted to result in up to 100 billion Internet-connected objects by 2020.. The public will be captivated by the vision of being able to control everything in their homes and offices, from temperature, lighting and security to using devices to brew cups of coffee. Yet many hurdles must be passed before this vision becomes a reality so the year ahead should see an explosion of start-ups, applications and research projects aimed at leveraging vast potentials to change human lives. Most importantly, technology will seem to disappear where its complexity and current unreliability will vanish, while its benefits will not.