How Do You Analyze the Potential Long-Term Impact of Technology?

Have you ever watched a science fiction television show like “Star Trek” and wonder how long it will be before we have access to those technologies? The beaming technology to be able to instantly teleport long distances through space would be nice. But before we can even begin to consider this sort of technology we need to first consider how we are going to travel those distances in the first place. For about 50 years we have been using the same basic type of propulsion engine and technology to get us through the Earth’s atmosphere and into orbit, the problem is that this technology has become slow and costly. For us to forge further into the star filled sky we will have to improve on this out dated system and implement something new.

On October 24th 1998 NASA launched Deep Space 1, a mission meant to test a slew of new technologies one of which was ion propulsion (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/details.php?id=5870). The mission was a huge success and was the first time ion propulsion got its chance to shine and show the world what it has to offer. But to understand we need to examine what exactly ion propulsion is; NASA has a website (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/fs21grc.html) with a great amount of detailed information on ion propulsion. I’m no rocket scientist so I’ll do my best to explain how an ion propulsion system works to the best of my knowledge. The article Tega Jessa wrote for UniversityToday (http://www.universetoday.com/77085/ion-propulsion/) helped me understand it a little bit more by explaining that every engine works on Issac Newtons third law “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. Engines burn fuel that then turns into gas and air pushing outwards that gives the thrust needed to propel forward. With that in mind an ion engine basically does the exact same thing only instead of burning the fuel to create thrust they use electricity on ionized fuel to create opposition and thrust, doing this allows the fuel to last much longer and is much more cost effective.

There are no gas stations in space (yet anyways) which means the limits of our technology are the limits of our space exploration. Ion propulsion has proven itself to be a useful and cost effective method of space travel already and is in the final testing stages. In the next decade I believe we will see ion propulsion become the main propulsion system for space travel allowing us to get further faster and more effectively. By the time NASA fully adopts ion propulsion for space travel I believe that commercial travel will begin testing these engines on jets and other aircrafts, this will be a key point in our history because I believe that at this point we will begin to consider commercializing space travel. In my visions of the future I see our commercial airline tickets costing one third of the current cost and travel time being cut down by another third of what it is currently; people will be in the airport with their luggage packed to spend a week on the newest resort on the moon. My entire vision hangs is dependent on the success of a faster and more efficient fuel for space travel.


NASA, Jet Propulsion Labs (12/13/2012) http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/details.php?id=5870

Jessa, Tega, UniversityToday (10/31/2010) http://www.universetoday.com/77085/ion-propulsion/

NASA, Fact Sheet (12/13/2012) http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/fs21grc.html

What Is the Most Beneficial and the Most Detrimental Advancement in Technology over the Last Decade?

 Technology has changed a lot over the last decade; you could even say that technology has changed us a lot over the last decade. It’s hard to dig in and simply pick the “most” beneficial technological advancement of the last decade; by definition the word technology means “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes” which basically means that we are using our scientific knowledge to improve things around us to our benefit. Anyone who has been reading my blog over the last few months will know how I feel about various advancements in technologies such as wireless telecommunications and smartphone devices or tablets. Our processors are growing smaller and more powerful while new technologies like cloud computing and augmented reality are beginning to gather wind under their sails to help us transition into the next decade of advancements. Simply put we are advancing our technology and at a rather brisk rate. What is more important to me is where we are falling behind in our technology, space exploration. It’s my opinion that we should be focusing on finding more efficient ways to get space missions off the ground and into the sky, this means re-evaluating the technology we are using for shuttle engines and fuels. I feel like by this point we should have already privatized near earth space travel and that money could be funneled back into the space programs to advance our reach further into the universe.

As much as it seems that it has all been a downhill ride there have been some setbacks in technological advancements in the last decade. With more active users on the internet interacting with each other every day through various social sites our information is at the greatest risk yet. Some people have their information stolen and are never the wiser until it is too late, yet others willingly volunteer it without knowing it. There are threats to our information from the many websites we frequent or set up accounts for, some of which are simply because you fall into a targeted group that appeal to hackers. Many companies spend a lot of money to ensure that their users have a safe place to leave their personal information but that doesn’t always stop hacker groups from breaking in and stealing it. As disturbing as the thought of a hacker stealing all of your information from a secure server is, in a lot of cases the reality of who you are entrusting the information to in the first place, is even more disturbing. EULAs (end user licensing agreement) are a new thing by any means, for as long as companies have been providing us with software and services we have been scrolling to the bottom as fast as possible to click accept and move on. The problem is that a lot of these companies are banking on us to not read or know what it is we are agreeing to so that they can make a legally binding contract with you to not only sell your personal information but obtain more by some rather “shady” means. This isn’t a new a thing that has just begun recently, Annalee Newitz wrote an article back in 2005 (https://www.eff.org/wp/dangerous-terms-users-guide-eulas)regarding the dangers of EULAs and what it is exactly that we are accepting to before we can install our software. Times have changed and there is a new dynamic to the EULA story now. The mega publisher EA (Electronic Arts) released a PC gaming platform a little over a year ago called Origin in what was an attempt to run a similar store to what Valve has in its Steam program. The store would offer EA games for the PC for purchasing and digitally downloading to play. This is fine and frankly a good business decision; however when Origin came out the EULA stated that in order to install and use Origin you have to accept to allow EA complete access to scan your entire computer for all software, how often you use that software and other various hardware profiles you may have. Popular games such as Battlefield 3 could not be played without an account on Origin leaving many to reluctantly accept these bogus terms and conditions. You can read more about the EA and Origin debacle in the article John Walker wrote for Rock, Paper, Shotgun (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/24/eas-origin-eula-proves-even-more-sinister/) a gaming magazine.

Even though we have seen a lot of great benefits in the last decade there are still risks out there and being knowledgeable about those risks is the best way to keep ourselves safe.





Walker, John, EA’s Origin EULA Proves Even More Sinister (08/24/2011) http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/24/eas-origin-eula-proves-even-more-sinister/

Newitz, Annalee, Dangerous Terms: A Users Guide to EULAs (02/17/2005) https://www.eff.org/wp/dangerous-terms-users-guide-eulas

What is the Next Stage in Social Development?

Here we are standing on the edge of the future, with a quick glance behind us you can see the road of various social networking sites that have risen and fallen in the wake. We've gone from MySpace to Facebook and Napster to Spotify. What once was a social website you would visit after your school was done or after dinner on the family computer has grown to the point that it is virtually at our sides keeping us in constant contact and helping guide our decisions on a daily basis. So where do we go from here? Where can we go from is a more important question. I believe I have the answer, augmented reality. If you’re not sure what augmented reality is don’t feel bad, it hasn't exactly caught on in a big way yet but is gaining steam constantly. Augmented reality is a fusion of reality and technology at its most basic level. Remember those SciFi movies you used to watch where the heroes would have a computer in their brain that would interface through their vision or eyes in some sort of a way? That’s what augmented reality is in a sense, currently you can find a lot of great smart phone apps that are utilizing augmented reality to allow you to view real time GPS through the camera that will pick out hot spots and display information such as reviews. Yet other apps use augmented reality to play real time games such as Ingress (http://www.ingress.com/) a game that allows users to walk around town capturing and closing portals. 

It can be hard to wrap your mind around it sometimes, and for that I’m going to apologize because before you read any further you have to go watch this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAXTQL3jPFk) of Google’s Project Glass and if you were having trouble gasping it before this is going to blow your mind. It’s one thing to use the camera of your phone to see real time information on a screen, but to have it all directly through a small pair of glasses directly in front of your eyes is all together another mind boggling thing. Social media is all about sharing, connecting, and interfacing with each other; I believe that augmented reality is the next logical step in that direction allowing us even faster access to share the world around us. Another important key I believe will play a huge role in the future of social media is interactivity. Social media tycoons such as Facebook and Twitter have a well-established foothold in the game at the moment, but as more companies begin to provide new services it will be the ones that interface well with each other that will have the best chance.

How will this future affect us? Some might be thinking “Oh great I can see now already, I’m going to get pop-ups directly in my field of vision!”, and to be honest that’s a completely rational fear that has a real possibility. It’s possible this could be a huge step for consumers, allowing us to simply look at a product we’re interested in purchasing and seeing what the last ten people thought of the product or even better the last five that specifically bought that product from the exact same location you’re at right then. Marketers and corporations will have another opportunity to advertise to us, and in some cases it might be alright to know what sort of deals the five similar stores in front of me are offering so I can choose the best one. There is no way to tell exactly how it will play out, but to me the combination of reality and social media technology seems inevitable and the only next logical step towards the future.




TechAppNews (09/26/2012) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAXTQL3jPFk

NinticLabs Google, Ingress (12/02/2012) http://www.ingress.com/Zeman, Eric, Smartphones