Technology Today

                                 Technology Today

    Let’s face it. The pace of technology on this Earth has rocketed skyward – literally – in this last century. It’s

overpowering to consider the changes we’ve witnessed. From the horse and wagon, through the age of steam locomotion and  internal combustion engines, and to actually walking on the surface of the Moon while broadcasting the event live to over 600 million people. Well, that was in fact a “giant leap for mankind”.

   Add to this the electronic communication explosion that most of us have lived through from black and white text messages and 14,400 bps modems to “iPhones” and “whatsapp” and you’d have a world almost unrecognizable to those who still remember the horse and wagon days.

    This would all be very fine for people, except for some unpleasant details. World War II for example, where the human race lost probably over 70 million people. If it had happened because of “natural” forces like asteroids falling to earth or some other “natural” disaster like a giant flood described in the Bible that Noah and his family survived, that would be a terrible thing, but by the dark hand of evil men, well that’s left a stain on all this advance that makes it much more difficult to heal – to repair. Some people might say that the last century wasn’t worth even the air and water it cost, let alone the sunlight, and certainly not the human effort.

     I can imagine someone looking at the reports from the planet Earth, clicking his tongue and saying; “forget it – cancel their budget – not worth the effort”.

    The question becomes, “who pays for the losses here and who is the rightful benefactor of the advances?” The answer of course is “you and me” – for both, and that’s exactly where we are right now!    

  

      Practicality in the Space Age – New Economic Horizons

     So what does any of this really matter? There’s only so much personal importance one can place on the history of technology.  And, what good is it all anyhow? After all, there are people in Pennsylvania who have written off cars altogether and opted for horses and wagons again. What about life and death? Are we any closer to salvation as a race because of electronic communication? And so, we have to take a step back and look at all this. Really look – deep - at what this means to us and our children. I had to review my own career when I approached my graduation at Florida Atlantic University. I’d been a chemical engineer. I also worked as a technician for RCA on a NASA contract. We made one of the cameras they used on the Apollo program to send live pictures back to half a billion people on the Earth. My dad told me that his science teacher proved to the class that it was impossible to travel to the Moon. It just about was! It was a giant leap too! – for mankind – for everyone – and not everyone was an engineer. I had to look at this, of course, and measure my new career against a vastly changed technical background. “People did not need more science and technology”, I thought. It was already coming out of their ears. They wanted their children to understand how all these things worked, and they wanted to understand how all these things worked too. It’s not so complicated. It’s simple actually if you understand it well enough. Yet, it’s certainly not easy to do either. Try to manufacture a microscopic recording device in your garage that can hold billions of words and pictures as well. Hey, let’s include videos and half – if not more – of every movie you ever saw! I know how to do this! Well, some of it. I actually worked for Univac – now Unisys – way back in the 60’s on third generation RAM – (random access memories) – little tiny threads of nickel and iron plated copper wires that held a magnetic charge, that could be “read” by passing an electrical current through an appropriate network of other little threadlike wires. These were meant to replace ferromagnetic cores (tiny donuts of metal that held a magnetic charge). Since then, such systems have become sub-microscopic and the subject of “nano technology”. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could do something like this too? You do! All the time. You’re doing it right now – and without wires! “Look Mom no wires!” You’re reading and thinking!  And so, I minored in Science Education and adapted my own interests and skills toward new economic horizons.

                              One Dream After Another

   OK so I wonder how many of you wanted to be an Astronaut? I know I did! Children catch on fairly quickly. There’s something that catches the imagination about riding downhill fast on your bicycle, watching videos of guys jumping off mountains with flying suits on – Captain Sky! And you grow up and all that’s left is teaching chemistry to high school students. Don’t laugh, that’s exactly what happened to me. You know why? Because people needed that more than they needed another back up Astronaut! There’s a practicality here that you need to understand. And that’s what this paper is all about. The question is: “What does the public need and want the most that you are already good at – that you like to do?” Most anyone can do just about anything, but nothing should ever get in the way of your dreams, quarterback on a world champion professional football team – throwing the game winning pass, Olympic gold in the 100 meters – breaking the world record! Easy to say, easy to dream – very difficult to do!
It’s not impossible for everyone to realize their fondest dreams – not at all. It starts with knowing yourself and being yourself – exactly yourself. And, who are you? You’re they guy – or girl – reading this and thinking about it. You’re what exhilarates when you cross the finish line ahead of everybody else! Most people forget who they really are. Their closest friends have to keep reminding them. There is much more to you than you’d believe – you’ve probably forgotten that much!

…Now – OK – “How much does this cost?” – it doesn’t cost anything! Except your own commitment to pulling yourself out of the mountain of mud that most people find themselves practically buried in all their lives!! It costs helping another person do the same thing! That’s how it’s done…

   It starts with knowing how to help a person through upsets, problems, things he’s hiding, from most everybody else, that clog up his communication lines which he needs open to handle the time he got kicked in the head when he was five years old on the playground and doesn’t remember a thing except lying on the ground and wondering what happened. Not one of these things but hundreds of them – thousands of them – ages gone – worlds gone – but a huge piece of him lies buried under the mud of a forgotten playground and the best friend he ever had knocking him silly in front of all his friends. Can you imagine?

   How do I know this? Well, I worked in it for years, because my career in Engineering didn’t do the trick – it was just fun, but it didn’t do what my friends needed – see? That’s what life in the space age demands!

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