Opportunities Technology Gives Us

Benjamin Reed

Eng.115

Prof. Rowley

3 December 2012

Opportunities Technology Gives Us

by: Benjamin Reed

     Technology gives us the ability to do things more precisely, quickly, and even to do jobs that we could not do at all. With technology we are making the impossible possible; prosthetic limbs and hearing aids bring people close to regaining what they have lost. We are even sending drones to different planets to further our knowledge of space. Some say that with the evolution of technology, humans are having to use less energy, do less physically, and are becoming more lazy as a result. While it is true that some technology can reduce the need to physically do some things, it is equally, if not more, true that technology gives us the time and tools to be more productive. 

     Technology can be split into two groups, how it affects us mentally, and how it affects us physically. Mentally, technology helps us so that we can use our time more effectively. With technology we can do more things at once, and faster, which relieves some mental stress and lets us think about more important things. However, by using technology we reduce the need to do most things that are physical. We have created machines and such that do certain jobs for us, for instance, the automobile. With the invention of the car, walking became an exercise and a chore; taking a car would get you to your destination much faster and with much less physical effort. If productivity is measured by quantity or quality of output per time spent, then taking a car is being more productive, although you lose the physical benefits from walking, you have saved time and can do more. With the advances in medical technology, we are even close to giving people back full functioning limbs that almost look and feel like the real thing. 

     We take for granted all of the little functions we are capable of doing, like with our hands for instance. Writing, griping, feeling, and all of the little things we use them for on a daily basis; living life without hands another limb would be much harder. "When someone loses a limb due to injury or disease, the rich functionality once offered by that limb is lost as well"(Isaac Clements). In 2008 a Scottish company, Touch Bionics, created the worlds first prosthetic hand that could move each finger individually, giving people without hands the ability to grip, point, and even type. This technology is returning to people, the normality of their lives. Someone who would not be able to do something because of a missing hand, now has the opportunity to gain most of their normal hand functions back and do more than what they were able to do without one. An upper extremity amputation can result in the the loss of the ability to perform job skills or normal activities of daily living. A lower extremity amputation can mean the loss of the ability to walk or run; the importance of prosthetic limbs is great and to have access to such productive technology is even greater.

     A runner named Oscar Pistorius who has double below-knee amputations qualified for the 2012 London Olympic games. He uses his prosthetic limb to be more productive by running; he is the perfect example of someone made more productive by technology, because without it, he would not even be able to walk. Another form of technology that is helping people to lead more productive lives than they would normally be able to is hearing aids. Hearing aids help return hearing to those who have partially or severely lost the ability to hear by amplifying soft sounds and softening louder sounds to deliver the perfect amount of sound to an ear allowing the person to hear almost normally. 

     Prosthetics give people the ability to regain their life and do things that they would otherwise not be able to, due to what they have lost. People who have lost a leg, or a part of it, and would not normally be able to walk, can now run. We can almost return full hearing back to those who are severely hearing impaired. Technology gives us so many resources to be more productive.