What are the results of advances in technology?

Answer 1

Advances in technology enable people to specialize in specific fields, and thereby permit society to become more educated, diverse, and productive.

The very first technological revolution was the plough (or plow). Before that time, everyone had to grow their own crops - either alone, or in communes. A significant proportion of each person's waking day was spent tending to crops just so that they could eat. Then someone got the idea to drag a plough behind an ox, and suddenly that person could till, sow, and harvest for many families, not just his own. People had more free time, because not everyone had to farm, and they filled their time by learning new skills, such as blacksmithing, carpentry, and other trades. Everyone benefited because they had more time to do the things they wanted, and therefore there were more things to buy and sell, and there was more than enough food to go around.

Jump ahead several thousand years, and witness the computer revolution. Fifty years ago, before computers were commonplace, everything was done by hand, or if automated, it was done mechanically. The computer revolution has touched everything, but let's just talk about banks.

All banking was done locally, in person, at your one, single branch - there was no inter-branch banking, no automated teller machines, no debit cards, and certainly no internet banking. Credit cards were rare, and few establishments accepted them anyway. There was no salary direct deposit, no direct billing for utilities, no business-to-business transactions. All transactions were processed by hand, in person, at the bank, in cash, cheque, or very complicated bank-to-bank money transfers. Worse, banks were only open from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Monday to Friday, closed on holidays, no exceptions.

All commerce funneled through this very inefficient banking system, and so it took days and many people to complete a single monetary transaction. And paperwork - lots of paperwork. Every business, and indeed every person, had to dedicate a certain proportion of their working week to conduct their banking. People literally had to take time off work - remember, no inter-branch banking meant you could only go to the one single bank location. Companies hired staff just to process the banking overhead. Entrepreneurs could not afford to cater to individual customers' needs, because the overhead of running a business cost too much.

Today, banking is available 24/7 through internet banking and automated tellers, and companies routinely exchange money through e-commerce networks instantaneously, day or night. Most bank transactions now occur without ever requiring (1) a single hard copy document , or (2) a bank employee. Banking is such a low overhead cost now that businesses can operate out of their own home (generally unheard of in the 1960's). Just as the farmer with the plough gave other people freedom to specialize, modernized banking gave businesses more time to concentrate on doing their business, not banking, and at lower costs.

Now, consider this increase in efficiency in not just agriculture, and not just in banking, but in telecommunications, publishing, transportation, data processing, manufacturing, service delivery, and on an on and on. Without all this technology, we would all be lining up at banks (open only 5 hours on weekdays), talking to other people only in person (no cell phone, email, or text messaging), and seldom travelling out of our home town. We would not have the time or the resources to do the jobs we take for granted today, and we would not have very much free time left to watch (black & white) TV.