Technologic Tuesday: Positive Disruptions?
I read an article the other day about how insurance companies and car part manufacturers are worried about how the potential growth of driverless cars could have on their businesses. When I first began hearing about driverless cars all I could think about was how nice it would be to be free to watch a movie on long drives. I have to admit I had never thought about the effect it could have on other businesses. We all love technology and the benefits it can bring, however, there often can be drastic changes that can upset the status quo.
As with every major shift in technology there is usually a change in society, businesses and way of life in response. This change can be gradual, taking many years or more rapid, seeming to transform overnight. Many of the technology advances over the years such as the telephone, cars, vaccinations, etc. we would recall of having positive effects. However, as is often the case, the positives also came with a few negatives. My favorite example of this is to consider the telephone game. You remember the game where one person whispers something to a person and they try and whisper to the next person. By the end, more often than not, you get a message that is different from the original one. Why do I bring this game up? If you were to go back to before we had written communication, the telephone game would not be as funny. You would more often than not get the same message that was started. The reason was that spoken language was the only way to communicate, so, in order to keep passing on their history spoken history needed to be extremely accurate. With the invention of written language people were able to create a more permanent form of history and able to spread ideas more easily but people also lost some of our ability to spread our ideas through spoken word.
How is the invention of written language related to driverless cars? Driverless cars will have lots of positive effects such as less car accidents, more efficient travel, and reduced boredom. At the same time it’s important to realize that there can also be some negative effects such as some insurance companies and parts companies may be put out of business. With each change in technology, we as a society need to look at the positives and negatives involved before we decide to implement it.
