When it comes to technology, what most people had in mind is that everything that needs a power source is considered as technology. For instance, a television, a notebook, a smartphone and a watch. These examples of technology are powered by some electricity. However, let's go back to the ancient time where electricity has not been discovered yet, are the tools that they used back then called technology or just 'tools'? The answer is they are all called technology. Technology means all the tools, materials and systems that we have been using in our daily life. A hammer? A sword? A spoon and a fork? These are a technology. Most people did not realize that they used a lot of technology in one single day because they thought it needs a power source to be able to call as technology. Technology has been existed since the beginning of human civilization, from a simple rock as a hammer to a small gadget as a computer. We have been living with technology because we needed it, otherwise, we would still be living in a cave. Although technology benefits us in our everyday life, it can also be a damage to our world in the future. Technology comes to our life as a solution for our problems, but some human uses it as something else like killing innocent people and destroying humans mind. Before the creation of the internet, the rate for technological advancement is quite low. After internet exist, which it is also called as INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 4.0, we can see that our technology has been advancing so fast until some of the technology we did not even know existed. For example, many companies nowadays have been competing in building the greatest gadgets or cars or computer parts to be able to take over in the top chart of the best invention. Let's take another example where Huawei and Samsung companies release a new phone every six months now and the difference between the last model is very big. This situation shows how technology is too advance for our generation.
We're going to make some history together today. (Steve Jobs, 2007). He said this on the day of the creation of the iPhone. Did he only create an 'iPhone'? Or he changes the humanity all around the globe? Well, he did make history that day. Before there is a smartphone, there is a phone, which it only works for communication. And there is also a television, a typewriter and a computer for internet access, but each of these works for a specific purpose. Somehow, Steve Jobs created a gadget/tech that combines all these into one small smartphone that can fit in your pocket. This creation benefits humanity in many ways in terms of works, studies and entertainments. However, people now have been using it too much it destroys the relationships between humans. Let's take an example in our own country - Malaysia, imagine living in the 90's where smartphone was not there before, people would go hang out and talk with people around, the bond between them is so high that it's quite difficult to find it today. What happen today in Malaysia? People still go hang out but with their smartphone and everyone would just be looking down their phone without even a single word coming out from their mouth. It is bad for our society considering that society needs a good relationship. Moreover, there are social media which comes with multiple purposes such as storing images (Instagram) and make more friends around the world (Facebook). However, some people use it for malicious reasons as revealed by upload a private photo of other people, making fake news and upload a virus. Another case for this is where people love to show everything they have and what they do on social media, by doing so they did not realize they are exposing themselves to danger, criminal could easily detect their whereabouts and immediately harms them without them noticing. Ever since the day iPhone is created, everything is never the same anymore and we can do nothing about it but to live with it whether we like it or not.
Ever heard a movie called '2001: A Space Odyssey', 'Matrix' or 'Blade Runner 2049'? These movies illustrate how A.I (Artificial Intelligence) can be a threat to our world in the future. The development of full artificial intelligence could spell THE END OF THE HUMAN RACE. (Stephen Hawking, 2014). AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization in a way that car accidents, aeroplane crashes, faulty drugs or bad food were not — they were harmful to a set of individuals within society, of course, but they were not harmful to society as a whole. (Elon Musk, 2017). Why are these great human beings said such thing? This is because a super-intelligent A.I can learn new things by themselves. Once they get super-intelligent surpassing human's intelligent, it will be a downfall to humanity. Let's take an example with a self-driving car. The first person known to die using Autopilot was Joshua Brown, whose Model S crashed into a truck that turned across his path in Florida, in May 2016. (Jack Stewart, 2018). Neither he nor the car’s computers saw the white truck against the bright sky. (Jack Stewart, 2018). An Autopilot which means the car is controlled by an A.I and got into an accident, this is only a weak-A.I and this incident had already happened to us. What if the A.I gotten better? Can the A.I prevent us from having a fatal crash? There is a scene in the movie '2001: A Space Odyssey' where the A.I have surpassed the human level of intelligence and it shows the behaviour of stubborn, it slowly treats the human as a servant and drive them into death. A.I is powered by a computer, a device that everyone is using and connected to the internet, if an A.I is the one controlling most of the systems in the computer, that will be the end of the human race because they can threaten us by using weaponized drones, satellites and even nukes. Similarly, if we trying to take them down by making thousands of strategies, they would still be at hundreds of thousands of steps ahead of us. For now, the development of A.I is still considered a weak-A.I , experts expected it to take centuries to achieve the full A.I which what most Sci-fi movies illustrate it. If we are developing an A.I without A.I safety, we could end up just like in the movie 'Matrix'. The world now is controlled by those who is the smartest, not the strongest or the fastest, so what will happen if human are no longer the smartest?
The world we live in now is reality. However, thousands of companies out there creating a virtual world for us to live in. VR (Virtual Reality) is a device to demonstrate a world similar or different than the real world using a lens and a screen. Although the origin of why VR is created is for human having a better perspective of an object to work with, it is now used for entertainment as well. The movie ' Ready Player One' really shows that the VR is created for people to feel what is a world without limit, a world we can do whatever we want, a world filled with people's fantasies. Many people bought it because they want more than just playing the games, they want to interact with the games, to be fascinated in the cyber world and feel the surroundings that is not in the real world. VR is so common now until we can see it at every IT store we go. However, VR is not enough for us, some companies make a haptic feedback suit such as Tesla suit. This suit has over hundreds of sensors including sensors for heat, cold and haptic feedback. These features are awesome in the first place, but it becomes scary because they have an application for the suit which they can control every available sensor in the suit. There is one YouTuber who tried this and his review was that it is scary considering that it can control his muscle only by using the application. According to Nathie, at first, I was a bit excited and scared too, I mean this was just right after they showed me that they can control my muscles with software, so I don’t know what to expect anymore but my adrenaline is pumping for sure. (“ This Haptic Suit Lets You Touch and Feel Virtual Reality – Teslasuit”). If we look into the bad side, this will become a weapon for them to control human without human permission, it can destroy human's body in seconds. Additionally, if some people use the VR for an extended amount of time, they will be more likely to stuck between reality and virtual.
Technology was meant to be beneficial for human being since the beginning of a human civilization. The better the technology has become, the more danger has awaits us in the future. However, this only applies if the technology is used in a way it was not meant to be used. We can always depend on technology for any problem we face, as time passes we maybe just sitting on a chair and let technology do everything for us.
To put in a conclusion, the world we live in today already filled with various technologies that makes human life easier. Moreover, we cannot live without these technologies because we were told to read, learn, think and innovate for a better place in this world. It is good to have a house full of technologies but bad to have a house full of human slave. Everything in this world has its benefits and disadvantages, it is always the human who decide for how it wants to be.
References
CNBC Make It 2017, 9 of the most jaw-dropping things Elon Musk said about robots and AI in 2017, Catherine Clifford, viewed by 14 December 2019,
BBC NEWS 2014, Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind, Roby Cellan-Jones, viewed by 14 December 2019,
<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540>.
Market Watch 2017, Steve Jobs made history on this day 10 years ago, Jennifer Booton, viewed by 15 December 2019,
<https://www.marketwatch.com/story/steve-jobs-made-history-on-this-day-10-years-ago-2017-01-09>.
Wired 2018, Tesla's Autopilot Was Involved in Another Deadly Car Crash, Jack Stewart, viewed by 15 December 2019,
<https://www.wired.com/story/tesla-autopilot-self-driving-crash-california/>.
This Haptic Suit Lets You Touch and Feel Virtual Reality – Teslasuit, 2019 (video file), Available from: