How fast is technology really advancing? The answer is: Fast enough that there is a new stylish Nokia, something that doesn’t break AND is aesthetically pleasing. Now, we’ve all seen androids filling this description for the past couple of years, but now it’s time for Apple to join the race. How durable is the iPhone XS? On September 12, the new iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR were announced by Apple, each phone pricier than the last, without the headphones included. Twelve days later, CNET reporter Vanessa Hand Orellana published an article, where she describes the effect of dropping the iPhone XS from various heights on its screen.
You can see what she has to say here: iPhone XS Drop Test
This is the video link: iPhone XS Drop Test
Durable glass isn’t the only improvement in tech. Another breakthrough is the increasing popularity of 3-D metal printing. In the near future, mechanics will be able to 3-D print old or aging car parts, meaning inventories containing parts will no longer be needed, just a machine. An article by the MIT Technology Review says, “The technology can create lighter, stronger parts, and complex shapes that aren’t possible with conventional metal fabrication methods. It can also provide more precise control of the microstructure of metals. In 2017, researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced they had developed a 3-D-printing method for creating stainless-steel parts twice as strong as traditionally made ones”. The original use of machines was to make human life simpler, and it seems as if the line to which machines are able to do that is receding towards the maximum. The spread of 3-D printing is a prime example of that.
How fast can life be created? If we look at the 21st century, the sudden increase of population due industrialization is decreasing. New methods of birth control are being tested. There are solutions for people who are infertile. If we consider the question, the answer would have been based on the rate at which humans can reproduce; however, now we will have to consider artificial embryos. Magdelena Zernicka-Goetz, who headed the team that placed mouse cells in a three-dimensional scaffold watching how they communicated and formed an embryo, said in an interview, “We know that stem cells are magical in their powerful potential of what they can do. We did not realize they could self-organize so beautifully or perfectly.” The next step here is to take human stem cells and watch the result of the experiment.
When I read about breakthroughs in technology, I always wonder where in the world I could find such things. This is why I got pretty excited when I read something that hit close to home. Toronto is making a bold plan of changing an urban neighbourhood where the vehicles will be autonomous and robots roaming underground doing small errands such as delivering mail. This brings the discussion of artificial intelligence. So far, AI has mainly just been a plaything for big tech companies, as it is difficult and expensive to build AI systems. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have been challenging each other in becoming the leader in offering AI services. Most companies do not have enough people who know how to use AI or program their systems. However, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are setting up consultancy services. Once this comes in the reach of the public, “the real AI revolution can begin.“
Another breakthrough in technology is earbuds that produce a real-time translation. “One person wears the earbuds, while the other holds a phone. The earbud wearer speaks in his or her language—English is the default—and the app translates the talking and plays it aloud on the phone. The person holding the phone responds; this response is translated and played through the earbuds.“
So is phone durability really what’s new in tech? Are machinery and artificial intelligence the future of our world? These are certainly advancements with new ideas and concepts. They also raise the questions: Is there really anything new in technology? Or is it all advancements? The best answer to those questions is that technology is improving by combining concepts in a different way, which results in a new product. This is the advancement we see when we talk about the new things in tech. Artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, drones, these are all combinations of different fields. They are also what makes 21st-century technology so vastly different from the 20th century; we have invented things based on the premises of other things. With the ever-growing development of the STEM fields, the question: ‘what’s new in tech’ will have some trouble giving answers as fast as they are coming.