Tech Talk

So everyone’s been talking about energy lately, but we tend to use lots of catch phrases without understanding what they mean. Yeah, it’s bad to put CO2 into the atmosphere. But why?

There’s a great documentary called “Crude” which explains the science behind oil. It’s available for purchase through the History Channel, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject. (I won’t repeat everything is says, for the sake of time.)

The question is, if oil won’t last forever, what’s the alternative?

Well, unless there is a large-scale initiative to educate society about nuclear energy, it’s more likely that hydrogen power will “change the world.” It won’t change things only in terms of cleaning up our energy consumption, but it will also change things in terms of infrastructure. There’s still some work to be done to develop the technology, but as people become more anxious about energy, companies will probably become more anxious about making hydrogen technology feasible, and the wheel will be set in motion (literally.)

In a completely different arena, advances in brain research are probably going to change our understanding of how and why we humans function the way we do. Scientific American has a specific publication called Scientific American Mind, which features articles about the latest brain research and discoveries. From what I've heard, an interesting article appeared in the most recent issue about how the internet is literally restructuring the human brain.

Oh really? I guess that makes blogging more interesting…

Finally, I think the One Laptop technology is already changing the world. The brilliant thing about this technology is that it’s actually lower tech than the energy-gobbling laptops we’re used to seeing. It can be solar or foot-powered (how cool is that?) and the whole machine has been reconsidered and redesigned to account for the “rough lifestyle” each laptop will endure.

What’s really transforming about this technology is that it’s paired with a social initiative. It’s not just for the sake of increasing a company’s profit margins… it’s about giving people opportunities who otherwise never would have had access to them. It’s an attempt to bring education to parts of the world where it’s not nearly as “taken-for-granted” is it is here in America.

I wish all design could have a purpose as meaningful as that. In fact—ideally—it should.