Staying abreast of tech future

Startling amount of change hard to keep up with.

STAY SMART: Mobile phones are a good example of how far advanced technology has come. Picture: PeopleImages

WATCHING both the opening and closing ceremonies of the winter Olympic Games got me to thinking about the creativity of the technology of the lighting, costuming an choreography associated with both events.

They were visually amazing and stimulating and I am sure that those attending each event lapped up the atmosphere.

Technology is advancing rapidly these days that even the generations who have grown up using it have difficulty keeping up. Is it any wonder then that for those of us who grew up just prior to the technology age have difficulty using it?

Remember the days when two tins and a long piece of string was the telephone?

There were no mobile phones then.

If you wanted to make a phone call, you went to a public pay phone down the road and dialled the number on a round dial with finger holes in it.

At school, students used "slates and slate pencils” and the teacher wrote on a black board or chalk board.

Now students are required to have a tablet or Ipad and connect into the internet to study. What a quantum leap that is.

Many of you would remember when television first appeared in Australia.

Before that if you wanted to watch a film, you went to the picture theatre in your local neighbourhood. Ah, the memories.

The back row at the movies was always a popular place when taking your first love on a date.

Life has moved on from those times.

The first TV in the street I grew up in belonged to a neighbour up the road.

It was the only television in the street. And the owners were a very sharing type of people.

They sat the television on their front porch and the neighbourhood all came round sitting in their front yard to watch TV - only in black and white of course as colour television didn't come until much later.

I always considered that my parents' generation and their parents had seen the largest changes in the way of life but the Baby Boomers have seen some of the greatest changes in technology than ever before.

Mobile phones are a good example of how far advanced technology has come.

When they first appeared on the market, they were marketed as keeping connected whilst on the move.

Now a mobile phone is much more that a phone.

The device can store your credit card, provide directions on travel, display maps, store images you have taken on the in-device camera, connect you to social media and much more.

Who would have thought that such a small device that easily fits into your pocket or handbag would give you so much freedom not to have to carry a wallet or cash and at the same time provide you with heaps of information?

It is like carrying around a large dictionary or road map and heaps of cold hard cash.

Yes, we have seen so much change in technology over the past five or so decades.

What does this mean for future generations, with driverless cars, buses and trains?

Already, Ipswich is experimenting with driverless buses in Springfield.

Canada has driverless trains and driverless cars are on the drawing board.

Scientists are making amazing discoveries in medicine, genetics and numerous other areas. It is difficult to consider where all these discoveries will end up.

One thing is certain, the future will be a very different place to our way of life at present.

Originally published as Staying abreast of tech future