State of Technology

What:

Economists define technology in a very simple way. Technology is anything that helps us produce things faster, better, or cheaper. To most of us, technology is a physical thing like a big machine or a fast computer. Economists think more broadly about new ways of doing things.

In this sense, even social or political things like democracy, money, language, and banking are considered technology.

Most of us would characterize technology differently though, it can be thought of as the use of scientific knowledge for practical purposes or applications. Put simply, technology is the application of scientific principles. This encapsulates both the invention of the wheel and our most modern screen technologies.

TEchnology exists in various forms like electronic technology or electronics that focus on electric circuits and their implementation, mechanical technology which includes gears, belts, things that turn or allow certain motions. The wheel is probably the most important technological advancement yet it’s incredibly simple.

Technology as a whole provides value to industries, people, and governments because it allows us to implement new things, discover new features or principles which in turn creates a new economic era. Technology and innovation both facilitate economic success.

Why:

Looking at the economic definition, technology serves a few purposes.

• Fast

The implementation of technology makes things faster. On a production line, it could be the arrival of special conveyor belts that make things much faster. It could be new numerical processes that allow designers to bypass certain tedious steps.

Technology can condense multiple simple steps into a more complex one.

• Better

Technology also brings new features, as it can be defined as the implementation of scientific principles, technology focuses on finding the optimal methods of functioning and applying them.

One example of that is the rise of smartphones. Initially, the first versions had a touchscreen, the ability to call and send messages. Very quickly, came the camera, the music player, the ability to browse the internet, and even more features. Every single one of these steps came from an innovation

Technology helps provide new features and develop better processes and products.

• Cheap

Another aspect of technology is to provide cheap and valuable alternatives. The implementation of electronic circuit boards for example helps industries and businesses implement cheaper systems that can replace large mechanical ones.

It is to be noted that technology and scientific developments go along with economic objectives, for these reasons, technology provides better, faster, and cheaper alternatives because that’s what organizations desire. Technology can be optimized in pretty much any way we want, it all matters what we want to focus on. A sad example of that is the implementation of deadly technological weapons in world war 2.

How:

These improvements rely on a couple of various important technologies which we’ll discuss here.

• Machine learning

Machine learning is the implementation of neural networks to teach computers to match input to an output. In short, you train a computer to recognize certain patterns. This can help in voice recognition, image recognition, recommendations algorithms, and much more.

The field isn’t new per se but advancements in computing power made it all possible. This technology requires a very lengthy process of training which is made possible by the use of GPUs or Graphical Processing Units that help quicken certain calculations by carrying multiple calculations at once.

This technology has enabled various innovations such as voice recognition for home assistants, such as Google Home, Siri, and Alexa. As well as innovations in the research field where such algorithms are capable of finding and recognizing cancerous cells better than specialized doctors.

• Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence or AI is another sector that has greatly benefited from the introduction of more powerful computers and the development of various sensors. The technology helps create algorithms that can optimize extremely complicated situations.

As an example, most of today’s warehouses are completely controlled and organized through Artificial Intelligence, they make sure everything is at its place, that the stocks are sufficient, and can even send out orders for products.

Generally, this technology helps in situations where there are a lot of parameters to watch for, the technology helps optimize and streamline the entire process so that everything runs smoothly.

Another application of AI is the creation of navigation software like Apple and Google maps. The AI finds the most efficient route to get you from point A to point B.

• IoT

IoT or the Internet of Things is a very promising industry that capitalizes on technology by implementing various sensors that monitor an environment to make decisions.

For example, you could imagine having your house filled with IoT devices. When coming back to your house, the GPS on your phone could activate and automatically start to play some music on your speakers, or make you a tea, light up your house, etc.

The possibilities are endless and as circuit boards are getting cheaper, most manufacturers are jumping on the trend.

Technology as a whole represents a very wide spectrum of innovations, almost all of them. In today’s sense, technology could be thought of as what creates economic value. Tech is the implementation of scientific principles, it can be molded into whatever we want, good or bad. Most of today’s implementations however rely on 3 things, developing faster, better, and cheaper processes and products. To facilitate this objective, technol makes use of a lot of varied things, the most promising and important ones being the IoT, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence