This document discusses the impact of technology on various aspects of society. It notes that while technology has made the world richer, the benefits have not been equally distributed. It discusses how technology has helped medical researchers tackle previously insurmountable health problems and develop tools like genome sequencing. The document also notes the unclear relationship between educational technology and performance, and how technology both helps and harms the environment. It concludes by stating technology impacts all areas of human existence including business and management.
2. How Technology Is Shaping Our World
1. Wealth boosted by technology has
not been equally distributed
Technology has made the world richer
overall, but not everyone has benefited.
In 2009, the world’s top 1 percent held
44 percent of the world’s wealth; by
2014, they had 48
3. percent. By 2020, it is estimated that the
1 percent will own 54 percent of global
wealth. That is not the direction the other
99 percent wants those numbers moving.
And now thanks to technology, they can
vent their frustration in increasingly
visible ways.
2. Doctors and scientists have used
technology to tackle problems that
seemed insurmountable
4. Doctors have played a role too of course.
HIV has been transformed from a death
sentence to a manageable disease in just
thirty years. Bigger things are still on the
horizon. According to the most recent
data, venture capital firms poured $11
billion into healthcare companies in 2014,
5. a 30 percent jump over the previous
year. These funds are being used to
develop supercomputers that crunch
mountains of data to offer better
diagnosis and treatment, and to better
understand our genetic building blocks
and how to use them to fight off disease.
To put our progress in perspective, a full
human genome sequence cost $100
million in 2002.
6. Today, it can be done for $1,000; by 2020
it may cost less than a cup of coffee.
Technology can be a double-edged
sword, but at least when it comes to our
health (if not necessarily our medical
professionals), it has largely been a force
for good.
3. Better technology doesn’t
automatically mean better education
7. Today, there are more than 80,000
education apps available for
download through Apple’s App Store; 72
percent of those are aimed at toddlers
and preschoolers. But while parents and
app developers have obviously embraced
the tech education revolution, a recent
report by the OECD shows that the link
between technology and educational
performance is murky at best
8. The OECD found that across more than
40 countries, students who use
computers for schoolwork—but for a
slightly below average amount of time—
tend to do better than average on
reading exams. Students who spend an
above-average amount of time on a
computer at school performed worse on
the same test, scoring lower than
students who don’t use computers at all.
9. Technology is not a silver bullet. How
helpful it is depends on how you use it.
4. Technology can help save the planet…
The World Economic Forum just released
its annual 2016 Global Risks Report, ranking
climate change as No. 1 in terms of impact.
That makes sense—the World Bank
estimates that climate change may push
more than
10. 100 million people into extreme
poverty by 2030. Of course, technology
has played a role in our current
predicament. The shale revolution—
which at its core is a technological
revolution—has given a new lease on life
to the oil and gas era.
11. 5, …And also help destroy it if we’re not
careful
Technology has also created a whole
set of global security concerns. The
thoroughly modern phenomenon of
cybercrime and economic espionage is
estimated to cost the world more than
$445 billion every year.
12. That’s roughly 1 percent of global
income. And while it hasn’t happened
yet, the fear that cyberattacks can spill
over and trigger real-world conflicts
remains an ongoing concern.
IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONS
13. Technology impacts every realm of
human existence – from harnessing the
resources of Nature to contributing to it,
as well as doing so in terms of society.
Given that, it is only natural that it would
have vast effects on the business world as
well.
In the past few decades, technology has
progressed in leaps and bounds,
14. creating modern marvels out of ideas
considered impossible in the preceding
eras. In fact, ‘technology’ has almost
always been synonymous with
‘advancement,’ and has had applications
in nearly every realm of human existence.
From groundbreaking discoveries to
brilliant inventions in each field, the
impact of technology has been immense,
constant and lasting.