One of the comments that many people have made ever since mankind has walked on this planet is that they never have enough time to do the things that they need to do. From the earliest times, mankind has sought ways of retarding time. In particular, humans have tried to hold time back when it concerned the body. In fact, in the year 1513, a Spanish explorer named Juan Ponce de Leon searched a place called Bimini now present day Florida, for the fabled "Fountain of Youth." Though he never found it, humans have still tried to find other ways of keeping time in check. Currently some humans are going so far as to try and find the genes, in animals, and in humans, that cause aging, so that he might be able to figure out a way to control the aging process of the human body or perhaps to stop it altogether. However, since trying to control time has looked like a losing battle, humans have also created devices to simply make the time that he has more efficient, more enjoyable, and more productive. Yesterday, he did it with the invention of the assembly line; today he is doing it with the creation of the Intel Pentium III processor and advanced computer intelligence. Tomorrow, man will undoutedly do it with yet another device.
In the early 1900s, it seemingly took forever to type or write a letter or to do homework. Before 1870, to write a document took quite a while. The only way before 1870 to write thoughts on paper was to do so with a quill pen. It was not only difficult to write with quill pens but it was also time consuming. Fountain pens came out in the 1880s and replaced the quill pens. However, even fountain pens were difficult to write with, though they were not as difficult to write with as were their predecessors. However, it was not until the 1930s that the first balled-point pen came out. Once the balled-point pen had been perfected to some degree, it quickly replaced the fountain pens, as it was much easier to use. During the 1880s, the typewriter was invented. It was a useful invention, as it allowed people to produce documents more quickly than they could write them. However, to use a typewriter one had to be very careful not to make a mistake, especially when typing up documents for businesses.
If a mistake was made, there was no easy way to cleanly undo the mistake. Another problem with typewriters was that only one document could be produced at a time, unless one used carbon papers. To produce more than one document grew to be very time consuming and awkward. However, once the personal computer and printer came out, it became easy to produce documents in fair quantities. Before 1980, doing math homework took a lot of time and a lot of memorization. Students before
1980 were not able to pull out a calculator to find square roots, or find the tangent of 45 degrees. Students either had to memorize the answers from the book, or figure it out by hand. To do graphs took a long time too, since the student would have to calculate every point on the graph by hand. However, after 1980 with calculators becoming more available, it soon became easier to do homework. After the creation of the Intel
Pentium processor, and the Apple PowerPC 601 processors, homework became still easier to do as students could use an electronic encyclopedia on a CD and do the research from their own homes rather than going to the library. Once the Internet became available, research became even easier. Typing reports became easier to do because, instead of having to write the report by hand or type it on a typewriter several times, students could use a word processor and do the report and research in half the time it would have normally taken in the past. With the creation of the PIII, and the increasing speed of the Internet, it is now easier to do work whether it is for business or school. Also, with electronic encyclopedias becoming more advanced and complete it is comfortable to do research from home. Moreover, current documents with word processors, such as Microsoft Word, can check the grammar in a document. Students are not the only ones who are benefiting from digital technology. Businesses are benefiting, too. With the creation of digital technologies such as the personal computer, the Internet, digital copiers, and operating systems, businesses can communicate over long distances safely; they can produce better products with higher quality at cheaper prices.
Tomorrow, humans will be able to give themselves more time to do what they want with the creation of better digital devices. It will be possible in the future for a person to finish half of their work on a two-hour flight. Instead of having to go to the office to get on to the Internet after getting off of the plane, a person will be able to get onto the Internet using his laptop's cellular modem. Instead of having to go to work to access the company's Intranet, employees will be able to do it from their laptop anywhere in the world. Instead of having to spend hours getting to the grocery store, video rental store, or department store, people will simply log onto the Internet, buy the needed items and have them delivered to their homes. In the future, and especially the very near future, it will be possible for people to have their favorite T.V show on, their dinner ready, and their house warmed or cooled to a specified temperature all before a person pushed the button to open the garage to their house thanks to digital technology. In the near future, it may not be possible for people to live on the moon or Mars, but it will be possible for people to spend more time enjoying more of life, and work less.
Marshall McLuhan once said, "For tribal man space was the uncontrollable mystery. For technological man it is time that occupies the same role." This has been proven by mankind's attempts to find the fabled "Fountain of Youth," and to discover the aging genes. However, it is only true for part of man. Other parts of man have found ways to enjoy more of life, and to enjoy it for longer periods of time, by simply using digital technology efficiently, productively. Mars maybe a long ways away but, thanks to digital technology, spending a couple more hours at home or out on the green is only a few clicks away.
