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•. "ℐ 𝒹𝑜 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒻𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝓊𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓈. ℐ 𝒻𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝓁𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂." .•´¯•
-— Isaac Asimov
I have been staring at my screen for a while now, thinking about which piece of technology I consider my favorite. But something keeps happening.
The more I consider which technology is my favorite, the more I discover that I don't have any favorites. Technology is like food to me. I don't really have a favorite food. Food is a necessity and so is Technology.
The year 1886 is regarded as the year in which cars were born. That was the year the German inventor Carl Benz got a patent on his Benz. But that was the time when vehicles had become a thing. The history of vehicles dates back to the year 1672 with the invention of the steam-powered vehicle. A modification of such a car in this 21st century would be an answer to prayer for a lot of countries looking to get away from diesel powered engines for eco-friendly reasons.
Anyways, I imagine that when cars became a thing in the market, a lot of people quickly picked a side, they picked their favorite car and looked for every reason to justify why that particular model is their favorite.
But guess who didn't pick a favorite? The guys manufacturing the cars. They knew that they had to progress. They had to make adjustments to the cars, improve their condition, make them a lot more comfortable. So they could not afford the luxury of having a favorite car.
Cars are good, they are a sore necessity in the world that we live in, but the future demands a lot more and thinking in terms of favorites now does not sponsor development for the future. Cars would fly, just like airplanes. It's a future that is certain and soon to be widely accepted like the car is today.
Thomas Alva Edison the American Inventor, is known to hold the world record of 1,093 patents on various inventions he had made either singly or jointly. He is the man who created the world's first industrial research laboratory. Edison just didn't know the word "STOP". He kept at the incandescent light bulb for almost a thousand trials until he was successful.
[Thomas Edison's favorite Invention:the phonograph]
Imagine he decided to stay with his favorite invention: the phonograph. Imagine he didn't think of going beyond that one invention. We might probably be bereft of the wonderful inventions and the goodness that he brought to the world.
So, I ask again. Why have favorites when it comes to technology?
There was a time in history when the number one cause of death was infections, especially bacterial infections. In the 19th century, a German physician named Paul Erlich noted that some chemical dyes colored some bacterial cells but not others. That was when he came to the conclusion that it was possible to create substances to kill bacteria selectively without harming the human cells.
He discovered a substance called arsphenamine in 1909 which was able to cure syphilis. Erlich called his invention "chemotherapy", because it was the use of chemicals to treat diseases. But the word "antibiotic" would not be used until 30yrs later when the Ukrainian-American microbiologist Selman Waksman who was credited to have discovered over 20 antibiotics coined the name.
In 1928, a microbiologist was returning from his holiday in Suffolk when he noticed a fungus Penicillium notatum had contaminated his culture of Staphylococcus which he had left open by mistake. He noticed that everywhere the fungus grew was bacteria free, but the areas not contaminated by the fungus was still teeming with the bacteria.
So He decided to isolate the fungus and culture it separately. That was how penicillin was discovered. And the microbiologist who did so was Alexander Fleming. Penicillin gained so much acceptance that by the end of world war II it was nicknamed the "wonder drug", because it had saved many lives.
As time went on, the medical community began to develop alternatives to penicillin, and soon enough it was apparent why alternatives were necessary...
Then came the era where bacteria developed resistance to the antibiotics available. New antibiotics became necessary or people would die of sepsis.
Imagine the medical community decided to adopt a "favorite" antibiotic out of the different ones already available at the time. Imagine that no one thought of something more.
I would rather not have any favorites. I would rather enjoy everything the science community has to offer.
I know this is a heavily biased position that has deliberately ignored some other aspects of the subject matter at hand. But I couldn't find a better way to relay my point.
There is no point having a favorite piece of technology. Its better to embrace them all with their varied uses.
If you feel this post was educative, please do upvote and rehive.
