Image Source: https://mozo.com.au/car-loans/articles/are-flying-cars-just-around-the-corner
When I heard the name of Dr. Hall’s book, I immediately thought of Back to the Future. I remember watching it as a kid and wondering if there would be flying cars in 2015. When we did reach 2015, I remember wondering what went wrong. I have thought in the past about all of the innovations in the late 1700s to the 1900s and wondered why we haven’t had the same life-changing inventions. There are many new products and technologies that are produced today, but nothing as earth-shattering as electricity in houses or cars. I’m torn between whether there are no more inventions left that would have this effect or if they will exist but haven’t been thought up yet.
When I hear about AI or nanotechnology, it just doesn’t sound very exciting or lifechanging for me personally. I know this is a negative outlook on innovation and that many people look forward to these new ventures, but I don’t have the same opinion at this point in my life. I’m sure that this seems close-minded or immature, but I think about how revolutionary previous inventions or technology were a hundred years ago and compare it to now. Many of the innovations or new inventions that I see now actually make me nervous, instead of excited for the future. The two biggest examples that I come back to are AI and self-driving cars, which is the most similar to a flying car to me.
I want to repeat that I’m not thinking about innovation in the same way as Dr. Hall. I’m thinking about it as it relates to me, not as a scientist or researcher. Something that I’ve noticed and thought about many times is that innovation that I often see now seems to be replacing human jobs. When I see new robots, AI, or self-driving cars I think about how humans are becoming less needed. A lot of the innovation that I hear about is robots taking over human jobs to improve efficiency and accuracy. While this is beneficial to bring down wages or defective products for manufacturers, it has always bothered me a little. It is also often lower-skilled workers that are being replaced. As an accounting major, I’m often told that I won’t be needed in the next few years because computers will take over my job and there will be no career path for me in the future. This probably contributes to my distrust of innovation that replaces workers. I wanted to hear the class’s opinion on whether anyone else has a similar weary view of modern innovation.
Another point about innovation that I think about is whether new innovation that makes life more convenient is actually good for us or if it makes us lazier. One of the primary goals of entrepreneurship is to make life more convenient by improving the life of a consumer. This can be by making a product cheaper, faster, or better quality. However, I feel like some of the innovation that is happening now is just making us lazier. I think I struggle with deciding what is making life more convenient or just making us plain lazy. An example of this is all of the apps and technology that exists now that eliminate having to leave our houses or even use our brain. All of our food can be delivered, we can turn our lights off without getting out of bed, and Chat GPT does our homework for us. I think that a lot of modern innovation is making us use less brain power as a society. Life has definitely become more convenient for us, but these new innovations and technologies are more about laziness than advancing us as a society.
One of the benefits of a mostly stagnant society is that there is lots of room for innovation and new ideas or the development of previous ideas. There is not an oversaturated market for entrepreneurs. There is room to develop new technologies or products to change the world. I think that a stagnant society should encourage entrepreneurs to continue looking for opportunities. I don’t see our society having another industrial revolution like the one from the 1760s to the 1840s, but I still think there are opportunities to change how society functions, it just may not be as life-changing as those previous.
Overall, I’m mostly weary about a lot of the innovation that is happening right now. I don’t feel very confident about it. I should probably be grateful that life is becoming more convenient and that at least new innovations and technologies are being created, but I am unsure about the direction that we are going in. I worry about whether some modern innovations are beneficial to us as a whole, or whether they will replace jobs and careers in order to save money. As a business student, I should be glad that costs are going down and companies won’t have to pay wages to lower-skilled workers, but I selfishly worry about my own career. I’ll have to see whether new technology, like AI, robots, or self-driving cars, will really advance us as a society or leave us reliant on what we’ve created. I know that Dr. Hall’s lecture was less about the topics that I’ve written about, but it got me thinking about our recent innovations, how they differ from the past, and where we’re headed in the future.
