The New IPhone Is A Gadget Very Little, But Where Are The Big News?
When Apple launched its new gadget Tuesday, he did not have much hope for the iPhone fifth But many pointed to Siri, the new voice-activated personal assistant to the iPhone-4S, as evidence of Apple once again redefined the way we use phones. He speaks, not in writing, from now on.
When Apple launched its new gadget Tuesday, he did not have much hope for the iPhone fifth But many pointed to Siri, the new voice-activated personal assistant to the iPhone-4S, as evidence of Apple once again redefined the way we use phones. He speaks, not in writing, from now on.
In the end, consumers will rush to stores to get the little gadget. But the new phone has left others wondering: Where is the innovation of the great things?
"Seriously not innovation seems warped? We can handle new iPhones, but not as a new train," Robin Sloan Twitter wrote Wednesday. "Apple has basically we build on the USS Enterprise computer. But where is the business. "
It has been a growing concern for the technology obsessed for years.
Science fiction writer Neal Stephenson has recently written an article for the World Policy Institute in which he compared the lack of significant innovations of today with the creation of their parents and grandparents, the generation of the aircraft, the power of the car, nuclear energy and computer, and space explorations.
"My fear is that we are not able to respond to the results of the 1960 program space can be a symptom of a general failure of society to have done great things," says Stephenson.
Stephenson is not alone. Many fear that if the United States building new gadgets and close manned space missions, China has high-speed rail construction and will launch its first space laboratory.
Others wonder why we are still dependent on oil, when we talked about wind farms, tidal and solar power for years.
He has a computer really is the last great creation that is life-changing? Of course, voice-activated personal assistant is not all innovators have received.
PayPal founder Peter Thiel and Facebook investor in Silicon Valley, last month criticized the lack of "Companies that represent real progress." Instead, companies simply chasing the latest fad. He said that innovation was in the range "over the situation and the dead."
Names Stephenson, for three reasons, think that we were not able to run the important things this generation:
1. As science and technology are becoming increasingly complex, scientists and engineers have found themselves more focused on narrow issues, ie, only intervene in a slice of cake.
As with the second manned space missions, policy is increasingly in the equation.
3. In a world that seems increasingly unstable and dangerous, that no longer accept the risks. We can Google a new idea and if you have already executed or not.
"Necessary to develop new technologies and their application in a heroic scale ... [is] the only way out of difficult situations humanity today," Stephenson writes. "Too bad we forgot how to do it."
Perhaps the current situations are too good for some.
Francisco Dao, founder of 50Kings that hosts invitation-only adventure of technology and innovative media, wrote in the Post last month: "As Plato says, is" necessity is the mother of invention . "In the developed world, there is really no need?"
He cites the innovation had reached a plateau in the 1970s with the arrival of cabin pressure and jet engines. Dao recommend people seek moral imperatives - not self-interest - as a motivation to create.
Perhaps, however, this is not a question of whether or not to innovate, but if we recognize the advances in a century full of them. Comedian and writer Louis CK, for example, I do not respect the innovations recently made. In a famous speech, CK punish people who complain about airplane seats recline.
"What happened then?" Asked. "Did you fly through the air like a bird, surprisingly you have in the clouds, impossible? Did you participate in the miracle of human flight and landing gentle giant of the tires?"
