Aug 21, 2017

Impact of the World on Technology

At a training course, the facilitator asked the audience to consider the impact of technology on the world, how technology shrinks and disrupts the world.  

I thought about the opposite: the impact of the world on technology. With increasing easy access to technology, all the different cultures, all the different ways of thinking, all the different experiences provide solutions to needs that are relatively unimportant to much of the West.

Think about rat-proof telecom cables from Huawei that Western telecom companies did not come up with for whatever reason. Think about ultra compact white appliances from Haier that Chinese students needed because they live in tiny accommodations. Think abour the mobile payment system from M-Pesa and increasing thousands of other examples.

The way these applications of technology from other parts of the world have an impact on the technology the West is developing.

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