ESSAY
Before starting, haven’t you asked yourself why technology was created, or for what purpose was invented? Well, technology was invented to fill a void, need, or want. That's the essential part of it. We needed a way to communicate faster and better between vast distances, for example, for sending a mail, which could take months to get from one point to another. Its main purpose is to enable the effective sharing of data to address some of society's biggest challenges and help individuals and organizations be more innovative, efficient, and productive. But technology was not created from nothing its history goes back with the first technology revolution which occurred about 10,000 years ago, in the Neolithic, when human beings went from being nomadic to sedentary developing the first agricultural techniques.Through the time technology was advancing thanks to contributions like the telegraph in 1800s, the Morse code by Samuel Morse in 1835, the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 and the first radio developed by Guglielmo Marconi in 1894.
Throughout our history as a species there have been several technological revolutions; times when the emergence of knowledge and technology radically and definitively disturb the way we live and relate to the world. An important example of this is the industrial revolution that exercised the greatest and most deepest number of changes in human society since the Neolithic, moving from the traditional rural economy to the industrialized urban economy, with the factory as the main axis. Thanks to this revolution inventions of machines were created, this allowed optimizing production with less human labor, new work organization, development in communications and transport including steam locomotive, automobile, airplane, telegraph and radio thus increasing in the application of science in industry.
Nowadays we have advanced so much that computer information is stored and processed in terms called bits (zeros and ones), we can manipulate molecular structures and their atoms by nanotechnology, graphene has been used to create a highly energy efficient way to remove salt from water, we find the way to correct mistakes inside the human body by electronic devices and synthetic materials like pacemakers, cochlear implants (for hearing), bionic eyes, and synthetic organs. Many years ago the thinking that this could be possible was unrealistic but now we are in constant discovery and growth to not only have a good present but also to have a good future.
LETTER
Dear future generation, if you are reading this letter it is because there is still time to act, we write this letter very concerned about our current situation, despite all the efforts that have been made to save us, everything seems very difficult, people no longer collaborate people with power don't seem to care, you may be the help the planet needs. For several years the end of the world seems to be approaching, we are doing nothing or very little effort and it seems that we do not notice that we are left without water, without biodiversity, without soils, without forests. The increase in greenhouse gas emissions is causing unfavorable climate change on the planet. Environmental pollution causes negative impacts on ecosystems and various diseases, alterations, and the reduction of life expectancy in millions of people around the world. Pollutants are very diverse and cause more and more health problems, even before birth. Human activities cause serious phenomena of soil degradation. Among them, erosion, a problem that is accelerating on all continents and each year causes a loss of between 5 and 7 million hectares of land for cultivation. The increasingly high consumption of energy and the continued use of fossil fuels generates various environmental impacts and are worrisome for human development in the coming decades. Access to water in minimal drinking conditions and its scarcity is increasingly alarming. Some scientists have been warning for years about endangered species and the successive loss of biodiversity, often caused by the invasion and illegal animal trafficking. Also, the global generation of garbage in cities will be double that of today in 2025 and it is estimated that it will more than triple by 2100.
We have a double standard for everything. In public, we profess one thing, but in private we do another. The water surrenders and takes care of itself, while the shortage lasts, but it is wasted as if nothing happened when we have it. We do not seem to understand that it will be increasingly difficult, increasingly scarce, and of poorer quality; until it disappears definitively and with it, our life will also go away.
Ancient humans are called primitive or cavemen, but curiously they knew how to conserve water, forests, and most of the animals. Unlike ourselves, we are "more civilized and intelligent"; but we are exhausting almost all resources, and life on the planet is threatened. We are a kind of King Midas, that Greek king who, out of his ambition, asked the gods for power to transform everything he touched into gold. Same as him; our ambition makes us turn everything into merchandise and we destroy everything we touch.
People today live more than 70 years, but from the age of 30 they begin to get sick and suffer from many ills, it is said that humanity has degenerated and that our bodies, minds, and souls are contaminated.
Our society has lost values such as solidarity, friendship, love. Capitalism has become a commodity, everything is money, everything has a price, children are taught that, and they are taught that, if they want to survive, have a partner, and access resources, they must earn enough money to pay for them; the others is not important.
The garbage dumps are full of obsolete or damaged products and more and more new landfills are being built, which collapse quickly, so garbage must be burned or thrown away where possible, Recycling is just a fad and in practice, little applies. Also, it seems to be easier and more fun to buy again than to reuse.
With the use of machines that are destroying forests and mountains, anyone would guess what will happen, we will run out of water and oxygen. Sometimes we would like that science fiction letter of 2070 to be a lie, but every day our resources are depleted and our urban centers are becoming more like that unfortunate society.
Much of the population suffer from the same thing: stress and insomnia; which in turn cause hundreds of diseases. We somatize our frustrations, fears, and anxieties; Although, to tell the truth, with more exercise, with more love, or simply smiling more, many people say they get better.
We live squeezed into each other, but we don't talk to each other. We have thousands of our friends on social networks, but sometimes we have no one to talk to and many say they feel alone, misunderstood, or not valued, but they do not talk about it, they take refuge in vices or on TV and a forgotten matter. For these generations there is no time, there is no time to talk, or to enjoy, or to be with the family, or to love. It is something strange; there is only time to work, study, or any activity to produce money.
We are unhappy because we do not have enough money to buy, but when we have these objects we are still unhappy. It is a constant void and advertising exacerbates things by telling each of us; that our curly hair should be straight or that our straight hair should be curly. That the cell phone we just bought is out of date, and that such a brand will improve our quality of life. Today's children know almost nothing about life, because, to tell the truth, their hobbies are video game links or networks, and almost no one reads or goes out to play outdoors. As technology arrived: televisions, video games, computers, we stopped meeting and playing in the parks. Climbing trees today no longer makes sense. Playing video games or being at home learning how to handle all this equipment seems to be much more exciting. They are not curious about going to the park and are experts in virtual sports. They do sports without wearing the sun and without sweating, on computers of course.
The old kids wanted to be firefighters, park rangers, police officers, vets, doctors, etc. Today children want to earn money and nothing else; They imitate their parents and “successful” adults, those who have fame, money, power, and can buy whatever they want.
There are many diseases, some common and others that they call created in laboratories or biological weapons: Zika, chikungunya, AIDS, Ebola, and currently the coronavirus pandemic of the century. In reality, there is confusion, the media explain little, the scientific authorities and governments the same. People hesitate, and a new news outlet appears: social media, but creating more confusion than before.
In reality, the media report little, and create alarms, preferring to spend time on vain topics and avoid topics of interest such as water, gas, forests, preventive health. They say that they are cold subjects that do not interest people.
The media are also dysfunctional, they are not at the service of the people, but of the sponsors, and in reality in society most things, it is not at the service of the people, but of those who can pay.
The air we breathe in cities is of less and less quality, but we still have the option of going to parks and green areas before they are destroyed for homes and industries. Trees in cities are cut down for banalities: that if they soil the floor with their leaves, that they have worms, that if they cover signs to shops, that if people want to enlarge their houses, that if they damage the floors or avenues. Anyway, everyone has an excuse and an ax or chainsaw to cut them.
Municipalities and contractors massively cut trees in avenues to widen them or for any other work. We always have to decide between one thing and another and we never have time to organize and fix these conflicts. We are left without trees, but nobody cares, many people consider them urban nuisances and few people associate the oxygen we breathe with trees.
In reality, we lost the notion of connecting the things that we use water, food, oxygen. We are not interested in where they come from, this is the most serious thing, we have little historical memory, and we do not know how to be grateful or anticipatory.
But what can we do, almost no one eats at home anymore, everyone does it at work, in the study place, or on the streets. People live far from their jobs, from their studies, in the cities, everything is far away and the traffic is getting heavier, even if it is nearby it takes a long time to get there and walking or riding a bicycle does not seem to be a good idea. Nobody cares what is going to happen in the future since they will not be alive or it will be the problem of "future generations".
That is why we are heading at great speed for our society to disappear and for the so famous and named Apocalypse to arrive. It is like we are advancing to that precipice, doing nothing to change the course.
It is very true that we still have time to understand what is happening, to communicate, organize and act. We are supposed to be the generation responsible for stopping this chaotic society, but as things are going, our hope is diminishing every day, so we asked you for a favor if we could not solve everything and all we did was ruin it more, for Please help us, Act before it is too late and life on this planet becomes unviable by our actions. Do not repeat our bad steps. You are the hope of the Earth, do not let it die.
