When you read the reviews of technological gadgets you are likely to see a deluge of acronyms, abbreviations and trademarks. You will witness things like dual core, quad core, i3, i5, i7, MHz, GHz, MB, GB, GSM, CDMA, HSPA+, LTE and an assortment of other tech industry alphabet soup.
The purpose of this column is to demystify the jargon and make technology approachable and understandable to normal people. The people who invent new technologies sometimes forget that they have been immersed in their community for years. There is a need to make technology more user-friendly.
On more than one occasion Apple Chief Executive Office (CEO) Steve Jobs has spoken about his companies philosophy. During a recent Apple Special Event, Jobs gave this explanation, “So, I’ve said this before. I thought it was worth repeating. It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. That it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing.”
The slide on the screen during these remarks showed a street sign intersecting two streets, one is technology and the other is liberal arts. This is a key idea that any tech company should adopt to make their products more useful to the general public.
High understandability alone is not enough to make technology worthwhile. Along with easy usability, philanthropy is an essential element of being a good person or a good company.
Tech industry legend Bill Gates, one of the richest people in the world, has made it his business to spread his vast fortune to those most in need.
Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gates family is tackling some of the world’s toughest problems, including ones right here in the Unites States. Among the foundation’s guiding principals are the ideas that, “Philanthropy plays an important but limited role,” and that “Science and technology have great potential to improve lives around the world.”
Guided by these tech industries luminary ideas, it is the aim of this column to bring to your attention ways that technology can improve your quality of life and improve the lives of others. It is not enough to talk about the speeds and technical capabilities of technology. That technical minutia is not relevant to most people anyway. If you want to know the numbers behind the gadgets and gizmos, look elsewhere.
Here you will find solutions to problems, stories about scientific and technological philanthropy and suggestions for stress relieving diversions. All talk of technical specifications will be brief and not the focus of discussion. Occasionally, there may be some explanation of technical terms to help make them more understandable.
This article is written by a technology geek for all the many non-geeks out there. If you want the “geeky” tech news, the tech news industry will fulfill your desires. Here you will not get the speeds and numbers because this column is not about numbers, it is about the philosophy of tech.
Please send your comments and suggestions by email to philoftech@gmail.com.
