HOW TECHNOLOGY SCREENS NATURE
Every moment you look around, you see civilization maximizing impact through technology. Each new dawn introduces a new invention, sometimes trivial and sometimes not. But this has greatly negated the attention of mankind on nature’s impact. Man today only sees nature’s beauty, a reflection of their lust for glitters. The more technology grows its bud on mankind, the more man drifts his attention from the underlying source, something that makes technology an ongoing project. So in this article, we will point out some of the ways technology simulates nature, and thus preserves her concepts. This may appear vague for now, but it should become clearer at the end of this article.
ASSUMED MINDSET WHILE READING THIS ARTICLE
I assume that you have a mindset that:
- Sees technology as a source from a source.
- Preserves the history of an invention.
- Sees technology as a proud weapon.
TECHNOLOGY INHERITS FROM NATURE
If you are a programmer, you will notice that many of the concepts that apply to programming are real world concepts too. If you are not a programmer, don’t worry if you don’t understand, you soon will. Let’s take a look at a scenario:
Have you ever sat and thought about the workings of a vehicle (car, bike, train, e.t.c)? A car, no matter how perfect it may appear, cannot move without gasoline (or fuel). Though I am not versed in the mechanics and dynamics of automobiles, but according to ingenieria mecanica automotriz, “The function of the fuel system is to store and supply fuel to the cylinder chamber where it can be mixed with air, vaporized, and burned to produce energy.”
This begins to make more sense as you compare it to nature (whether plants, animals, or micro-organisms). The main reason for implementing the fuel system in automobiles is to generate energy needed for motion. In humans, this is analogou.
Humans obtain energy from three sources of fuel molecules which are carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins. These fuel molecules all come from the food we take into our body system, which are then processed by the digestive system to generate the amount of energy needed to survive.
This simply denotes that scientists, in implementing the fuel system, simulated the digestive system.
Also, regardless of the amount of fuel present in the fuel tank, a vehicle will not start if there is no engine. The engine is responsible for the conversion of one or more forms of energy (generated from the combustion of fuel) into mechanical energy required by the vehicle for the purpose of motion. Hence, the fuel becomes useless and apparently non-existent without the presence of the engine, since the engine does the labor of utilizing the fuel.
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Similarly, the human heart is the body’s engine. Though it is stated that the heart uses much energy to pump more energy into the rest of the body, its presence and state determines the state of a person (dead or alive). Once the heart is taken away from a person, the person does not function any longer, just like an automobile won’t function without an engine.
Have you heard of an automobile brainbox? Why do you think you are able to instruct your vehicle on directions to take, when to apply brakes, and more? It is apparent that there is also a system responsible for the coordination of the various parts of an automobile. That system is called the brainbox or engine control unit (ECU) in modern automobiles!
The brainbox is just a processor that electrically collects data from sensors and automatically uses the collected data (information) to make changes to the automobile’s components as instructed. This is so important because accidents would have 100x increased if the brainbox was absent.
A human analogy already exists! The brain coordinates the operations of the entire body system, it reads data from the internal and external environments, interprets this data and uses the analyzed data to coordinate the body system. It is so important that no one wants to associate with someone that has a faulty brain 😁!
Once you begin to look at the relationship between technology and nature from this perspective, you will begin a new dawn of realizations unfolding before you. I used the comparison of humans and vehicles so you can slot yourself into the picture, and technology on the other side of the coin. You will begin to see a pattern that confirms that you are a natural technology and your dream of advancement and development can be a weapon you can choose to be creative with.
TECHNOLOGY MAXIMIZE NATURE’S POTENTIALS
As discussed above, technology imitates nature, with the aim of attaining nature’s perfection. This has led to technology evolving for centuries, in the process of bringing to limelight nature’s potentials.
The adoption of technological inventions have been in an ‘ease-in’ manner, i.e. at first slowly, then quickly. Before we begin to compare and contrast, let’s take a peep into history and see where the word ‘technology’ originated from — its etymology.
According to oregonstate.edu, the word technology comes from two Greek words, transliterated techne and logos.
Techne means art, craft, or the means by which a thing is gained. Logos means the utterance by which inward thought is expressed.
Technology simply means words or expressions about the way things are gained. The word ‘Technology’ may seem to have a different meaning today but it hasn’t lost its original meaning once you bring nature into the picture.
Technology today has come to stay, and it is simply expressing something to the world (or universe) that most humans don’t see. It expresses nature! Nature is derived from a latin word ‘natura’, which means ‘essential qualities or innate disposition’. In reality, nature has a compound meaning and that is why the meaning of natura is quite ambiguous. In this article, nature refers to anything that exists and occurs outside the control of man.
Man prided himself with his inventions and most times failed to give some credits to the source of his idea or knowledge — Nature!
Going back to this section’s topic — Technology maximizes nature’s potential — we can begin to look into the various inventions of man and simply see nature basking in her glittering beauty and creativity. Man is creative, but this creativity is sourced by his environment, his experiences, his relationships, and more. All these define his nature and the nature that he creates.
When the first technological invention (stone tools) existed, there was a purpose for its creation and a source of its invention. This was used as a chopping tool to make cutting objects easier for man. Man at that time was restricted in his creativity by the environment that he existed in, where nature seemed to nurture him. He had a need (his thought), strategized his plan of solving his problem (his goal), and his creativity kicked into action and produced one of his greatest achievements of his time (a stone tool).
If you are like me, you would be trying to imagine how he must have felt during that time… He must have rejoiced over his achievement and made himself a name. If he was to take a look back to that time, he must have laughed at himself over his exaggeration of joy over what seems like a trivial achievement now… What would be his thoughts over his present inventions in 50 years to come?
In short, nature was producing, man was utilizing it. This means that man was maximizing nature’s potential for his profit!
Your thoughts… Doesn’t that mean that technology was actually an abuse of nature’s resources rather than a shelter?
In a way, yes! From this article’s perspective, nope!
The fact that as technology advances, the attention that nature once enjoyed thins down (you will notice that it is increasingly dwindling even as humans are tending to be more artificial in their thinking) is alarming and a big abuse of nature’s right!
But! How helpless nature would have been if she hadn’t bore technology! She bore technology and handed it to man to nurture and train into a full grown adult… How technology has grown over the years and you can see man’s impact on it. Today, technological inventions are mind-blowing and really captivating. When you take a look at a rocket (for example) and you try to disintegrate and study its components with your mind, you will realize how immeasurable we are with storing details in our little minds as technology does. We have therefore adopted technology as a child and taught it how to store our minds, opinions, and experiences that we naturally can’t store.
This is nature’s greatest strength, her ability to keep details of her resources hidden, that are only accessible to very curious minds. Curiosity is on the increase, and the more curious a man becomes, the more he unveils.
Therefore technology has been a way for nature to express her feelings, emotions, and creativity to man and technology has been a way for man to store information about himself that he naturally cannot store for a long time, even with books (another invention).
Haha! If you are still feeling shocked and amused with the eye-opening blow of this article, it is because you have learnt something that will change the way you perceive the world and the manner you manipulate and influence technology.
Let me drop this question for you to ruminate over…
Technology started out as a child (born by nature and nurtured by man). It has grown over the years into a handsome young creature with a promising career. As every man, it will come to a point of death (though it might be in a very long time). While technology exists, nature is gradually dying out, and I doubt if she will witness the lifespan of technology. What would man hold unto when that time comes? Or what would technology bore for man before his demise? Or will man even be able to write the biography of technology?
I leave you to unravel these realizations to your benefit. Shallout!
