I was helping a friend fix his computer, he asked is everything lost? I ask him if he backed up his data, of course not why would he do that? I asked the next question, when was the last time you backed-up your data? Then like he had a megaphone in my ear, I DON”T KNOW HOW TO BACK UP MY DATA! All my spreadsheets and word documents are lost, how can that be the computers brand new?

If I had a dollar for every computer that broke down out of the box I wouldn’t have to worry about money. But for some reason when we buy something we just assume it will work for ever, especially things like TVs, stereos, freezers and computers. We put more faith in those purchases than we do in anything else, well, outside of eating in a public restaurant anyway. Why? Why do we do that? Nowhere does it say these devices and equipment won’t breakdown or already be broken before we even get them installed. Most things we buy today all have some form of technology in them, try and think of one that doesn’t…well a potato peeler maybe but there’s not many.

There seems to be this unwritten law that if I buy something it just works, there’s no chance it won’t we’re thinking as we drive home. I have sold more computers than I can count over the years and manufacturer’s don’t always get it right, something can fall through the cracks. Assembly lines are not immune to malfunction, why? Technology!

I got a call to provide some input on what was thought to be a DNS issue, after asking enough questions, two or three I discovered that most likely it was that expensive high end Router that was installed. I said pull it and go get something different and see what happens. You guessed it, that high end router was faulty.

We put alot of faith in technology, we build spreadsheets thinking that they are accurate and the software can’t make a mistake, really? How do you know? Society has gone down the technology road so far now we can go back, and would we want to? Most of us have High Speed (Broadband) Internet connections, would you go back to dial-up now? I rest my case.

Now technology is progressing at a rate that is exponential, explosive growth. People think linearly, one, two, three, and 30 steps later your at 30. But the reality of information technology it is going 2, 4, 8, 16, and 30 steps later you are at a billion! With growth moving that quickly how will ensure that it is accurate and not faulty?

Take nanotechnology, little blood cell sized nanobots will be injected into our blood streams and cure say diabetes. Will it? What if doesn’t, what are the side effects and who is going to guarantee that nanobots are full proof? I suspect no one will back them up 100% but how can we be sure these technologies will work 100% of the time and not fail in the future?

I believe there needs to be a body that overseas and sets standards to protect us against faulty technology in the future, in light of this exponential growth curve. You may assume that there will be, but, let’s not assume please. So, should we trust technology? Some of it?  Yes. A Lot of it? Yes. But when it comes to injecting blood cell sized nanobots into our bodies, I want to know for sure something won’t go wrong. How far do we allow technology to go, to intrude on our privacy and watch over us? How deep is your trust in technology?

I’m just asking the questions nothing more. I’m suggesting we keep things in perspective, make sure we put the proper framework in place now to ensure the safe use of these new technologies being worked on today.

Should we trust technology?