The Pleasure and the Pain

Human technological evolution is a process of discovering new
technologies to satisfy human desires. It is not just the invention but
the consumption as well. Throughout this book, the discussion focuses
on technological evolution, not biological evolution. Henceforth, use of
the term “evolution” refers to technological evolution.
All the present high-tech marvels we enjoy today – from smart phones
to laptops to whisper quiet washing machines – exist because of the
many geniuses throughout modern history that devoted their lives to
inventions. Humans have responded positively by encouraging such
inventions, either by buying them or investing in them.
Not all inventions become successful. Only some become very popular
and even become mega industries employing thousands of people.
New ideas fail, if the product or service is not competitive, in either
price or quality, or if they are simply not inspiring enough for people
to buy them. This is the reason why thousands of new inventions
vanish before they hit the market. The market absorbs only those
technologies that are affordable and improve consumers’ standard of
living. Surprisingly, the failure of certain inventions does not affect
the evolutionary process. Instead, new companies/businesses keep
popping up and the competition for survival continues.
Depending on which section of the human population a particular
invention targets, the price and quality must be right for it to succeed.
Obviously, this process of natural selection leaves many new inventions
out in the cold.
Comparing the number of utility products in our homes today to
what people had 100 years ago is staggering. By encouraging these
products, we have come a long way in creating a web of industries
and an enormous global economy that sustains, comforts, feeds, and
enriches us on a daily basis.
Consumers always look for less expensive but higher quality products,
and throughout commercial history, businesses have always competed
with each other to produce them. This partnership between producer
and consumer is the backbone of human technological evolution.
We evolved to our present state on this model and we will continue
evolving on it into the future.
The technological evolution has not come without problems.
Employees are at a higher stress level than just a few decades ago. Many
employees work several hours beyond their forty-hour-a-week limits
to meet the crushing deadlines that are now a daily reality in order to
produce products faster and cheaper.
Employees not only work harder every day but also have to increase
productivity to reduce the overhead to the company; multi-tasking
to increase efficiency on behalf of their employer is now a job within
a job. Every day employees have to prove they are still the best and
make the company highly competitive in the market. If not, they will
be replaced quickly, for the simple reason companies cannot afford to
keep less skilled workers on the payroll when others will do the job
more quickly or efficiently. After all, if they do, they will lose out to
the competition.

If we examine it from an evolutionary standpoint, this complicated
employee-employer partnership bears a close resemblance to the
“survival of the fittest” theory. Those who adapt, will survive; those
who do not, will perish.
Why do we make our lives so stressful? Again, the answer to this
question is in our natural desire to evolve. Humans have an intense
desire to evolve so we are all equally responsible for such hardship.
As an illustration, every time you shop for a less expensive product
in a shopping mall or major department store, you are unknowingly
responsible for creating competition in the marketplace. The act of
choosing a less expensive product over a more expensive one could
potentially bankrupt a less competitive business or cause the lay-off
of a less skilled employee. Many of us are unable to correlate the two,
though there is a distinct relationship between them to even the most
casual of observers.
Every time we go to a supermarket and pick a less expensive item
of equal or superior quality as opposed to a more expensive one, we
are indirectly responsible for putting stress on the employees that
produce the more expensive item. Thus, the cheaper we buy, the more
competitive those companies become. There is immense pressure
on employees, as well as employers, to survive in this competitive
economy, despite the fact we are all proud to live in such a civilized
world.
This “human technological evolution” is unstoppable and its
consequences are inevitable.

-By RS Amblee
Author of "The Art of Looking into the Future: The Five Principles of Technological Evolution"

Amazon Link:
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Looking-into-Future-Technological/dp/0983157405/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1

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