In 1969, Buzz Aldrin’s historical step onto the moon leapt mankind into an era of technological possibility. The awesome power of technology was to be used to solve all of our big problems. Fast forward to present day, and what’s happened? Are mobile apps all we have to show for ourselves? Jason Pontin, editor-in-chief and publisher of MIT Technology Review, looks closely at the challenges we face to using technology effectively … for problems that really matter.
From an article on the same subject, Pontin argues:
“Since Apollo 17’s flight in 1972, no humans have been back to the moon, or gone anywhere beyond low Earth orbit. No one has traveled faster than the crew of Apollo 10. (Since the last flight of the supersonic Concorde in 2003, civilian travel has become slower.) Blithe optimism about technology’s powers has evaporated, too, as big problems that people had imagined technology would solve, such as hunger, poverty, malaria, climate change, cancer, and the diseases of old age, have come to seem intractably hard.”
But can technology help us solve the ‘big problems’ facing the world? Watch the video and share your thoughts in the comments below.
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