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Self-Cleaning House

Driven by her hatred of housework, France Cabe began developing a self-cleaning house in 1950s. Placed on each ceiling was a spinning sprinkler that emitted a powerful spray of water. Walls were coated with waterproof paint and the floors and furniture were varnished. There were also waterproof covers for books and a material to cover upholstery. The washing cycle took 45 minutes: “You open a valve, punch a button and it washes your ceiling, walls, floors, windows, curtains, your furniture, your dishes and your clothes. Then it dries them.”

The self-cleaning house was patented but attempts to market the invention were not successful.

Text C

Is Change Always an Improvement?

Technology plays an increasingly important part in our daily lives. Science and technology have given people in industrialized countries higher living standards through increased productivity, greater longevity than ever before and a whole range of “smart” machines to inform, entertain and serve them. But since World War II people have debated the benefits of scientific progress. And the objections that are made to new technology have a point to them, since change is not always an improvement. Science and technology have produced the dangers of radioactivity, toxic wastes, environmental disruptions and the threat of nuclear war.

In the world of work, technological advances have had various negative effects. The development of robotics has meant that in industries such as car-manufacturing robots are replacing people. As a result, industrial workers see job opportunities dwindling further and unemployment level rising. In addition, more and more people are working from home using personal computers, which means that they lose the stimulus that comes from working in direct contact with other people and may feel isolated. If people work at home and do their banking and shopping at home, the result could be an inward-looking and immobile society, as families retreat into a private world of video games and computer holograms. On the other hand, people seem to need human contact, and enjoy the social aspects of office life and escaping from their homes.

Rather than making our lives better and simpler, technology tends to make them more complicated. Office workers stay late at night wading through tides of e-mail. Half a dozen people in a restaurant reach for their breast pocket or bag at the anonymous trilling of a mobile phone.

Once upon a time, it was machines which became obsolete. Now, in the information age, we are running to keep pace with the rate of change, and fearing it is us – not technology – that will end up on the scrap heap.

We must be very careful with technology. While it has clear advantages, there is also the danger that it could turn on us and we could find ourselves the victims of our own success.

Text D

Could We Find Ourselves the Victims of Our Own Success?

Recent technological advances have meant that people nowadays are generally able to communicate much more easily and efficiently than ever before. This may, of course, have benefited many people, but it has also resulted in a situation where people have perhaps become more isolated from their immediate surroundings. Two good examples of this negative trend can be seen in the way large numbers of people seem to have become dependent on mobile telephones and the Internet as means of communication.



Increasing numbers of people are using mobile telephones to communicate with friends, family and colleagues. Wherever they may be, they can contact whoever they want easily and reasonably cheaply. To a large extent, this has resulted in less meaningful face-to-face contact between people. It has also brought about a situation where meal times, social occasions and even the Christmas dinner are apt to be interrupted by the bleeping of a mobile phone. People nowadays are simply not allowed to be “unavailable”.

The Internet has likewise affected people’s social skills. Since it is possible to send and to receive almost any information you want over the Internet, the need to interact socially simply does not exist for some people any more. In fact, the appeal of the Internet for many may be that they can work and play from home without ever having to get involved in human relationships.

Clearly, we need to be rather more aware of the effect this new technology is having on our lives and find ways to limit the damage. Mobile phones, of course, can be turned off or left at home. It is unlikely to prove disastrous if a call is left unanswered, and messages can always be left on an answer phone. Similarly, the use of the Internet can, and possibly should, be regulated. Parents in particular need to keep an eye on their children in order to prevent ‘Internet addiction’ from developing. As with most things, common sense is what is needed most.

It would be wrong to pretend that the advantages of improved communications technology are insignificant. Nevertheless, it is true to say that there are negative aspects of this new technology and increased social isolation is perhaps the most important of these. This is something which most definitely should not be ignored.


Date: 2016-04-22; view: 1420


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