Technology, The Application of Scientific Knowledge To The Practical
Technology, The Application of Scientific Knowledge To The Practical
Technology, The Application of Scientific Knowledge To The Practical
Pollution
Unemployment
A single machine can replace many workers. Also, machines can do
work at a constant pace for several hours or days without stopping. Due
to this, many workers lost their job which ultimately
increases unemployment.
Types of Technology
Industrial Technology
Creative Technology
This process includes art, advertising, and product design which are
made with the help of software. Also, it comprises of 3D printers,
virtual reality, computer graphics, and other wearable technologies.
Information Technology
Globalization
Globalization, comprehensive term for the emergence of a global society in which economic,
political, environmental, and cultural events in one part of the world quickly come to have
significance for people in other parts of the world. Globalization is the result of advances in
communication, transportation, and information technologies. It describes the growing
economic, political, technological, and cultural linkages that connect individuals,
communities, businesses, and governments around the world. Globalization also involves
the growth of multinational corporations (businesses that have operations or investments in
many countries) and transnational corporations (businesses that see themselves functioning
in a global marketplace). The international institutions that oversee world trade and finance
play an increasingly important role in this era of globalization.
Although most people continue to live as citizens of a single nation, they are culturally,
materially, and psychologically engaged with the lives of people in other countries as never
before. Distant events often have an immediate and significant impact, blurring the
boundaries of our personal worlds. Items common to our everyday lives—such as the
clothes we wear, the food we eat, and the cars we drive—are the products of globalization.
Globalization has both negative and positive aspects. Among the negative aspects are the
rapid spread of diseases, illicit drugs, crime, terrorism, and uncontrolled migration. Among
globalization’s benefits are a sharing of basic knowledge, technology, investments,
resources, and ethical values.
The most dramatic evidence of globalization is the increase in trade and the movement of
capital (stocks, bonds, currencies, and other investments). From 1950 to 2001 the volume
of world exports rose by 20 times. By 2001 world trade amounted to a quarter of all the
goods and services produced in the world. As for capital, in the early 1970s only $10 billion
to $20 billion in national currencies were exchanged daily. By the early part of the 21st
century more than $1.5 trillion worth of yen, euros, dollars, and other currencies were
traded daily to support the expanded levels of trade and investment. Large volumes of
currency trades were also made as investors speculated on whether the value of particular
currencies might go up or down.
Improvements in transportation are also part of globalization. The world becomes smaller
due to next-day delivery by jet airplane. Even slow, oceangoing vessels have streamlined
transportation and lowered costs due to innovations such as containerized shipping.
The lowering of costs that has enabled U.S. companies to locate abroad has also made it
easier for foreign producers to locate in the United States. Two-thirds of the automobiles
sold in North America by Japan’s Toyota Motor Company are built in North America, many in
Kentucky and in seven other states. Michelin, the French corporate giant, produces tires in
South Carolina where the German car company BMW also manufactures cars for the North
American market.
Not only do goods, money, and information move great distances quickly, but also more
people are moving great distances as well. Migration, both legal and illegal, is a major
feature of this era of globalization. Remittances (money sent home by workers to their
home countries) have become an important source of income for many countries. In the
case of El Salvador, for example, remittances are equal to 13 percent of the country’s total
national income—a more significant source of income than foreign aid, investment, or
tourism.
Three key institutions helped shape the current era of globalization: the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). All three
institutions trace their origins to the end of World War II (1939-1945) when the United
States and the United Kingdom decided to set up new institutions and rules for the global
economy. At the Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire in 1944, they and other
countries created the IMF to help stabilize currency markets. They also established what
was then called the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to help
finance the rebuilding of Europe after the war.