Someone once said, “The future will be like the past, only with cooler toys.” This quote is useful in understanding the force of rhymes of history. Rhymes of History are one of the forces that drive the emergence of technology. According to Dr. Thornburg (2008), a new technology is a fresh emergence of the impact felt many years before from another technology. Many factors influence the emergence of new technologies, with no one factor being fully sufficient to explain how or why one technology is adopted and another is not. According to Dr. Thornburg (2008), there are many forces that cause new technology to emerge. New technology does not just pop out of thin air. There are actual causes that aids in the emergence of new technology. The key principles of evolution were stated as numerous forces that cause technology to develop as they go through an evolutionary process as they continue to change (Thornburg, 2008). Of course, there are other forces the causes new technology to emerge that is probably sustainable and reliable enough to predict future trends. I like the comments made about the rhyme of history theory. Whenever new technology emerges, it definitely takes the place of one or more things used in the past.
Dr. Thornburg (2008) described a rhyme in history as an affect or effort of a new development that rekindles something from the past. One specific technology that comes to mind for me when thinking about the rhyme of history is the telephone. Communication has always been an important part of human interaction. Dating back years ago, communication was delivered in the form of mail using the Pony Express. With or without technology, we have always been able to communicate in some form or fashion. The telephone has definitely made it easier to communicate with others while also expanding the boundaries in which we can communicate with. However, with the new and still emerging technology, it is even easier to communicate with others in a fast and efficient manner.
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Evolutionary technologies, featuring Dr. David Thornburg.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Six forces that drive emerging technology, featuring Dr. David Thornburg.
The History of Communication - http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa93
Telephone History - http://www.telephonymuseum.com/telephone%20history.htm
Ashley--good point about communications being a common factor among humans--the interesting thing is how we are starting to go full circle, as before writing became widespread, messages were delivered face to face, then written messages became the standard, and now we use voice and text, and with so many smartphones now able to do videoteleconferencing, we are back to face to face! (using cooler toys!)
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