Safety, Productivity, and Sustainability: How Is Technology Solving Global Problems?

Global challenges are at the forefront of the current political landscape as countries recover after the Covid-19 pandemic, only to be shaken again by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The expectations in the 90s that Internet Technologies would result in a more connected global world order now appear way more complicated. Instead of making connections, the Internet often divides into Global Villages, creating opposing information bubbles instead of discussions. The concept popularized by the prominent twentieth-century media theorist Marshall McLuhan anticipates the challenges of mass media and nearly instantaneous information spread across the globe.

Unsurprisingly, the current view on technology is ambivalent. Environmentalists are rightfully critical of cryptocurrency, as the US electricity grid is under pressure from crypto farms that can consume as much electricity as 300,000 homes combined, increasing pollution from gas and coal power plants.

The development of AI technologies like ChatGPT is no less alarming, as most job seekers feel threatened by its ability to perform relatively complex tasks without human supervision.

Simultaneously, the technology proponents have just as many positive arguments. The use of AI in medicine assists with more accurate diagnoses. Big Data helps understand and control the spread of disease, which was widely used during the still recent pandemic. It's hard to underestimate the positive impact of widely accessible knowledge online, ranging from coding or cooking courses to in-depth quantum physics lectures, at times free of charge!

Overall, modern technologies are supposed to solve many global problems that are sometimes deepened by their misuse. Let's overview a few cases that are very promising in our challenging predicament.

The Energy Sector

The energy sector is the driving force that allows our rapid modernization. The two main sources of energy – oil and nuclear power plants – have a significant negative impact on the environment, producing unsustainable waste and contributing to the climate change crisis. Simultaneously, they are essential to power cities' infrastructure, without which schools, hospitals, and public transportation would be impossible.

Scientists have been working for decades to come up with an alternative, with a major breakthrough just before last year's Christmas. For the first time in human history, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California researchers have achieved nuclear fusion.

The process is directly opposite to the nuclear fission currently used in power plants, where atoms are split apart to produce an outstanding amount of energy but leave toxic waste behind. Instead, "nuclear fusion produces far more energy, and only small amounts of short-lived radioactive waste," by combining atoms, according to BBC reporters. Furthermore, it does not produce greenhouse gas emissions and further worsens climate change.

We have to wait at least a decade (at most positive predictions) until this technology becomes widely and commercially available. However, the possibilities are nothing short of revolutionary, providing nearly limitless amounts of energy and reducing the negative environmental impact at the same time.

3D Printing

3D printers are revolutionizing the manufacturing industries by opening possibilities for global redistribution of production. So far, the most developed countries are the ones with the most natural resources, utilizing them to produce various goods and exporting them to increase their economic strength further.

3D printing technologies allow using more available local resources to manufacture various goods, such as plastic and metal machinery parts, furniture, footwear, sculptures, and architectural design, and, most importantly, prosthetic body parts. The healthcare industry widely celebrates the latter as it speeds up the production of goods that are vital for human survival.

Furthermore, it reduces the dependency upon imports for developing regions because any industry with a 3D printer can use globally available blueprints to start making their own commodities. Proponents of 3D printing celebrate these achievements as an equalizer reducing the gap between first and third-world countries.

On the other hand, 3D printers have been used to print functional firearms. Undoubtedly, this would prove extremely dangerous in the wrong hands, requiring heavy governmental regulation to avoid a disaster.

Quality of Life

Let's drop to a more down-to-earth topic. The recent pandemic accelerated an alternative way of life, one not constrained to offices. Computer networks allow worldwide instantaneous communication. Software development, design, advertising, and even education can be done remotely without sacrificing efficiency. Moreso, several pieces of research reveal increased productivity while working from home.

WFH policies have exceptional advantages that office spaces cannot provide. Firstly, it's a time saver when you're not stuck in traffic or public transportation. There are fewer distractions. The ability to home-cook meals leads to a healthier way of living. On the other hand, all of this requires self-discipline, as procrastinating at home is much easier than at the office.

Home network security is another issue, as there are no system administrators to ensure real-time risk detection and prevention. This resulted in a huge spike in VPN use during the Covid-19 lockdowns – software primarily designed to provide safe remote access to business intranets. Later, NordVPN even developed a threat-protection feature to protect users even further. After all, remote workers deal with confidential business data outside of office network security, which puts companies at significant risk.

One way or another, global communication technologies open up possibilities for a new work model and a healthier lifestyle, demanding additional effort, such as cybersecurity issues.

Office Management

Just as much as some employees want to continue working from home, others missed the office environment and water-cooler chats. However, unorganized office spaces can quickly become crowded, which is excellent for spreading germs and tiresome noise pollution.

Furthermore, mixing WFH policies with open offices saves space and unnecessary equipment, which is advisable by the Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative.

Programmers developed apps like Flanco that provide an all-in-one office management system. It allocates space more efficiently, simplifies booking meeting rooms, and helps distribute office resources, reducing unnecessary waste, like plastic cups or food leftovers.

All of this contributes to lower consumption, which, at a large scale, has a significant positive impact.

Conclusion

Going through the day without modern technology is nearly impossible in the XXI century. And even though we must remain critical of its negative impacts, employing technologies to solve global issues is one of the most effective ways of solving them, as most entrepreneurs and world leaders agree.