The 2017 Future of Technology Summit Essay Winner - USA - Elementary school

WINNER: KATIE HARRIS

Teacher: Sheri Goings

School: The Dunham School, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Topic: Exceeding Humanity

“Technology is powerful and greatly impacts our future with better defense, faster transportation, better safety, less activity, less communication, and people losing their jobs. I leave you with this question, has technology really exceeded our humanity?”

Honorable Mentions

• Jacobey Furrow, Windsor Elementary School. Teacher, Helen Beesley

• Liam Hoffman, Avon Intermediate West. Teacher, Lori Rosemeyer

• Charlotte Yih, PS 174 - William Sidney Mount. Teacher, Marilyn Friedman

Exceeding Humanity, by Katie Harris

When your grandparents were kids, they wouldn't watch movies on Netflix, or eat food flavored gum for dinner. They would play outside with a ball, and eat cornbread and turkey. Instead of texting friends or having robots do their homework, they would meet up with the person and handwrite their homework. Technology is powerful and advances rapidly. It can however cause less communication, less activity, and loss of jobs. It also helps people with new discoveries like faster transportation, defense robots, and alcohol detecting cars. Technology greatly impacts us and the outlook for the future.

Advancements in technology can cause less communication because people can just send holograms or video chat with them instead of meeting them. People will eventually make devices that can send holographic messages. One hint towards this device is in the movie Star Wars. The characters send holographic messages to each other so they won't have to meet them face to face. Albert Einstein said 'It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has has exceeded our humanity.' He makes a good point, he's saying that technology is greatly advanced and pointing out that it isn't always a good thing.

The future of technology can also lead to faster transportation and better defense, causing less deaths. Scientists can build robots that are warriors, to fight in wars. They can also make robots to defend important people in position of high authority such as the president, governor, or mayor. This is a way of showing how technology's advancements aren't always harmful. Technology can also produce faster transportation. Faster transportation would help get more work done because you could get to work faster and have more time. Scientists are brainstorming about a train that goes 750mph. People can take the train to a place far away, and if someone notified them of a need to be somewhere on a short notice, they could take it. As Edward Teller said, 'The science of today is the technology of tomorrow.' . This is prove that technology advances amazingly fast, and that is something to admire.

Even though technology is headed to more than this, their will better safety, less communication, and loss of jobs. Mathematicians and scientists are starting to invent alcohol detecting cars. The car can detect alcohol through a breath tube, and blood via the steering wheel. The alcohol detecting cars won't start if there is a trace of alcohol. This could lead to fewer car wrecks, fewer injuries, and fewer deaths. Technology isn't all good. It leads to less activity and causes people to lose their jobs. With the help of technology, people will able to watch movies with special contact lenses and glasses. Then people have something to do that's easy and doesn't require effort. Therefore there will be less activity in the future. Also, advanced machines can replace people when it comes to jobs. Two examples of this are in the University of Phoenix commercial and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. People in the commercial and in the movie worked by putting lids on toothpaste. But soon, there was a machine that did that, so the employees were fired. 'Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master.' says Christian Lange. It is true that technology is useful, but if we worship it, it can overtake us.

Technology is powerful and greatly impacts our future with better defense, faster transportation, better safety, less activity, less communication, and people losing their jobs. I leave you with this question, has technology really exceeded our humanity?