There could be nothing more profound nor more valuable than the gift of time, which we must all utilize wisely to do good in this world. Despite audacious claims that “we have all the time in the world”, our time here is in fact quite limited, a paradox that makes the gift of time more valuable. Amid a generation inundated with ephemeral fads, viral videos, and numerous scientific breakthroughs, many of us take make swell use of time’s essence to pave a way towards a continuous technological revolution that indubitably saves us more time. This month, The Menagerie provides you a list of five revolutionary advancements whose benefits span from the dawn of modernization up to perhaps eons into the future. This forecast discusses continuum in terms of which technologies last, and which dissolve to obsolescence through time.
Clock
What better way to start the list than with the guardian of time itself? Even before clocks had hands, they were already busy palliating a world that constantly obsesses itself with time. Our ancestors used water clocks and sand- filled hourglass timers to measure the passage of time. Soon, these became obsolete with the introduction of the sundial, which is reminiscent of the mechanical clocks that we have today. For more information, kindly peruse this issue’s headline article.
From towering grandfather clocks up to handy watches, clocks still serve the same functions that they always had despite continuous headways in the world of technology. We now have clocks and watches that have the added bonus of featuring the current date, temperature, and built- in stopwatch and countdown functions. Our digital era saw these functionalities intercalated into more Apple-age gadgets such as cellular phones, computers, and handheld consoles. And with our current state of technology, it would not be long before clocks could be able to measure complex time units. With just a little time, it most definitely would.
Refrigerator
Before the advent of refrigerators, people stored their produce in icehouses packed with snow and blocks of ice. Milk and butter were stored inside window boxes and placed outdoors or even submerged in lakes, streams, or wells. Not only does burying containers deep in snow keep drinks fresh, it also keeps them cool. Filipino historian Ambeth Ocampo goes as far as to say that back in the day, Filipinos used to import their ice from Boston, specifically Wenham Lake which according to Ocampo was so pure that the ice itself could be plunked straight into drinks. However, despite these methods of preservation, food spoilage remained inevitable due to prevalent bacterial infections in the Philippines during that time.
When the refrigerator was first introduced to the mainstream public, it effectively rectified these problems, bagging the title of “The Most Essential Kitchen Equipment”. No kitchen today would be complete without it. As its brethren kitchen appliances upgrade with each new innovation, so does the refrigerator. Newer prototypes provide a radical modification to the original, and which could possibly be the new refrigeration system of the century. Courtesy of Russian designer Yuriy Dmitriev, the Bio Robot fridge is composed mainly of a biopolymer gel that drops temperature through luminescence. Shoving the food items into the fridge’s surface enables the non- sticky and odorless green gel to envelop them into individual pods and keep the food fresh until you withdraw it.
Meanwhile, the more commonly distributed Whirlpool Centralpark model takes inspiration from the gadget-centered, individualistic, and highly customized lifestyle of the populace. New customization features can now be added to the refrigerator, including message boards, digital picture frames, a player for CD and DVDs, along with the nice bonus of a cellular phone charging station. Now tell us, how cool is that?
Television
The refrigerator is to kitchen as the television is to living room. Nowadays it is hard to find houses, hotel rooms, and even buses that do not sport a television. Little do people know that this broadcasting system was not the fruit of the imagination and dedication of any one genius mind. Paul Nipkow’s rotating disk and A.A. Campbell- Swinton and Boris’ cathode-ray model pioneered what is often hailed as the “King of the Living Room”.
Nonetheless, the Internet has lessened the need for Lasallians to come running towards this box if they feel like having good entertainment. Websites such as Netflix and Hulu provide free and legal streaming to all your favorite shows, episodes, video clips, and movies. What makes watching basketball matches or cartoons like Pokémon more enticing on the Internet is the absence of commercials and other disturbances to the overall experience. No longer must we subject ourselves to the torture of watching Rub-ada-Bango and Lucky Manzano’s Pride commercial that is being broadcasted every three minutes in-between shows. The Internet takes care of these for you, which could signify the atrophy of television sets and the rise of computer sets as the “New King of the Living Room”. Although this is a very pointed view of the television, and one more associated with a wi-fi and internet-connected society, we cannot solidly maintain this as AGB Nielsen Philippines reported that in 2011, only 33% of Filipinos regularly access the internet. The greater majority of Filipinos may have difficulty accessing such streaming sites given the digital divide.
Wheel
As kids, the song “The wheels on the bus go round and round…” explained to us not only how these round objects move but also their basic function. But then again, wheels are more than that: they remind us that despite the changing environment, wheels still do go “round and round”.
The earliest known use of the wheel goes back as far as 3500 BC in Ur, Mesopotamia, or modern day Iraq. However, its first-ever recorded use would still be there, though on a much later date, 3200 BC. In those days, wheels were mostly for transport such as chariots and wagons, but going fast forward to the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution they played a more vital function. Here, wheels staged an even bigger role, serving as engineering gears that ran the factories and made work more efficient, while also serving on more sensitive engineering wonders such as the clock.
Even as time passes on into the future world, the wheel will still be the wheel. It will still go “round and round”, make our watches tick, and maintain the same function for the disk you’re about to insert into your PS3. Fast-forward to more than a hundred years later and wheels will still be present. Perhaps, cars will no longer need roads, and going to space would take as long as going to Europe in 2013. But no matter how advanced society will be, wheels will always be there, going “round and round”, serving as a means of making work more efficient.
