IMPORTANT TRANSITIONS

1 The increasing advance of technology is changing people’s lives forever. Obviously, this has positive and
negative effects. For instance, new materials, from synthetic rubber to plastics, have given way to
thousands of useful things such as machine parts, tools, electronic devices, and so on. However, there
are still difficult problems that science and technology have been unable to solve so far, being pollution
5 and mortal diseases like cancer and AIDS just some examples.

The 20th century especially, was an exceptional time from the point of view of technology. Following the
introduction of the assembly line by Henry Ford in 1913, the automobile became inexpensive and replaced
the horse. It enabled people to travel faster and more comfortably, but it also required the building of
roads and the extraction of fuels for the new vehicles. The aircraft industry, in turn, grew at a very fast
10 rate after the first powered flight performed by the Wright Brothers in 1903. Their invention made long
trips available for more people when the large airline companies appeared.

Electronics were also speeded up when Marconi sent his first transatlantic message in 1901, then radio
and subsequently television, changed communications and entertainment habits drastically. Satellites
also enabled instant communications from one side of the world to the other.

15 Nuclear power, which was introduced after the World War II, provided cheaper energy for the industries,
but it also offered considerable risks of accidents and dangerous pollution. The invention of new, resistant
materials permitted the building of rockets, so the space age began in 1957 when the Russian sent their
first spacecraft, the Sputnik, to the outer space.

Medical technology expanded the use of new medicines like penillicin, and new equipment invented at
20 the time, nearly doubled the life span of a person compared to 100 years earlier thus saving millions of
human lives. On the other hand, the industry of war also developed a great deal: the invention of the tank,
the perfection of the war airplane and the use of the atomic bomb and powerful missiles put all the
countries of the world at risk of great destruction.

Nowadays we are in the middle of the information revolution which makes knowledge more accessible to
25 more people than ever before. Human inventiveness seems to have no limit, so we can expect more
wonders in technology in this millennium, but also solutions to problems such as of poverty and pollution.