Question

Discussion: I, Pencil

"Actually, millions of human beings have had a hand in my creation, no one of whom even knows more than a very few of the others."

– Leonard E. Read

Think about this quote, before, during, and after you read the essay, “I, Pencil.”

For this discussion, I would like you to reflect upon this quote and the essay to answer and participate in a discussion about the following:

How is the creation of a technology actually a communal operation? How is the nature of technology, now - not just a tool, but a collection of systems upon systems upon systems? Considering the network, what must we as humans, living in a shared environment, consider in the creation of technology? Have we lost sight of the wonder of technology? The interconnectedness of its nature?

This is a global technology discussion, please reply with at least 300 words. I will rate your reply, thank you!

Answer 1

The technology landscape has changed a lot over the years and the method in which tools and systems were developed have also undergone a significant transformation. If we look at the turn of century, we can see that there were many software giants who created tools and solutions which were sold to customers. These tool were independent but they were not open to other integrations. Any change needed would have had to b be done in the software itself. But over the last few years there has been a significant rise in the use of open source tools and systems. There are lot of platforms which encourage the sharing of resources and tools across geographies.

The new open source mindset encourages developers and users to co-create tools and host them in open systems which can be used by everyone. While developing these solutions, the teams have to understand the future changes which can be done and there should be open data points and service enablers in the system which can easily read and share the data from the system. This kind of functionality was absent in lot of earlier tools which has limited its usage in the new era. The open source tools can integrate with each other faster and the data structure is made in such a way that the data can be exchanged across software’s easily.

Another trend that is being developed is the usage of a platform and micro service architecture. This ensures the data and services can be called from any platforms as micro services which can be consumed by the software’s and systems. All leading software giants like Google and Amazon have moved to micro service based architecture. The containers, dockets and other services which are being propagated by these leaders are changing the way businesses identify and use the technology globally. In the present age, with use of open source system and micro service architecture many tools can be interconnected while being able to function on its own independently too.