The Role of Technology in the History of Well-Being: Transformative Market Phenomena Over Time
Year: 2017
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: The role of technology in supporting the trajectory of well-being through history cannot be overstated. The theoretical, philosophical, socioeconomic, political, and developmental aspects of this contribution to human development are examined in this chapter. A key emergent theme is the idea that technology is a profoundly catalytic phenomenon, capable of eliciting both good and bad, and triggering changes in how people do everything—from producing their food to constructing their cities, moving from place to place, and communicating with one another. Throughout time, technology’s unique reflexive and recursive properties have sparked some of our most vital development trajectories and set the stage for our most obvious system-level dependencies today. The role of technology in today’s society can be characterized as both a mirror to and a driver for the imperatives of human progress, irrespective of whether associated outcomes are positive or negative. We review its impacts and determine that it is neither panacea nor curse, but perhaps something in between for whose negative actual and potential externalities we must be vigilant. This chapter outlines a framework for understanding the impact of technology, segmented into input, throughput, and outcome indicators, substantiated by clear empirically supported examples. Innovation, research and development, and patents as inputs bear an important role in the rise of what we today would consider throughputs such as electricity, basic sanitation, automobiles, and telecommunications. These in turn are linked to major technology outputs and outcomes, which are explored alongside questions of the potential equalizing role of technology and a deeper analysis of the subjective perspective on well-being and technology. The cornerstone requirements for well-being (as reflected by the key education, health, and income indicators at the center of the Human Development Index) and the means by which services and products critical to supporting their delivery are intertwined inextricably with the story of technology. The ability of government and the private sector to wield influence and do their work is through the mobilization for “service at scale” as a function of the emergent tools and innovations over the last few centuries (particularly in the post-World War II era). Key technological innovations in education well-being (defined by mean years of schooling and literacy) have affected the formulation and verifiability of educational content, its dissemination and delivery, and the testing and evaluation of students across the world. Technologically mitigated processes and modalities for education delivery have led to a rapid irrefutable rise in global average levels of education over the last four decades, with a concurrent rise in global average literacy by 43 %. The Internet and its effects on adoption of distance learning, adult and continuing education, and the notion of when and how a human being can define what it means to “learn” have further validated the revolutionizing outcomes of technology. Economic or income welfare is a key factor to advanced well-being, and the role of technology in boosting the capacities and productivity of business as a principal agent of economic activity has been tremendously important. If gross domestic product growth is any reasonable partial signal and definition of economic well-being, the contribution of information and communication technologies to it over the last 10 years has increased significantly. The enhancement of competitiveness in a given nation state and improvements in productivity are bolstered by factors such as access to capital and access to markets that this paper confirms are directly facilitated and amplified by technology. As the value of networks continues to expand and economies of scale in the production of technology devices hasten the advent of increasingly affordable (and well-distributed) tools in the hands of the many across world markets, we are likely to see more of the inter-related well-being improvements described throughout the chapter in various domains. Health well-being (defined in terms of life expectancy and mortality indicators), as viewed through the lens of technological development, is defined in this chapter by the tools, processes of access, and products (including pharmaceuticals) and the service delivery models successfully applied at scale for the benefit of the greater good. Data confirm that technical progress accounted for nearly 50 % of reductions in mortality between 1960 and 1990; average global life expectancy across the plane has jumped by a solid 10 % (to age 70) just between 1990 and 2013. Health systems informed by technological innovation affect diagnostics, health outcomes, clinical quality and appropriateness of care, and the analysis of data that clarified vitally important trends and informed exercises (and feedback loops) for remediation and improvement. Tools like mobiles and software are as critical as the systems (i.e., computer-based patient records, electronic health records) that manage personal and community health records for large numbers. The breakthroughs afforded to us by technology, with the concomitant discipline that comes from cultivating and scaling them, support the findings of this chapter that the foundations for human well-being are largely positively correlated to technology. These foundations of well-being would be far more porous, volatile, and unable to keep pace with growing population pressures without technology. The chapter concludes with an outline of the realm of forthcoming breakthroughs, which together with our history, constitute an undeniably important advance in our ability to recognize, synthesize, understand, and tell the story of human well-being. Above all, this chapter articulates the hope that the technologies created by humanity as a collective may be the best reflection of ourselves and, indeed, the purest manifestation of the human spirit in finding purpose, solution, and betterment where few other alternatives exist.
Authors: Audrey N. Selian, Lee McKnight
Institutions: Bibliothèque de Genève, Syracuse University
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2570748604