Table 1. Evolution of the Information Industry

Text C. THE INFORMATION AGE

In the past few centuries technological developments have created isolated information industries. The major inventions and industries which developed as a result of these inventions are listed in Table 1. Electrical and computer engineers play a major role in four of these six industries, and they will likely play a major role in all six industries.

Invention		Industry
Printing Press		Publishing
The Electric Battery		Telegraph/Telephone
Film		Photography/Cinema
Electronics		Broadcasting/Cable
Computer		Data Processing
Laser/Fiber		Broadband Systems

These inventions have greatly impacted our lives through the creation of new industries and the easy access to informa­tion around the world. However, none of these discoveries has impacted our lives as greatly as the integrated circuit (IC). The IC has created the information age.

Already the IC has had a profound impact on our society. The slide rule, mechanical calculator, and typewriter industries are dead and their products have been relegated to museums. Text, data, graphics, voice and video can be electronically processed, transmitted, and stored at a cost most citizens can afford. The boundaries between the traditional information industries are being blurred, and their survival is in doubt. Already numerous collaborative agreements and mergers are taking place among these industries. Will the photographic industry survive in the information age? Will the printing industry go the way of the dinosaur? Telephone, cable, and broadcasting networks are fighting for survival in the informa­tion age. Most likely the traditional information industries will be realigned along the functional lines in Table 2. There is no doubt that we will witness profound changes in the traditional information industries over the next decade.

Even more profound is the impact that the IC has had on global politics, e.g. the formation of the European Economic Community at the expense of national autonomy, the push toward open markets, the rise of global industries, and the decline of manufacturing jobs.

Wars will be fought in the information age, both bloody and unbloody, but ultimately in the information age we will see more transparent national boundaries, less national autonomy, and a higher world order. This is so because with the powerful technologies at our disposal, this is the only path to survival as a people. It will not be an easy road. Change never is.

Globally industry and governments are going through a period of rebirth, a period of a global renaissance. This renaissance is the result of the scientific discoveries and technological advances of the past two centuries, the IC having perhaps the most profound impact on society that the world has ever experienced.

Дата добавления: 2015-08-31