REGIONALNI CENTAR ZA TALENTE POAREVAC

HOW DOES TECHNOLOGY CHANGE A MAN?

KAKO TEHNOLOGIJA MENJA OVEKA?

Autor: Aleksa Trifunovi, O Vuk Karadi, Poarevac

Mentor: Suzana Todorovi, profesor engleskog jezika, O Vuk Karadi, Poarevac

Summary: In this paper I have described how people can be changed and how technology
can change our lives. I have compared modern people with ones from the past and described
modern life. I have written about famous inventions which helped humankind, such as the
wheel, which was one of the most important inventions in the history, Thomas Edisons
incandescent lights which were affordable and which helped ordinary people to have artificial
lights in their houses or James Watts steam engine which was used for making steamboats,
trains and other means of transport for centuries. I have written about the Wright Brothers
who made the worlds first airplane which could be controlled by its pilot. I have also written
about some inventions and technology advancements which didnt help humankind like guns
and other weapons used for war and nuclear energy which destroyed and ended many lives
and poisoned parts of our nature.

Keywords: technology, inventions, humankind, consequences, history

Rezime: U ovom radu ja sam opisao kako se ljudi mogu promeniti i kako tehnologija moe
promeniti nae ivote. Uporedio sam moderne ljude sa onima iz prolosti i opisao sam
moderan ivot. Pisao sam o poznatim izumima koji su pomogli oveanstvu, kao to je toak
koji je jedan of najvanijih izuma u istoriji, Edisonova usijana svetla koja su bila priutiva i
koja su pomogla obinim ljudima da imaju svetla u njihovim kuama, Vatova parna maina
koja je vekovima koriena za pravljenje parobroda, vozova i drugih nacina transporta.
Takoe sam pisao o Brai Rajt koji su napravili prvi svetski avion koji je kontrolisao pilot
aviona. Pisao sam o izumima i tehnolokim naprecima koji nisu pomogli oveanstvu kao to
su pitolji i druga oruija koje se koriste za rat i o nuklearnoj energiji koja je unitila i
okonala mnogo ivota i koja je otrovala delove nae priode.

Kljucne rei: tehnologija, izumi, oveanstvo, posledice, istorija

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How does technology change a man? Well, it can change a man in numerous ways. It also has
a huge impact on our society. Nowadays, almost everyone has a cell phone, a computer and a
TV. Technology can influence our culture and everyday life but it can also damage it and
destroy it. Even in the Middle Ages people were always on the edge, their lives were always
in danger, people had to act on instinct in order to survive. Hunters had to hunt for food to
survive, they had to be agile, fast and quick thinking, they had to be in shape. But people
today spend too much time in front of computers and TVs and their instincts are slowly
fading.

(So true)

Dont get me wrong, I would rather be careless in my house and watch TV than have my life
constantly in danger, but I hope you get my point. Peoples senses are getting duller and
duller. We are constantly brainwashed by media. We are getting more obese. Our productivity
is mostly non-existent and we are also engulfed in ignorance because the news we are
constantly hearing is carefully crafted to give us a fake glimpse at the world. Not everything
is so dark, we still have some great and creative people and although technology can change
us negatively, it can also be quite useful and helpful. Lets say your car broke down in a
forest. Of course you are not going to panic because you have a new Android phone which
has GPS navigation. You would just turn it on and find the nearest urban place and get help.

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 (I never go anywhere without my phone...)

One of the first inventions which appeared in the middle of the fourth millennium
before Christ was the wheel. The wheel is probably one of the greatest and most important
inventions of the humankind. It is impossible to imagine a machine or a mechanism which
works without some kind of a wheel or an object moving in a circular motion. The wheel was
and is still used today as a part of most machines used for transport like cars, bikes, chariots.

There are so many things that technology also improved. For example, the first steam engine
which was invented by Thomas Newcomen and dates back to 1712 and which was later
improved by James Watt. Later in 1800s steam engines led to the first trains and steamboats
which transported people and their goods. Those trains moved at approximately 50 km/h.
Three centuries later Bullet Trains called Shinkansen were invented by the Japanese. Those
trains move at 300 km/h.

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 (Arent they amazing.. .)

Another great example when technology helped humankind is the creation of artificial lights.
The first artificial light was fire, but it was dangerous and inconvenient to transport from
place to place, and then about 20.000 years ago people realised that they could gain light if
they burnt oil, which led to development of primitive lamps. And then 5000 years ago candles
appeared, which were convenient and relatively easy to make. Lighting inventions were
improving and improving, lanterns were invented and in the 19th century we started using gas
lighting. During the 1800s many scientists and inventors wanted to create a cost effective,
long-life and practical incandescent light bulb. The problem was creating a long-lived, high-
temperature filament which was the key to a practical incandescent light. Many high-melting-
point materials were explored in inert or evacuated chambers in the process. The one who
made the first commercial incandescent light is Thomas Edison with the help of his team. He
and his team discovered a bamboo filament which could last about 1200 hours. He wanted to
make electricity affordable so that anyone could have their artificial light at their homes. He
actually succeeded, because everyone, still to this day, uses electric lights at their homes.

(We still use these bad boys.)

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For centuries humans imagined that they could fly but that was made possible by the
Montgoflier brothers and the Wright brothers. First passengers in a man-made flying machine
were a duck, a rooster and a sheep! They flew in September 1783 in a first hot-air balloon
which was made by the Montgofliers. There were a few failed experiments until the Wright
brothers made the first airplane called the Flyer .The Wright Brothers spent a lot of time
watching birds in flight. They noticed that birds soared into the wind and that the air flowing
over the curved surface of their wings created lift. They noticed that birds change the shape of
their wings to turn and manoeuvre. They believed that they could use this technique to obtain
roll control by warping, turning or changing the shape of a portion of the wing. Before
creating the worlds first airplane they were experimenting with gliders. They researched
works of scientists from their time. They realised that the problem with gliders was that the
pilot didnt have control over it. The Wrights made a few prototype planes and spent most of
their time creating a kind of machine which would give control to the pilot. They had
experience with engineering because they owned a bicycle repair shop. The Wrights were the
first who created three-axis controls which helped the pilot maintain the planes balance. Their
first planes parts were all custom made. The Wright Flyers first flight was on December
17,1903. Their plane looked something like this.

All of those inventions helped and changed humankind in various ways. But there are some
inventions which changed us in a negative way. Some inventions like guns and all sorts of

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weapons used for war and things like viruses created in labs which kill thousands of people on
a yearly basis.

Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission in order to generate electricity and heat.
People today are still debating if nuclear energy should be used because nuclear power plants
create a lot of damage to the environment. We still feel the consequences of Chernobyl
disaster, one of the biggest nuclear disasters in history. Consequences of this disaster are still
being followed, but it is believed that thousands of people died and 70,000 suffered severe
poisoning. In addition, a large area of land may not be livable for approximately another 150
years. In the vicinity of 18 miles around Chernobyl home there were almost 150,000 people
who had to be permanently relocated. People were not the only one who felt consequences,
incredible quantity of radioactive materials was released into the atmosphere. The sad thing is
that Chernobyl was not the only extremely large nuclear disaster. In 2011 in Fukushima,
Japan, due to earthquakes and equipment failures nuclear containments started melting. It
leaked many nuclear materials both into land and sea. That event helped several countries
decide that they should close nuclear reactors for good.

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 (Destroyed reactor in Chernobyl and a destroyed reactor in Fukushima)

Conclusion: Technology can be a great addition to our world if used properly. We can do
marvellous things with its help. Our lives can be fun and easy. We can educate younger
generations and help them learn from our mistakes. But if technology is exploited for greedy
and bad reasons it can damage us and the whole world in unimaginable ways.