If you look at all of human history, the rise of computing technology is only a modern concept. Governments have used it for longer, but the birth of the personal computer happened only about 30 years ago. Even then, it didn’t really rise to quite the same popularity until the late 90s.
As we cruised through the 2000’s in 2010’s, we see technology taking on the even larger prominent role in our everyday life. Nearly everything we do today revolves around a computer.
Whether were at school, at work, at home, or even the way we shop, research, eat, entertain ourselves, pay our bills, find love, buy groceries, and so much more, our modern technological advances have impacted our lives unlike anything else in history.
While we consider this a good thing and realize the full potential of where our technology is taking us, a perfect digital storm is brewing.
As these new devices, browsers, brands, and operating systems hit the market, along with all the software needed to run the devices, and the coding that goes into building the over 1 billion websites in existence today, there might be some trouble ahead for the tech industry.
Keeping Up with will Demand
As the tech industry continues to grow at a rapid pace, it’s creating a void amongst firms being able to fill the demand. When you add that to the shortage of software developers and testers, there’s a lot of tech that’s being pushed into the market that hasn’t been adequately tested yet.
When you have a business or an industry that experiences extreme growth in a new age of development, it often breeds uncertainty. New challenges are created instantaneously.
For example, if you’re a gamer, the common advice is to not buy a game at release. They’re eager to get the game out into the hands of public and bring in the cash flow. Because of that, the game requires multiple patches and fixes throughout the first days or even months after its release.
You’d think that the developer would do a better job of testing before releasing a game and causing frustration to their core fans. When you charge customers $60 for a game that doesn’t work very well and has many bugs, you’ll probably get a lot of bad reviews and lose a lot of trust in the market.
Dangerous Implications
The implications of rushing software and all other forms of tech for the sake of getting ahead can spell disaster, not just for the company who makes the tech, but for the people whose lives very well may rely on it.
We’re not just talking about your computer’s operating system, but all the new gadgets that will take up an even bigger role in our lives. What if bugs and malfunctions actually put your safety, your financial status, your job, or even your life at risk?
Recently there was a virus outbreak called Wannacry, which was the largest cyber-attack in history, infecting over 230,000 computers in over 150 countries. Computers at hospitals, schools, and banks were compromised, as well as personal computers.
This ransomware attack, which only happened on Windows computers, was successful because of a vulnerability found in the SMB protocol. There’s no doubt that this sort of attack will happen again, as they are becoming more frequent.
When there is a risk of an attack or just faulty tech that hasn’t been properly tested for release, it can be quite worrisome for the advancement of technology in our lives. If you bought a self-driving car, are you safe knowing there was adequate testing done in the coding and programming?
In most cases, the answer is no. When you buy a product, you expect the details to be worked out already. But, more times than not, they aren’t. We’ve already seen what happens when a company like General Motors knows about a problem, but pushes their unsafe vehicles out anyway.
This is where technology meets greed and demand.
