Change agents abound in the world around us. One example is the invention of the elevator by Otis. It changed building architecture, and, in time, cities and even regions. Manhattan would be a much smaller metropolis without the vertical freedom the elevator provides.
Machine guns and barbed wire have changed war. The combination of these inventions was turned to lethal use during WWI and after, and took hundreds of thousands of soldiers' lives.
The automobile was and still is a powerful change agent. Automobiles fundamentally changed business, the way we manufacture, the infrastructure, and almost all aspects of our lives. In the U.S., the business of the automobile became a way of life for many, and its recent violent downturn is far from clearly understood. If fully extended to China, the automobile may once again change our lives and the globe upon which we live.
The automobile is not merely a product, as we know, but road systems, supply systems, insurance businesses, repair businesses, used-car lots, and antique car collections. As a change agent the automobile has created other products and systems which in turn have acted as change agents at some level of importance (motels, roadside franchised eating establishments, NASCAR, to name but a few).
The cell phone may be an even greater change agent. It has changed not just our day-to-day communication but our outward behavior, as we now hold public conversations ostensibly with ourselves, once a sure sign of lunacy. The phone has become a monitor that sends and receives images. And we do the monitoring, too: children are never far from reach with cell phones in their pockets.
Some things initially seem to be beneficial change agents but backfire, as was the case of Freon and leaded gasoline, both products of inventor Thomas Midgley.
The most recent seemingly beneficial change agent may be the motorized scooter called the Segway. This invention has been stymied because it did not anticipate the architectural, legal, political, and social structures of our towns, cities, and states. The machine itself is a miracle of design and engineering ingenuity, but that really seems beside the point. It is a great invention looking for a place to happen.
It might remind some of us of the bin-picking problem. Robotics experts fell all over themselves solving the problem of getting a robot to pick, for example, an anchor bolt from a barrel of assorted bolts. The associated research may have improved the resolution and focus of vision systems for robots, but there was no telling reason why the bolts should have been randomized in the first place. So here was a technology solution that probably wouldn't have been needed if the process had been better thought out.
It might then be proper to ask, before it is distributed, whether a product helps us. On the other hand, we may not know the answer until the market tells us. But some questions deserve attention: Does it pollute? Is it economically justifiable? Does it block or inhibit human life, or destroy other technologies upon which we rely?
After all, change may be inevitable, but it isn't always an improvement.