Indulge me for a second and look with me at the way new technologies introduce themselves. I must admit this may come to some of you as little on the dystopian side of things, but I honestly don't intend it that way. But back to my point...doesn't it seem with every new innovation of technology a bigger and better one will soon follow? I know, I'm so profound. Trust me that I have a much more gross perspective than you might think than one of soley stating the obvious. Imagine with me. Have you ever seen those little annimations with a little fish swimming along who is followed by a hungry bigger fish who is being followed by an even hungrier bigger fish? Sure you have, and it can appear to some as a very pessamistic outlook, but really, it's just a fact of life. The article How the Internet killed the phone business used the term "distruptive technology." How true that is sometimes. I would agree in the contexts of the article that VOIPs are a disturbance and an annoyance to the traditional phone company. I believe that VOIPs will be the big fish that eats the phone company unless it can roll with the punches and embrace it. Do you think that's a possibility?
Along that same idea of rolling with the punches I think it's safe to conclude that one idea spawns another. Edward Davy understood this concept as the railroad company took flight. The advent of the railroad created the need for greater communication among railroad engineers for railroad safety. Davy's foresight introduced the operation of the telegraph.
The history of telegraph offers a clear example of how one technology, in this case the railways, creates a supervening necessity for another, the telegraph. (Winston 1998: 23)
How many times have we seen something like this occur? Clearly demand is the major factor in all this. I'll be so bold to say that we want the bigger fish to eat the smaller one. Why? That's a question I'm interested in knowing myself.
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