Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Mother Nature Trumps Technology
The big news of the past week was the grounding of close to one hundred thousand flights to and from Europe due to the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. This has stranded many thousands of people and cost the airlines over a billion dollars. While some say the reaction to ground all the flights was overboard, the entire episode just makes one think. Despite all the advances in technology of all sorts,we still can not compete with "mother nature". This episode shows how prediction of these events is still not accurate and that our amazing aircraft can't compete with the ash and other particles produced in the eruption. Click here to see some fantastic photos of the eruption and devastating effects.
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Currently, our amazing aircrafts can't compete with the ash and particles. However, it is events like this that 'push' the advance of technologies. Don't be surprised if very soon some industrial designer is able to develop elaborate technologies that allow planes to fly directly into and through the ash, smoke, etc. Necessity, after all, is the mother of invention.
ReplyDeleteHey roman, glad to see you still reading! Good point about spurring improvements, and you are right & hopefully they are forthcoming. This situation really put a lot of strain on people.
ReplyDeleteSome spectacular pictures, Mike. The air traffic shutdown that occured as a result of the eruption is just another testimony to how dependent our society has become on technology. I don't know whether there were businesses or even citizens who opened doors to stranded travellers, but it would be interesting to know how many tried to or did profit from the event. When nature disrupts our cocoon, it should be a time when people come together to support one another, cost free. It may happen, sometimes. Having said that, there was a lot of money that went to Haiti for relief, which was good. Yet, there are those in the rebuilding business that stand to make a small fortune there.
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