Technology dictates life of Generation Y

I know I traditionally present this column to you regarding what's new, up-and-coming and cutting edge in regard to technology, but today's topic is a bit more heavy.

Undoubtedly there is a certain breed of individuals reading this column every other week. This breed of people can agree with me that our world operates on two levels.

One level involves corporations that are at the root of all evil and will do anything to gain a competitive advantage and/or market share — watch "Antitrust." The second level — and what you are here to read about — that is operating our daily lives is technology. We are the generation that has both grown up with and innovated any and all technology in use today, according to www.all2true.org/GenerationY.

Major headlines over the last few years — removing terrorist acts and the recent war from the tabulations — have been about corrupt corporate execs, bogus accounting practices, AOL's failure to continue its extensive growth, the Recording Industry Association of America's and Motion Picture Association of America's continual battle with a breed of people who "illegally" are stealing from them, Microsoft's monopoly and finally the fallout and failure of over 95 percent of new tech startups.

The Y2K bug is ancient news at this point in the game, but comprehending the seriousness of what would have happened if all computer systems did stop functioning as we moved from the 20th to the 21st century is mind-boggling.

Every piece of information stored on any computer anywhere in the world potentially could have become a waste of digital space.

Many of our lives unquestionably revolve around this machine we call a computer.

So I pose this question: What is all of this technological advancement for?

In the last decade we have begun to rely on computers as our alternate memories. Personal Digital Assistants provide us reminders and information that could, in reality, be stored in our brains. The ingeniousness behind these complex machines may make our human race less intelligent. We seem to need our brain less and computers more as each day comes and goes.

Perhaps this is the evolutionary path technology has been predestined to take, but it will not be long before we have computers that can replace jobs that once were necessary to have a stable economy. We seem to continue the advancement of technology to the point where a single computer could replace five manual labor type job functions, but at what cost?

We must remember that these machines can't spend money to spur the economy. This part of the equation must be left up to humans.

Finally, a computer that has an intuitive nature may never be built. One of the major separating factors between us and these boxes of silicon and metal components — besides feelings and the ability to reproduce — is an intuitiveness that they will never be programmed to have. We create computers to make life easier, but these computers coincidentally may be the demise of life as we know it.