Technology role in future economy

Joshua Shea ,1220250, [email protected] Econ 3351Thomas Degregori

Technology role in future economy

Technology is going to have a big role in the future economy. Without technology the

world economy wouldn’t have progressed to what it has today or even existed. Without

sophisticated technology the world’s economy would be disjointed and inefficient. Every year

there are new advances in different fields of technology that help feed, nurture, and provide the

world with the necessary things that the world needs today. I believe that some at some point

when people talk about technology they will see it synonymous as their economy. In my essay I

will talk about some of the technologies that we use today that have helped distribute the world’s

wealth and health to the less fortunate. I will also talk about how technologies like cell phones

and nano-technology have played roles in the growth of economies and how they will help the

world prosper in the future.

I believe that mobile phones have played the biggest role in advancing the economies and

how we interact with each other every day. In Maximizing Mobile we are reminded that mobile

phones in the past decade have flourished. They state “With some 6 billion mobile subscriptions

in use worldwide, around three-quarters of the world’s inhabitants now have access to a mobile

phone”.pg(61) Mobile phones didn’t use to be so accessible to the public. The first series of

mobile phones were much bigger and more expensive than they are today when they first came

out. The first mobile phones costs thousands of dollars and mostly wealthy people that worked

on Wall Street or executives used them to conduct business. Now more people in the world have

access to cell phones than they have access to toilets. Farmers in Africa are using apps in their

cellphones to make transactions to their bank accounts making business much easier for the non-


wealthy side of the world. Mobile phones have changed the way people communicate daily and

make business much more accessible and profitable.

For farmers in Africa their most prized possessions are their crops because their crops are

their source of income and livelihood. A farmer has to feed his family to survive also.

Information about diseases and meteorological information are very important to the well-being

of the farmer’s crops. In maximizing mobile they help reiterate why cell phones are so useful to

farmers. Naomi Halewoood and Priya Surya state “mobile phones can serve as the backbone for

early warning systems to mitigate these risks and safeguard incomes.”pg(207) They make a very

good point why cellphones are so vital to the farmers. Farmers in developing countries are

usually far away from other people or society. Diseased, insects, pests, or harsh weather

conditions could strike at a moment’s notice. With cellphones these farmers can communicate

with each other and the community and be warned about these lurking dangers in head of time,

which could save their crops and money. Farmers could also communicate with their buyers and

make transactions which would save time and make their production more efficient. Farmers also

use devices like tablets and computers to help maintain their crops because it provides more

specific information than the basic cell phone that they can afford.

We know that cell phones help people communicate with each other and process business

transactions but sometimes the place is a big issue. In America our generations has been spoiled

in the fact that they can call their friend and ask them where they are at then easily be transported

to their location. In developing countries where transportation isn’t as readily available people do

not have such a luxury. Cellphones and other technologies like tablets, and computers come in

handy for farmers in these situations. In maximizing mobile they state how important technology


is to transporting the goods that farmers have “Studies show that so far traders are using their

websites to relay information on transport and logistics. Some of these services, however, could

also be provided on a mobile phone.”pg(232) For farmers in Africa and other rural countries the

farmers may have to communicate with the buyer to find out where to transport the goods. It

shows how much technology has made it easier for business transactions to be processed. It is

easier to do this on a home computer but it is also slowly transiting to the current cell phone

technology that rural farmers are using. Although developing countries lag behind in technology

they are slowly catching and up. Without developing countries obtaining more sophisticated

technologies the world will not grow as a whole and the economy will hit a plateau and cease to

grow more without more developed nations.

We know that crops play a major role in people purchasing cell phones and other

electronic devices, but the mobile phone also plays a big role in health. Maximizing Mobile

helps put a clear definition on how mobile phones play into the health field. They state “mHealth

encompasses any use of mobile technology to address health care challenges such as access,

quality, affordability, matching of resources, and behavioral norms through the exchange of

information.”pg(272) This is a very broad term but pays justice to mobile phones because they

can help you gain access and communication to health resources in such a variety of ways.

Mobile phones make a lot of medical knowledge readily available at a moment’s notice. If you

have a mobile phone in a rural area you can search the web or apps like medAfrica for diseases

and symptoms. You could call local doctors’ offices and save time and effort making

appointments. Using mobile phones to make appointments is a very useful tool because in many

rural countries or areas people need to focus more time and effort towards their jobs or crops.


Mobile phones are now coming with a microscope attachment to where they can take pictures

and magnify them to the nanometers. This is a mind bobbling piece of technology. People can

take pictures of their wounds or infection sites and then send them to doctors around the world.

Doctors can then diagnose if they are infected with a parasite or virus and then can issue out

advice to the patient.

Mobile health is making leaps and bounds as technology advance and becomes more

readily accessible to the world. But mobile health still has its kinks and limitations that are

getting in the way of it being as successful as possible. In Maximizing mobile they state a few of

these drawbacks to mobile health. They state that “however, the health sector remains both

complex and challenging. The most relevant challenges to the greater uptake of mHealth include:

insufficient financial resources, lack of sustainable business models, privacy and security

concerns, limited evidence, difficult coordinatin of stakeholders, interoperability issues.”pg(297)

Mobile health runs into many problems like not all applications working on all mobile devices,

issues of people thinking that health or government agencies spying on them, lack of people that

can afford to pay for mobile devices, and even limited evidence that the programs and

applications work. Mostly developing countries will carry the burden of the problems associated

with mobile health. I feel that there is little evidence that mobile health is successful because it is

relatively new to these areas and the world. We cannot give up on mobile health; just as we

cannot give up on world hunger. If we gave up on world hunger eventually we would not be able

to sustain the human race and would perish. We cannot give up on mobile health. Mobile health

like any project or type of technology struggles at the beginning. Mobile health will become


successful one day and will provide advanced health benefits that we take for granted in the

United States.

Mobile phones play a huge role in many categories of communication. The first two

categories that I have talked about are agriculture and health. The third category that I will

discuss is banking. Maximizing mobile disusses how prominent mobile banking has become in

the past few years. They state “Mobile money could become a general platform that transforms

entire economies, as it is adopted across commerce, health care, agriculture, and other

sectors.”pg(354) This highlights the points that I have stated so far. Mobile phones are going to

make it easier for farmers to be productive and profitable, mobile phones will make health care

more accessible to society, and the overall transactions that incur on mobile devices is going to

help boost economies. Maximizing mobile uses an example of a successful mobile phone

system. Maximizing Mobile states “the most well-known system, M-PESA, started in Kenya and

is now operational in six countries; it has 20 million users who transferred $500 million a month

during 2011.”pg(354) I believe that the use of systems like M-PESA is going to help bring and

distribute wealth to poorer countries in Africa and around the world. With M-PESA and other

mobile banking systems it is going to make the world economy more profitable and solve many

world issues like world hunger, transportation, communication, and world health.

In America we have ready access to mobile banking on our smart phones. The major

banks like Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo all have mobile applications where you can

log on and check or send money. Every year it is growing more sophisticated. Chase provides a

service where you can take a picture of your check and it will automatically deposit it in your

bank account without you having to travel to local banks. This mobile application is similar to


the application that I spoke about earlier where you attach a microscope to your mobile device

and send photos to your local doctors. Both of these apps save time and money which can be in

turn used to make an economy more profitable. The question is how readily available are these

applications to people in developing countries. Maximizing Mobile provides information about

this topic when they state “According to data from the GSM Association, most of the 100-plus

deployments of mobile money systems have been in developing countries, with around half in

Africa alone. Mobile money systems can be made available wherever there is wireless phone

service, helping to overcome distance, as well as the lack of branch offices in rural

areas.”pg(363) Africa has been lagging behind in technology and in wealth for a substantial time.

With these applications it can provide the spark that Africa may need to jumpstart its economy

and achieve similar statistics to the U.S or other developed countries. The mobile phone banking

system is increasingly becoming similar to the one in the United States. It is making banking

easier to achieve because of quick access and no need to travel.

I have explained that mobile banking and other services provide many benefits to the

population and economies of the world. Maximizing Mobile helps put it into more concrete

words when they state “when the poor are connected on a scale, they are able to use mobile

money to improve their livelihoods. The best data available on this point comes again from

Kenya, where households with access to mobile money were better able than those without to

manage negative shocks (including job loss, death of livestock, or problems with harvests).”

Pg(369)Most people don’t want to spread the wealth because it will take away from what they

are earning yearly but without spreading the wealth we cannot achieve the goals that we set for

everyday life. People want to end world hunger but without spreading the wealth and making


things more accessible to less fortunate people they may become inefficient. Without mobile

phones and other electronic devices like computer farmers will be less efficient with their

livestock and harvest. This could lead to loss of jobs and harder times for the farmers of

developing countries. With the loss of jobs it creates even more of a gap between the wealthy

and poor. With a growing population we cannot afford to have jobless people which would in

turn create more of a burden on the wealthy to help keep them prosperous. I believe that mobile

phones are the first step towards ending world hunger, poverty, and other issues.

Mobile banking has its upside just like any other system but it also has some drawbacks

like mobile health. Maximizing mobile makes valid points on why they struggle. They state

“Despite a growing number of successes, the mobile money industry faces a number of

challenges. Telecommunications and payments are transaction-based, with fees collected on

transactions; conversely, banking is float-based, with money earned through holding

deposits.”Pg(375) This is a major drawback because these companies are targeting poor people.

It is good that the companies target poor people because they to help distribute the wealth and

eliminate poverty but it is hard for many poor people to afford these transactions. For many poor

people they will need to decide on whether to pay for a mobile phone banking service or to feed

their family. I believe that in time this will not be as big as a problem as it is now. I think that

they will eventually decrease the transaction prices and mobile banking will become even more

popular and accessible to the poor.

Most people in America have smart phones. We take for granted how accessible and

cheap smart phones are in the United States. When we enter a classroom at the University of

Houston you are almost guaranteed that most people in the class have access or own a smart


phone. In other countries this is not quite the same. In most developing countries many people do

not have phones at all. Most people that own mobile phones in developing countries use very

low technology based or used “primitive” based models from the developed countries. But as of

recently they are becoming more popular and readily available in developing countries.

Maximizing Mobile states that “ Over the coming years, smartphones will become more

widespread in developing markets. Already, in Kenya, Huawei is offering an Android-powered

smartphone for under $100, and when smartphones begin to be sold on the second- and third-

hand market, they will be even more widely accessible.”pg(386) This is a very encouraging

statement to refer upon. Even though Africa and other developing countries are still lagging

behind in technology they are beginning to catch up. With access to these smartphones farmers

and other people in society will be able to have more information at hand. The developing

countries will quickly be able to access and trade more capital and to even maintain better

efficiency at work.

The development of mobile phones in developing countries has proven to make even a

bigger affect than it would do in the United States. Better phones have made entrepreneurship

even more widespread and bring equality to all fields of work. Maximizing mobile states “Given

its strong recent growth, the global mobile industry is now a major source of employment

opportunities on both the supply and demand side. This report argues that faster mobile networks

and more capable smartphones make mobile communications a platform for innovation across

different sectors (such as health, agriculture, and financial services), supporting overall

employment numbers in an economy.”pg(425) These statements prove that mobile phones are

making a huge impact on the economy. With more jobs readily available for people the more


money there is in the economy and the better off poor people will become. It also should mean

that if there is such states or regions the world that doesn’t have access to mobile phones they

should soon implement them. It will boost their economy and improve living conditions across

the globe. I believe that smart phones are going to get better and better as time goes along and at

some point of time everyone will own a smartphone and will not be able to function daily

without it. I also believe that smartphones help improve all aspects of the economy and life such

as health, agriculture, and financial services as stated by Maximizing Mobile.

We know that everyone likes to use cellphones whether it would be for leisure time or to

get tasks done. When we think of people using mobile phones we usually just think of just a

regular citizen using the mobile phone to achieve proficiency at their job. Who we usually don’t

think of is the government using cellphones. Maximizing mobile helps change our thought of

this by stating “Governments around the world, in varying stages of economic development and

with diverse technological and institutional capacities are adopting or investigating mobile

government (mGovernment).”pg(489) We usually think of the government when we feel that

there is an invasion of privacy on our cell phones, but governments are now using the electronic

tool that the cellphone is to further increase their efficacy too. At first glance we’re not sure what

to think about this but if we refer back to government officials in the United States and other

developing countries we will see that just like everyone else that own cellphones. It makes sense

that they would move on to using cell phones. Farmers use cell phones to be as efficient as they

possibly can so why wouldn’t government officials follow the same path.

Mobile government matters just as much as any other part of mobile services. I believe

that mobile government has just as much potential as all of the other categories also.


Maximizing mobile states that “ Mobile government matters because it has the potential to

liberate users from the physical or location-related constraints inherent in conventional service

delivery and traditional electronic government services. With more than 6 billion mobile

telephone subscriptions worldwide in early 2012 and more than four-fifths of the world’s

population covered by mobile telephone networks, mGovernment can make public services and

processes available and accessible just about anywhere, at any time, to almost anyone.”pg(491)

This shows how much mobile phones have potentially to change government in the upcoming

future. With mobile phones and more specifically smart phones people have a chance to

communicate with their local government easily. I believe that one day in rural areas where

transportation isn’t as readily available that people will be able to vote on their cellphones to

make it more accessible.

In Maximizing mobile they stat that there are three sets of global developments created

in environments that mobile government has become relevant in. This is very encouraging

because if we have increased statistics or development when mobile government is relatively

new there is no telling what it holds in the future for us. The first one that maximizing mobile

states is “Mobile networks are spreading even as devices become ever more capable.”pg(501)

The better the services that the government and people that surround them have the more

possibility for success they incur. I believe once that the government starts to use cellphones

and smart phones more they will encourage their citizens do also and it will boost up their

economy substantially.


The second one that they state is “There is tremendous growth in innovation in the

development of applications and services that use mobile technologies.”pg(501) This is also

very encouraging because the more innovation that the companies show the more people it

will likely draw in. There will also be a wider range of services that the people in that

government and economy can select from. Sooner or later we can expect for the government

and people to adopt applications that are similar to the ones that we us in the United States.

For example they may soon also have the application that is similar to chase where you can

take a picture of your check and then have it directly deposited to your bank account without

you having to drive long distances to a bank.

The third on that maximizing mobile states is that “Individuals have begun to harness

these technologies and applications to voice their demands, mobilize communities, and engage

with various levels of governments.”pg(502) I feel like this is the most beneficial parts of global

development that is possible for the mobile government. In rural areas not everyone has the

same access to transportation so it might not be feasible for everyone to meet up at one place

and vote or discuss polotics. With mobile government they have the possibility to have

meetings and post videos of them online, provide people with voting dates, feasibly advertise

their campaign, and a lot more. The addition to everyone being able to connect to the

government worldwide is a huge step towards global efficiency and intelligence.

I have discussed how important mobile phones are to the world and the economies that

lie within them; now I will discuss how popular mobile phones actually are in the world.

Maximizing Mobile states “Mobile telephony has been one of the most quickly adopted


technologies of all time. While 128 years passed before fixed telephone lines reached 1 billion

users, mobile networks achieved this milestone in just over two decades.”pg(626) This is an

astonishing number to look upon. Mobile phones are more plentiful than toilets are in the

world now. Mobile phones are some of the quickest adapting and advancing pieces of

technology that exist. Roughly every year there is a new model added to a cellphone line that is

more powerful, better camera, faster processer, more durable, and many other specs to along

with it also. We are very close to a day and age to where we will see that almost everyone in

the world will own a cellphone and may become necessary to live a moderately wealthy life.

Nanotechnology also has a very distinct place in the future. Can Emerging Technologies

Make A difference in Development states that “Desalination of Sea Water: the membrane cost

and high energy demands are limitations for most desalination plants. Novel polymeric

materials and nanofibrous media may enable high flux, low pressure membranes, thus reducing

energy demand. “Pg(253) This is just one of the many of ways that nanotechnology can bring

us clean water. We have to worry about this issue constantly because with a growing amount

of people in the world there is going to be less and less clean water for us readily available. We

need to find a cost efficient way of turning dirty water into clean with the least amount of

energy possible. Nanotechnology is at the front of all of the technologies that promises to help

bring the poor people in Africa and other developing countries clean water.

Nanotechnology is one of the most promising technological advances that have come up

next to the most renowned cellphone. But just like cellphones they have their controversies.

Can Emerging Technologies Make a Difference in Development helps state this. They state


“Nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and communication technologies are among the

emerging technologies that have great potential, yet they are not without controversy. Will

they deliver on their promise or will potential drawbacks outweigh their proffered benefits?”

Pg(97)Many people are paranoid of nanotechnology just like any new prosperous invention.

With just a little research and education most people would change their minds about it. Many

people are paranoid about the pesticides in their produce. They believe the pesticides that are

in their produce will make them sick while it is the exact opposite the pesticides will keep from

getting sick. There are very few cases where people have gotten sick off of pesticides. Many

people also believe that the government spies on them through their cellphones and internet

connections while there has also been no evidence to prove this. Many people are hesitant the

same way nanotechnology. They are afraid that when the nanotechnology is in their water

irrigation systems that it will have an adverse effect on them. They are also afraid of the

nanotechnology that monitors the crops will also have a negative effect on them. There has

only been evidence that nanotechnology have positive effects on our lives and surroundings so

far. I believe that within time people will warm up to nanotechnology just like they did to

cellphones.

I have discussed how important nanotechnology and cellphones are to society and the

world economy. They both have the chance to increase the money in our economy,

productivity, efficiency, and communication. Cell phones will soon be owned by almost

everyone in the world. They continually redefine how we interact with the government, health,

banking, communicating, and business. Cell phones have proven to distribute the wealth to the


poor. Within the distant future everyone in the world will have access to cell phones and will be

more profitable. Nanotechnology is also another form of technology that I believe will

continually redefine and shape are upcoming world. It will change everything we know.

Nanotechnology has the possibility to make leaps and bounds in many fields including health,

water supply and irrigation, food production, crop efficiency, and even more. I believe that one

day nanotechnology and cell phones are going to be the kings of technology. They will

distribute the wealth, increase health in the lives of people around the world, redefine how we

communicate, increase human efficiency all around, and much more. I also believe that one day

there will be combinations of nanotechnology and cell phones. With these two pieces of

technologies combined there is no telling how much more information and efficient we can

become. With nanotechnology and cell phones present in the future it looks good for the world

economy and prosperity of mankind.

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Technology role in future economy