Technology is changing fast and we must keep up

Early planners could never have foreseen or anticipated the changes brought about as a result of advances in scientific and technological knowledge.
The changes mobile phone technology would have brought about in Papua New Guinea still eludes our full understanding and the full impact of this technology, both good or bad, is yet to hit.
The internet is now available to all who own smartphones.
News, gossip, knowledge and porn are transmitted and received at the press of a button.
Criminals organise hits from within jails using the phone and know whether or not the deed has been carried out by monitoring it on the phone.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites offer old and young instant contact with each other and the world at large.
Knowledge, once the domain of universities which catered for the rich and the privileged, is now available to all at our fingertips.
Remember, when three huge waves crashed over the Rabaul Queen on Feb 2, 2011, and tipped the ship over with the loss of nearly 200 lives, a passenger was able to, in that space of time before he went under, transmit pictures of the waves towering over the ship before both passenger and phone were lost forever.
What ordinary people see and experience daily has crossed the threshold of the exclusive club of rigorous editing enjoyed by those of us in the media industry.
Today, what one person sees through the lenses of his or her mobile phone or digital camera is shared instantly with the rest of us who access the net. Out will go concerns about decency, morality and innocence.
No place, no profession will be spared.
And that is how it is going to be for the future.
More and more of our lives will be dictated by the fast pace of technological changes going on in the world.
The question is, do we want to enter the fast and furious world of the truth as it arrives for us the way it does today or do we want to slow down, to accept truth by slow degrees as we have done in the past?
Planning for a country’s progress in such a world must incorporate the changing technological arrangements in the world.
Legislation in PNG, for instance, is way behind some of these developments.
Last week, Communications and Information Technology Minister Sam Basil directed his line agencies to find out how to protect the privacy of Facebook users in PNG.
Facebook came into PNG riding on the infrastructure of telecommunications and IT services providers.
Interesting to note Minister Basil’s comment that the Government, swept by IT globalisation, never really had the chance to weigh the advantages or disadvantages – or even educate and provide guidance.
Before the 2050 vision is realised in PNG there will be changes that will outdated by even today’s standards.
More and more of what we today consider science fiction might be fiction and lived within the lifetime of today’s teenagers.
At this point, though, technology threatens to infiltrate some of our lives to the brink of being too much.
Even more damaging than occupying the time of teenagers is the potential effect so much technology might have on how children develop.
Technology has also been beneficial in many ways.
Our planners today will need to be more searching, more practical and looking more towards global developments before drawing up plans for the nation.