Efficiency

In my opinion, the best contribution of technology to society is improved efficiency (in time, money and labour) and productivity in almost every field. Electronic searching, sorting and analysing of big data sets has shaped modern life and made collaboration far easier, big data allows us to be better informed in the decisions both companies and governments.
Technology is becoming increasingly integrated in the workplace as shown in this LinkedIn article.

  • Online communication reduces the need for physical travel, increases accessibility and improves time management
  • Electronic databases allow big data sets to be sorted and analysed quickly
  • Software used in labs automate tasks such as basic analysis that allow researchers to do work that requires more specialist knowledge and expertise

Here's an interesting episode of Tech Tech Boom exploring technology improving workplace efficiency on BBC sounds.

Artistic representation of a network.
Uriel SC on Unsplash
Binary in shape of a heart.
Alexander Sinn on Unsplash

Pattern Recognition

Machine learning is proving to be a powerful tool when utilised in many types of research from medical diagnosis to wildlife conservation. This is due to the fact that ML systems can sort through data far quicker than humans and (if they are well-trained) to the same standard.
In addition to this, there have been instances where AI systems have found patterns that experts weren't aware of that led to breakthroughs. All of this means that experts have more time to focus on higher level tasks than data input and basic analysis. This article on LinkedIn describes three main types of image recognition.

Here's a video about the application of pattern recognition by minute earth!


And here's a cool article that goes into a bit more detail by medium