Converging Technologies Essay

Technological convergence is the process by which existing technologies merge into new forms that bring together different types of media and applications. Converging technologies combine voice, data, and video often on a single platform. Eliminating the need for separate networks, separate vendors, separate hardware, and separate system management. Combining voice, data, and video networks can often save money on upgrades and changes, reduce network management costs, reduce local access and long distance charges, and reduce overall costs required to keep current technology. An example of converging technologies is the iPhone it combines voice, data and video . The iPhone was science fiction made real—the beginning of a new era of gadget lust and device convergence. Jobs may have put it best, during the smart phone's unveiling in 2007: “We are all born with the ultimate pointing device—our fingers—and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse.” It is, simply, the story of the age--how technology is changing the way we spend our time and our money. The Internet, business and entertainment are rapidly converging , and NEWSWEEK has the finest team in the country to cover it. The integration of nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. Biotechnology is the application of biological organisms, systems, or processes by various industries to learning about the science of life and the improvement of the value of materials and organisms such as pharmaceuticals, crops, and livestock. It is a relatively new and fast-developing field that integrates knowledge from several traditional sciences: biochemistry, chemistry, microbiology, and chemical engineering. Information Technology Information technology (also referred to as IT) is the application of computers and telecommunications equipment to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data, often in the context of a business or other enterprise. The term is commonly used as a synonym for computers and computer networks, but it also encompasses other information distribution technologies such as television and telephones. Several industries are associated with information technology, such as computer hardware, software, electronics, semiconductors, internet, telecom equipment, e-commerce and computer services. Cognitive Science is the study of thought, learning, and mental organization. Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of mind and intelligence, embracing philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology. Its intellectual origins are in the mid-1950s when researchers in several fields began to develop theories of mind based on complex representations and computational procedures. Its organizational origins are in the mid-1970s when the Cognitive Science Society was formed and the journal Cognitive Science began. Since then, more than seventy universities in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia have established cognitive science programs, and many others have instituted courses in cognitive science. ETC Group refers to converging technologies as BANG, an acronym derived from bits, atoms, neurons and genes, the basic units of transformative technologies. The operative unit in information science is the Bit; nanotechnology manipulates Atoms; cognitive science deals with Neurons and biotech exploits the Gene. Together they make B.A.N.G. In early 2003, ETC Group warned that BANG will profoundly affect national economies, trade and livelihoods - including food and agricultural production - in countries of both the South and North. BANG will allow human security and health - even cultural and genetic diversity - to be firmly in the

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