Technology and Space: Will Robots Really Take Over the World?
In a world where technology has become crucial to human life, will robot intelligence supersede our mere mortal minds? The history and evolution of space technology provides us an insight on the role of humans in making positive uses of advancing technology.
Scene from I, Robot. // Photo Courtesy of Film Quarterly
From The Terminator (1984), to I, Robot (2004), to Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Hollywood has historically been predicting the downfall of humanity through dystopian depictions of a society, in which technology dominates the world through Artificial Intelligence beyond human control. Fictional plot points portrayed in this kind of media easily fall in line with the pessimistic and reductionist theories of some technological determinists. However, it often contributes to this misconception of technology as our greatest evil–unleashed and untamable–overshadowing its successes and future possibilities for social progress.
Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator // Photo Courtesy of Techradar
Technological determinism theory suggests that humans are products of our technologies as it seeps into every aspect of our environments. Some theorists further suggest that the natural and inevitable integration of technology will outperform biology, and in essence, technology will define nature. In our ever-growing digital atmosphere, technology will become an all encompassing part of society, and we must accept any measure, constraints, and influences it delivers to us, shaping who we are in the face of ever growing digital atmosphere. Rather than exist as a part of society, it is believed to causally shape and define people and society.
But does technology really evolve prior to human evolution?
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared view of the Pillars of Creation. // Photo Courtesy of NASA
This same rapid technological advancement, especially after the industrial revolution, is also where our world has begun to emerge to the way it is today. With hopes to understand the universe as we know it, early scientists and theorists extended their research beyond the limits of the observable world towards a much more momentous and expansive place, outerspace. Beyond drawings, equations and theories formulated in early academia, through technological development, humans made it possible for us to begin space exploration.
From politics, to weather and climate predictions and modern communication systems, the development of space technology and advancements has not only seen progress technologically but also socially.
Sputnik Satellite. // Photo Courtesy of History
During the Cold War, the earliest space satellite, Sputnik 1 was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union in 1957. As a result of the high tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States of America (USA) in the mid to late 1900s, there was high pressure for the countries to outperform one another in fields of science, technology, and economics. This meant that the first to conquer and explore in the unknown would win brownie points and an ego boost… and hence the space race was on.
Pre-Sputnik space race art from Soviet Russia. // Photo Courtesy of Pinterest
This launch was the result of threats from the USA to be the first to release their own space satellite. Russia beat the USA in the space race, with America sending their first Satellite, the Explorer, into orbit a year too late. After taking the loss to Russia, under the leadership of President John F. Kennedy (JFK), the federal government decided to funnel more attention, research, and funding into space programs as JFK also declared in 1961, his mission to successfully land a man on the moon. Although America is famously known to have eventually landed the first man on the moon, the same year of JFK's declaration, the Soviet Union further outshined the USA in being the first to send a man to space and land a spacecraft, Luna 2, on the moon.
Against their common communist enemy, the government's social and political agenda was to keep nationhood morale high among its citizens and prove its strength and superiority through advancing technology.
However, recent economic and political affairs has also led to the greater privatization of space exploration with companies such as SpaceX commercializing space exploration. With hopes to allow humans space travel experience, the company owned by Elon Musk has been administering routine space exploration under the approval of NASA since 2020, while leaving the important scientific research and development to the government organization.
Advancing space technologies not only made progress due to political and economic pressures, but also began its application in understanding our mundane lives, through weather predictions.
U.S. satellite captures cloud cover over North America. // Photo Courtesy of GPB
Before modern technology, weather-predicting technologies were much more limited, but only continued to evolve with the development of better technologies. Ancient civilizations in 650 B.C relied on their limited sense perception to predict weather changes by simply looking into the sky to observe patterns of cloud movements. Starting in the mid 15th century, Western weather technologies such as hygrometers which measured air humidity, thermometers that measure temperature, and barometers to measure atmospheric pressure, began to emerge. When the telegraph was invented in the 19th century, weather was not only calculated locally using the meteorological technologies but also shared through telegraph networks, incorporating the communication technology to compile the observations to map and predict weather data. Introduced in the 1920s and still used today, weather balloon technology allows meteorologists to record and inform daily temperature to local populations. These early weather predicting methods had become the foundations for the revolutionary transition into modern space climate technology and research.
Television Infra-Red Observation Satellite (TIROS-1). // Photo Courtesy of NESDIS
In 1960, the first weather satellite by NASA called Tiros-1 produced infrared images to map cloud formations and detect wind storms. Since then, environmental satellites have only continued to improve and develop in their forecasting capabilities. Made possible with space imaging technology, satellite and radar not only allows us to map, assess, and predict weather conditions through satellite imaging, but also helps us better understand the human impact on Earth and its climate.
Artist’s illustration of a concept for NASA’s GeoCarb mission. // Photo Courtesy of NASA
NASA has produced numerous satellites that use sensors to picturize changes to the Earth's surface and atmosphere. For example, the Geocarb collects 10 million daily observations of global carbon cycles to identify and assess areas dense in CO2, methane, and carbon monoxide. NASA applies this research towards understanding if current efforts to reduce and manage carbon emissions are successful, and the trajectory at which progress is being made in certain locations. For example, in 2020, new regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) required the composition of fuel in Marine Shipping vessels to reduce the amount of carbon-producing sulfur to 0.5%. These efforts are expected to see a 77% drop in sulfur emissions annually. Using weather satellites that study the cloud trails left behind on the shipping routes, NASA compared previous daily imaging in the same areas over the last 17 years to the current imaging results. The new regulations from IMO were successful as the imaging concluded the tracks left behind by the ships reduced significantly.
In the state of Maryland USA, NASA is currently working on developing new software to monitor water quality in Chesapeake Bay. Dense in marine life, the aquaculture industry is a prime economic generator for the Maryland community. However, a rise in pollutants carried through water increases health risks towards animals and humans with the decreasing water quality. Software algorithms that will study patterns beyond what is observable to the human eye, including satellite sensors that detect invisible pollutants, will allow for progress in better resource management through the collection and analysis of this space data.
Satellite Image of BC Lower Mainland covered in Wildfire Smoke. // Photo via Twitter
The University of Toronto (UofT) is further partnering up with NASA on their international Atmospheric Observing System (AOS) mission which supports Canada’s “Resourceful, Resilient, Ready” satellite Earth observation project. Expected to launch in 2028 and 2031, Professor in the Department of Physics, Kaley Walker, will co-lead the Canadian HAWC (High-altitude Aerosols, Water vapour and Clouds) operations held on 3 Canadian space instruments that will provide data to understand, predict, and prevent extreme climate events and poor air quality. This global project has also enlisted 13 Canadian universities including U of T to sort and analyze the data collected by these satellites. With the successes of research and innovation coming out of the U of T student and faculty body in the department of physics and astronomy, the future of Canada's footprint on science and technology sees great potential.
Even so, the potential for such ambitious, mass-scale collaborative projects have only been made possible with the advancing communication technologies. In 1962 in partnership with NASA, Bell Labs created the first low orbit communication satellite Telstar-1 producing the first transatlantic television broadcast, and phone signal between the USA and Europe. Africa launched the first satellite radio broadcast in 1999, and the USA followed two years later. In 2005, Canada then adopted one of the USA’s biggest satellite radio companies, SiriusXM.
GPS Phone Tracking. // Photo Courtesy of Locate2U
GPS or Global Position Systems further rely on space technology to help us get around in the modern day. From apps such as Google Maps that use GPS location through our phones to GPS systems in built in transportation such as cars and planes, this satellite mapping system has greatly improved safety and efficiency of travel.
Starting with the first satellite sent into space during a tense and hostile Cold War, progress of space technology has since been rapidly advancing, raising fascination and real world applications of space research and discovery, as well as technological possibilities in general. With the scale and rapid pace of developing technology, it can sometimes feel as though we are constantly trying to keep up with new technological world orders.
AI in Marketing. // Photo Courtesy of Infinity Reach
However, it is important to remember that we shape technology just as much as it shapes us.
With modern digital education, it is often clear that technological application in society often carries its own pros and cons. Nevertheless, technology does not have to end up as a detrimental evil.
It is important to factor in political, economic, social, and climate factors on production and impact of current technology. Technological progress is not independent from society and culture, but rather collaborates with them to build and enforce advancing technologies we continue to value.
It is up to us as the creators of technology to decide how and where we use the tool. Hopefully it is created with the intention to move towards social progress (such as efforts towards preventing a climate crisis looming around the corner).
Putting emphasis on research and development in the field of space research through space technologies will provide us information to help us understand not only our world, but also of worlds beyond our reach.
