Page 90 - Technology and Innovation Journal - 19-1

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stagnation will be healed. Creating and propagating and corporate stress by making current profitable
innovative strategies can start all of this. If history technology products, processes, and the jobs that
serves this nation well as a guide, then the major support them obsolete. These changes often affect
advancements and breakthroughs will be through the our familiar and comfortable lifestyles and work envi-
critical transportation and energy production sectors. ronments, creating personal financial hardships and
As with our nation’s forefathers, it was the need for often upsetting local and/or regional economies. If
self-sufficiency and a strong survival instinct that history teaches anything, it is that these changes,
drove this country forward, and it will be through when eventually adopted, improve the lot for every-
that same innovative spirit that we will again advance one, at least for those that are willing to learn and
this country’s economic and cultural agendas. adapt to the change.

A NATURAL ORDER FOR PROGRESS THE INNOVATION PROCESS
The driving force behind these past technological The innovation process is still at work today for
improvements, and those to come in the future, has the energy and transportation sectors, including
been the obvious commercial value they represent, improvements in how goods are manufactured,
but it was and still is innovation that provided the handled, moved, and distributed. Individuals are
stage for increasing, and often accelerating, socie- also moving more reliably in safer and more energy
tal growth. Each of the energy and transportation efficient vehicles. Some of the latest improvements in
advancements has led to growth in our economy and personal transportation not only provide movement,
enhanced the way the social and physical infrastruc- but they are also making vehicles active centers for
tures are shaped and developed. Energy innovation communications and entertainment. These innova-
has provided improvements in personal safety and tions are the natural evolutionary process for any
long-term survivability, and, in most cases, it has also technology. It is this cycle that provides the normal
provided improvements in the quality of life for the competitive impetus in commerce, in the way we
masses. conduct business relationships, and how we arrange
This process of growth is particularly evident our personal lives.
during the introduction of advanced technologi- The way we conduct business and our lives will
cal breakthroughs. These unique, easily recognized not necessarily provide the needed improvements
moments in our history are often unexpected, but, for us to continue to evolve socially and economi-
after introduction, are heralded and embraced by the cally, but the economic and social pressures resulting
public. For example, consider the discovery of flight, from evolutionary and revolutionary innovation will.
electricity and electronics, antibiotics, and even the It is these changes and advancements that provide
internet, each of which has had a dramatic impact the framework for future success, which is often
on our lives. It is in these revolutionary innovations
that true accelerated social and economic progress most notably demonstrated and recognized when
is accomplished. It is also with these breakthroughs employed in the transportation sector, which is by
that a new string of evolutionary innovations can start necessity supported by the energy sector.
their cycle all over again but with a new focus and
direction. The human species is always attempting THE TRANSPORTATION SECTOR
to improve and innovate, which creates excitement History has shown that the key to progress, as
for everyone, including the youth, who can see the well as survival, has been the ability to transport
need for advanced training and educational topics. people and items of commerce. From the earliest ref-
More importantly, innovation, along with the erences in literature, advancements in modes of travel
change that it marshals, is one of the most important were chronicled and embraced by the masses. This
survival traits. Change and the stress that accom- advancement is seen from the domestication of draft
panies it are essential. Stress in all forms, while animals with the use of the wheel to improvements
uncomfortable, toughens us as a species and forces in shipping, railways, and, more recently, air travel.
our social order to evolve and not to become stagnant. These improvements allowed the economical move-
These game changers can also create personal ment of growing quantities of goods over greater