I think that the most amazing thing that I have seen a computer do is to give purpose and "sight" to the blind. At Time Warner Cable's Call Center in Palm Desert, California there is a supervisor named Dennis. He is "the eyes and ears" of the monitoring staff that tracks employees and the work that they do. He knows when you are away from your desk to long on a break. He knows whether that break is scheduled, taken later than scheduled, over the time limit schedules, or completely unscheduled. He is completely "wired" in to everything that goes on in the call center. The amazing thing about it is Dennis is completely blind. Not just legally blind but lacking eyes in his sockets blind! His Seeing Eye dog is even one of the topics of the initial two week training class for customer service reps. They admonish new hires that the dog is at work. Just as we are at our job, she is on her job. How I wish that I could loll out full stretch with my feet up in the air and my tongue lolling out of the side of my mouth at work! I guess however since she get's paid in dog biscuits and love rather than money she can pretty much use her "breaks" any way that she sees fit. Dennis on the other hand is attaining purposefulness and a level of both respect and employability that is unparalleled in any other time in history. Without the computer and the technology that "reads" the information on the screen both verbally and on a Braille pad that sits just below his keyboard on his desk. Dennis is, to me anyway, amazing, just the fact that he has mastered the office computing skills and software without once looking in a manual, or reading a single book or magazine article exemplifying the latest technological marvels that are to be had. He has learned to operate a computer much better than many of the sighted employees working in the Palm Desert Call Center.
If this makes sense, the computer has taken this blind mans intellect and ability and has made him a contributing member of the monitoring and supervisory staff in a Fortune 500 company. It has also put him into a position of high visibility (ie the newspaper article that is posted also on the company's customer interface site) and a position in which he is truly the eyes of "Big Brother" in so demanding a job that only 20-16% of sighted people are able to maintain their equilibrium or sanity, and for all intents and purposes made him a member of the club "one of us" if you will. I once asked him what he thought of the article, or if he even knew it was there on the website, his response both surprised and amused me. He said that the article and all of the self aggrandizement that the company was enjoying was a "crock of crap" to quote the man correctly. He says that not only is Time Warner not responsible for his skills or abilities but that he had to fight uphill to get into the position and even though he has held that position, with the respect and blessings of his peers, superiors, and people over whom he has seniority, for almost 5 years, due to the fact that he is blind he must daily prove his worthiness and abilities.
Progress of science and technology has the potential to become the growth engine of economy. The country can have industrial and agricultural yield with reduced cost input with the help of science and technology. As a result, countries can expert these products and technology-based services to other international companies and governments. This development earns direct foreign revenues in the form of profit and indirect foreign revenues in the form of foreign investments. Consequently, the GDP (gross domestic product) of the country rises, which is the sign of a growing economy.
