The Importance Of Technological Innovation

Matthew Cheung

Academic Fair

In the twenty-first century, people laud technological innovation, such as the progression of computer hardware, medical instruments, or environmentally-friendly alternatives. These are all things that are deserving of their praise, as they contribute to the progression of humanity as a whole. Nevertheless, there are things the people take for granted, simply because they have been around for centuries. This is reasonable, because it would be a waste of energy if people praised something simple such as a stool, when they could be providing encouragement to something that would further their ideals.

Not all inventions are based off of good discoveries, in fact, most inventions are developed to combat an existing problem. Medicines were created to ward off diseases, weapons were forged to hunt, protect, and conquer, refrigerators were invented to prevent the spoiling of food. In fact, it is adversity that spurs innovation from humankind, because if everything was desirable, then there would be no reason to use energy on progression.

Over the course of history, humans have discovered that the best way to avoid the effects of something is to prevent it from happening in the first place. So in order to hamper the progress of various bacteria and virii humans have developed vaccines and sanitary equipment such as gloves and face masks.

And the same goes for the condom, although it is not known what the original intended purpose of the condom is, it is reasonable to assume that was either designed as a method of contraception or a preventative measure to sexually-transmitted diseases. The ‘modern’ condom was initially marketed as a contraceptive, but gained popularity due to the rise of AIDS in the 1980s...

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...olyurethane condom for men, providing an alternative for men or women with allergies to latex, and in the same decade more novelty features were added, such as colors and flavoring.

In the modern day, advances in technology have led to the ability for condoms to become even thinner. As a method for disease aversion and contraception condoms are easy to use, cost effective, and offer a great deal of assurance for little sacrifice (even more so when compared with condoms of old). A study by the U.S. National Institute of Health in conjunction with the World Health Organization found that “intact condoms… are essentially impermeable to particles the size of sexually transmitted disease pathogens, including the smallest sexually transmitted virus”. In a test wherein couples with one HIV-positive partner and one HIV-negative partner, evidence showed that the transmission