Jason Barnes, Editor of ITS International
The hit film Jurassic Park took its name from one of the several geological periods or epochs (as they are also known) in which dinosaurs were the dominant land-dwellers. In total, their reign lasted for 160 million years, a respectable length of time by any measure, and in comparison we humans have been around for something less than the blink of an eye. It's just 200,000 years since Homo sapiens first stood tall somewhere in Africa.
So it was food for thought when I heard on the radio quite recently that many scientists believe that the Holocene epoch, the current geological period, is already drawing to a close. It began a mere 11,500 years ago but it seems that we humans have had such a profound effect on the Earth, and in such an obscenely short space of time, that it may even in fact have already ended. We can expect, amongst other things, shifts in seasons, climatic change and mass extinctions.
It's a pretty dreary picture and the tragedy is that, unlike the dinosaurs, we've gone a long way to bringing it about all by ourselves - we haven't needed a major meteorite strike or other natural catastrophe to help us along. In fact, scientists are suggesting that the new epoch should be termed the Anthropecene - the 'time of man'. It's certainly not something to be proud of.
At the heart of it all, of course, is the natural order of things - evolution and all that that involves.
Once in a while, it's worth looking at a dictionary just to remind oneself of words' true meanings. 'Evolution' is defined as 'a process of gradual change, of progression towards a more advanced or mature stage'.
To me, a gradual progression towards a more advanced or mature stage can only be seen as a good thing. So why do those responsible for major deployment decisions put on such a good show of being so scared of it or, worse still, cynically use it to force or excuse delay? In this issue, in what may turn out to be a pivotal interview, Paul Brubaker, Administrator of the USDOT's321 Research and Innovative Technology Administration, argues that the key to Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration's evolution is to deploy the best of what we can achieve with technology now while keeping a close eye on what we may be able to do in the future. Elsewhere, LogicaCMG's David Hytch makes much the same point - that anything deployed today, based on current technology, is not necessarily a full and final solution to a given set of problems and should not always be regarded as such.
In many respects, I couldn't agree more. We shouldn't carry on assuming that something, once deployed, cannot be changed. Such an attitude is absurd.
Even if, as some suggest, we cannot economically sustain Moore's Law for
much longer, technology continues to evolve at a furious pace.
We need to get past the idea that deployment is a final settlement, the last word on anything that we do. We need to be more accepting of the idea that, as in nature, technology is created, lives and matures, and then dies to be replaced by something else.
The dictionary defines an epoch as 'a particular period of time marked by distinctive features or events'. Well, we need to restore some kind of natural order, and to be bringing about some rather more shorter-lasting epochs of our own. Otherwise, there's a good chance that history will find us lacking.
So it was food for thought when I heard on the radio quite recently that many scientists believe that the Holocene epoch, the current geological period, is already drawing to a close. It began a mere 11,500 years ago but it seems that we humans have had such a profound effect on the Earth, and in such an obscenely short space of time, that it may even in fact have already ended. We can expect, amongst other things, shifts in seasons, climatic change and mass extinctions.
It's a pretty dreary picture and the tragedy is that, unlike the dinosaurs, we've gone a long way to bringing it about all by ourselves - we haven't needed a major meteorite strike or other natural catastrophe to help us along. In fact, scientists are suggesting that the new epoch should be termed the Anthropecene - the 'time of man'. It's certainly not something to be proud of.
At the heart of it all, of course, is the natural order of things - evolution and all that that involves.
Once in a while, it's worth looking at a dictionary just to remind oneself of words' true meanings. 'Evolution' is defined as 'a process of gradual change, of progression towards a more advanced or mature stage'.
To me, a gradual progression towards a more advanced or mature stage can only be seen as a good thing. So why do those responsible for major deployment decisions put on such a good show of being so scared of it or, worse still, cynically use it to force or excuse delay? In this issue, in what may turn out to be a pivotal interview, Paul Brubaker, Administrator of the USDOT's
In many respects, I couldn't agree more. We shouldn't carry on assuming that something, once deployed, cannot be changed. Such an attitude is absurd.
Even if, as some suggest, we cannot economically sustain Moore's Law for
much longer, technology continues to evolve at a furious pace.
We need to get past the idea that deployment is a final settlement, the last word on anything that we do. We need to be more accepting of the idea that, as in nature, technology is created, lives and matures, and then dies to be replaced by something else.
The dictionary defines an epoch as 'a particular period of time marked by distinctive features or events'. Well, we need to restore some kind of natural order, and to be bringing about some rather more shorter-lasting epochs of our own. Otherwise, there's a good chance that history will find us lacking.
