Imagine a life without technology? What would humans be like? What would be their habitats? How does technology effect people and their ways of life? Technology refers to all the ways people use their inventions and discoveries to satisfy their need and desires. Ever since people appeared on the earth, they have had to work to obtain food, clothing, and shelter. They also have had to work to satisfy their desire for leisure and comfort. Througout years, people have invented tools, materials, and techniques to make work easier. They also discovered how to harness water, wind, steam, electricity, and other sources of power that increased the rate at which they could work. Many people call the age we live in, the age of technology.

Yet people always lived in a technological age because they have always had to work to obtain most of life's necessities and many of its pleasures. Since 1850, science has played a major role in modern technology. However, technology has often contributed to science. The advancement of technology has benefited people in numerous ways, but it has also created serious problems. Technology has helped people gain a degree of control over nature and build a civilized way of life. The earliest human beings had little control over nature. They had only simple tools and did not know how to raise animals or plants. Instead, they obtained food by hunting, fishing, and gathering. Animal skin was their only means of protection from the cold weather since they had no permanent homes. For instance, people would relay on the sun and the moon as their only sources of light. Throughout the ages, technology has benefited people in many ways. Technology has helped people by increasing production, reducing labor, and raising living standards.

Although technology has benefited our society, it has also caused forms of damage. Such damages like environmental pollution, unsatisfying jobs, the depletion of natural resources, and unemployment are due to automation. Inventions have contributed to technology and made our lives easier. Inventions have given humans an enormous control over their environment and enabled them to live better, easier, and happier lives. The invention of the automobile has also helped determine where people live and the kind of work they do. These inventions have also helped determine what people eat and wear and how they play and relax. For example, automobiles are the most important means of personal transportation for millions of people around the globe. People depend on their cars and trucks to travel to and from work, to run errands, to visit friends and relatives, and to take vacations.

In the early 1900's, Ransom E. Olds, Henry Ford, and other pioneer automakers began mass-producing cars. Although some people disliked the "horseless carriage,'' many welcomed the introduction of the new machine because it would replace horse-drawn carriages. It became a major form of transportation in the United States because unsightly horse droppings would no longer litter the streets, creating a terrible stench and attracting disease-bearing flies. No longer would people be burdened by the need to keep horses or be limited to traveling short distances.

The giant auto industry developed over the years as an increasing number of people bought cars. Americans were said to have a love affair with the automobile, and the United States became a nation on wheels. The automobile revolutionized the American way of life and changed living patterns in much such a the same way that spread to other countries. The automobile helped give people the freedom to live, work, and travel wherever they wanted. It ended the lonely lives of farm families by placing neighbors, cities, and towns within easy reach. The automobile led to the growth of suburbs, motels, shopping centers, superhighways, theme parks, drive-in restaurants, and drive-through banks.

The development of automobiles has had an enormous effect on people's way of life throughout much of the world. Probably no other invention, discovery, or technological advance has created greater or more rapid changes in society. The automobile has given people incredible freedom of movement. It enables them to decide where they want to go and when. The automobile influences where people live and work and how they spend their leisure time. The striking changes created by the automobile begins in people's lives in the United States and have since spread across much of the globe, especially in developed countries. Even in undeveloped nations, the automobile is increasingly reshaping patterns of living.

When the first automobiles were produced, only the well-to-do could afford them. Soon, prices declined as production increased in response to the growing demand. The lower prices put the automobile within reach of more and more Americans. Well-off urban residents found car ownership cheaper than keeping a horse and carriage (Scharchbury,56). The growth in car ownership led to building more and better roads, which further increased travel throughout the nation.

Although cars were first bought mainly by affluent city folks, it was farmers who became the first large-scale group of car owners. During the late 1890's, about three-fifths of all Americans lived in rural areas and had little contact with people more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) or so away. Most rural Americans were farmers or residents of small towns that served farmers. In the early 1900's, those people became the first mass group of car buyers. Automobiles enabled farmers to sell their goods faster and farther away, and to travel more often and in greater comfort than ever before.

Before the development of automobiles, urban workers walked, bicycled, or rode horse-drawn carriages to their jobs. But as roads improved and car ownership expanded, workers no longer had to live near their jobs. During the 1920's, people in U.S. cities increasingly moved to the suburbs because of the freedom provided workers by automobile ownership. By the mid-1950's, even factories had begun to relocate in the suburbs. Wherever people have easy access to automobiles, cars play a major role in social life and the choice of recreational activities. People find it fun to hop in the car and visit friends and relatives, whether the drive takes a few minutes, hours, or days. The automobile helps make it easy to organize picnics, family reunions, and other get-togethers. Trips by automobile to places such as theme parks, national parks, and mountain and seashore resorts are a favorite site of vacation for many people.

Even though there are many benefits in owning an automobile, there are also many disadvantages in the invention of an automobile. The disadvantages deal with economic impact, problems of safety, and environmental impacts. One of the major disadvantages is the environmental impact. For example, As automobiles burn gasoline, it releases hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides into the air. Air pollution endangers people's health and damages crops and livestock. Automobiles produce terrible pollution in many of the world's big cities. Severe pollution occurs in such cities as Los Angeles, Mexico City, Tokyo, and Madrid, where the streets and highways are choked with traffic.

In many countries, steps have been taken to control air pollution caused by automobiles as well as by other sources. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforces federal emission standards that limit the amount of pollution new automobiles may produce. American automakers have made great progress in reducing the emission of major pollutants by meeting the increasingly strict federal standards. Some people may say that the creation of the automobile has caused more damages to our environment than others. Many critics' belief that by adding a heavy tax on gasoline increase in mass transit and increasing mass transit stations than traffic congestion and pollution will decrease. According to James Q. Wilson, author of  "Cars and Their Enemies", he believes differently. He explains that the increase taxes and increase mass transit options were ideas of Western Europe. The results of these politics of western Europe was an increase in autos per capita that was three times faster between 1965-1987.

In my opinion, some more realistic ways to decrease traffic pollution, traffic congestion and car use would be to implement toll charges depending on the amount of traffic. Increasing gasoline taxes and offering more bicycle routes. Without a car, one would lose many benefits such as freedom, privacy, and flexibility. I feel that the author belief of automobiles is right! I feel that life without an automobile would disrupt my way of living. Maybe I am a "slave" of the car, but I do not feel like a slave to the system. My car allows me to travel anywhere I want to go at any time depending on my schedule. Although I fight traffic on a daily basis to and from school, I find it more convenient and relaxing being in my own car.

I do not understand how a person could get up from a long day of work, walk a few blocks to a train station, fight a crowd, stand in a crowded train and walk another few blocks to go home to be more satisfying than fighting moderate traffic to get home earlier. I enjoy my car very much and the benefits it offers. I would not trade in my freedom, flexibility, and privacy for a cramp train ride.