Lightning-Quick Technology Advancements, Now Moving Even Faster Than Before
March 6, 2024 This month, I’m celebrating 38 years as a trade journalist. Given this fact — and that 2024 represents a milestone birthday for yours truly — I’ve found myself reflecting more and more upon all the changes that have taken place across the three different industries I’ve covered over this time period.
For example, my first job back in the beverage industry involved opening mail envelopes (remember those?) and sorting them into piles “for” or “against” the introduction of New Coke. (FYI, the “against” pile was four times as large as the “for” one!) Also back then, I typed all of my articles on sheets of paper fed into an IBM Selectric typewriter.
Of course, these memories of those early days as a trade journalist point out one of the most significant changes to take place over the past four decades — technological advancements. From typewriters, my profession quickly moved to green-screened computers. Five years later, portable laptops became the norm. Over the next 25 years, computers became lighter and more powerful — and remote cables were replaced by wireless connections.
Speaking of wireless, the concept of the Internet was completely unknown back in the late 1980s. Back then, if I needed information for a story I was writing, a visit to my local library was in order. Today, however, all the facts and figures I might need are available in seconds thanks to Google and other online search engines.
Then, there’s the technology advances I’ve witnessed during my time covering the agricultural marketplace. I remember my first photo shoot for CropLife. I had a film camera and was following a self-propelled sprayer in a field. To get some shots, I ended up kneeling. By the end of the shot, I was up to my wrist in form marker form!
Since that time, sprayers technology has rapidly evolved. They are now managed through automatic steering systems and in-cab units, guided through fields using GPS. And the data gathered during trips through the crop fields can be uploaded in real-time to office systems.
And as lightning fast as these technology changes have taken place, the next round of ag tech innovations promises to move closer to light speed by comparison. Coming into 2024, the majority of folks in agriculture were discussing what artificial intelligence (AI) system might mean for the industry. In addition, many of the equipment makers have started combining their resources to make data gathering/communications easier. Examples of this trend in action include John Deere’s partnerships with satellite provider SpaceX and Corteva Agriscience. I expect many more such technology partnerships/innovations to occur quickly as the 2024 spring season morphs into fall.
I remember that in the first-ever article I wrote for my old beverage magazine, I quoted 19th century lawyer Wendell Phillips. “Revolutions never go backwards,” he had said in 1845. And when it comes to technology, this is as true today as it was almost 200 years ago.
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