Samsung's LCD pavilion at CES 2010 in Las Vegas.It's ironic, I suppose, as someone who lived in South Korea for 5 years, that I do not have a better grasp of the shapeshifting nature of technology. From 2002 to 2007, I witnessed the country easily surpass the U.S., Europe and Japan in broadband speed. In the subways of Seoul I noticed cell phones shrink in size only to grow back again with the advent of mobile network television. Social networking was one of the fastest growth sectors. Getting to know someone meant visiting her personal page on Cyworld. Expressing tokens of affection or gratitude meant buying your friends 'acorns' of cyber-currency through Cyworld's gifting system.
It wasn't too surprising then, that at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, technology giants LG and Samsung headlined the 4-day extravaganza of innovation's bleeding edge. Samsung's pavilion was a dazzling display of LCD might. Both companies previewed the future with 3D-TVs and the world's largest transparent OLED prototype.
Technology is a powerful ticker tape of human progress and with progress comes confidence. It's unnerving to think our computers and smart phones will be outdated in 9 months, but in Korea such change was as natural as the passage of time. The pace of change is great and with each technological upgrade, I could feel the country move up another rung on the ladder of perceived advancement. And while the changes never did quite translate into greater social happiness for all, the waves of the future did instill greater Korean confidence about tomorrow. And renewed confidence, with all its illusory advantages, can never be overlooked or ignored, especially when it can be a palpable form of progress all its own.
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