Earlier technological developments brought more benefits and changed the lives of ordinary people more than recent technological developments. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

　　早期的技术发展带来了更多的利益，改变了普通人的生活，超过了近的技术发展，你同意还是不同意这种观点呢？

　　Fire. writing. the wheel: all great and important inventions. and such an important part of the fabric of our society but very much over-shadowed by other recent developments in technology: computers, digital technology and the Internet.

　　Who are the ordinary people in our society? The middle class with their new apartments. nice white-color jobs and cars double-parked on the street, or the struggling working-class. farmers and homeless who have to constantly strive to putfood in their mouths and a roof over their heads. For this second group it is hard to find where the benefits of modern technology are available to them. Do they have access to modern healthcare. modern communications technology. or modern comforts? Often not - many of the new developments are not even reaching huge sectors of our communities; either in this country or other developing, undeveloped or even developed countries.

　　But these late. modern changes would not have been possible without the earlier developments. Fire creates heat necessary for working with iron; writing is at the base of our communication systems. and wheels are under our cars and in our watches.

　　It follows therefore that the earlier developments which have continued to exist （obviously some earlier inventions were found to be irrelevant and consequently lost - the record player, for example） are still bringing benefits to us long after they were invented even though they have disappeared from our thinking. In the future sitting at a computer may seem very old-fashioned. but whatever we use. it will probably be the product of fire. and somehow made possible with the use of wheels and writing.