We are ending our second week of a government shutdown. Let’s look at the ways technology will be changed, or ways that we wish it would be changed.
10. NSA: Unfortunately, this organization will be spying and recording as usual. You know they’re going to keep this agency alive if all other aspects fail.
9. Smithsonian/National Parks: What does this have to do with technology?? It takes a lot of research technology to keep these American institutions going. But sense these workers were told to stop due to the shutdown, the research and technology is bound to follow.
8. Gov’t Contractors: Companies like United Technologies will have to hand out furloughs and slow down productions. With the contractors and inspectors gone due to the shutdown, that just trickles down.
7.No Emails?: Every person furloughed is forbidden to check work emails or any other work related technology. Failure to comply could even result in jail time. I heard some may even have their smartphones taken away to ensure obedience.
6. Data.gov: This website is shut down. A lot of people, including school children and college students, depended on this website for research projects and other projects. Obviously, government and private sectors are far more dependent on internet research then they were in the mid 1990s. What if this trend continues?
5. Cyber Security: An agency called NIST, whose specialty is ensuring online security, is shut down. Some nations may see the shutdown as an opportunity do get into cyber mischief. Is the government shutdown a field day for hackers?
4. National Science Foundation: They will make no payments during a shutdown, no grants, no loans, no nothing! Think of all the research and technology they can really help somebody that won’t be happening now.
3. Health/Disease: The Center of Disease Control will be limited in researching diseases, and the technology needed. I hear some cancer patients may not even get treatments due to the shutdown. The seasonal influenza program could be halted because of it.
2. NASA: During the shutdown, only 3% of NASA employees will be working. So pretty much, NASA is shut down. So to all the techies out there: there won’t be any cool science/technologies coming out of this historic institution. And with all this talk about comet Ison, this may not be a good time for that.
1. Furloughs: 800,000 people are without work now. That’s 800,000 people who literally don’t know where there next check is coming from. That’s 800,000 people who probably won’t be buying computers, smartphones, video games, or technological gadgets anytime soon.? My concern is if these men and women aren’t put back to work soon, this trend is going to trickle, then explode throughout the US economy.
How has this shutdown impacted your life?