BUANASENI

Title: Buana VII
Medium: Computer Graphics (Microsoft Paintbrush)
Artist: Johan Ishak
Time/Date: 2:32am, 19 December 1994
Place of creation: South Yarra, Australia
www.buanaseni.blogspot.com

UANA VII is the 2nd last of the BUANA series. After having expressed different aspects of life in my previous sections of the BUANA series, I think "Technology" deserves the right to be expressed, hence BUANA VII. After all, "Technology" has been mankind's single most significant contribution to civilisation.

Technology has led to numerous goodness in our lives but it has its fair chance in destroying the world as well. The following are the Top 10 technological discoveries (in my mind that is) which never failed to amaze me - starting from 10 to 1:

10. Building Structures: No doubt, human beings displayed the best of civil engineering in the fine works of Pyramids, Hanging Garden of Babylon, Great Wall of China, Petra, Angkor Wat, Machu Picchu, Moai Statues, Taj Mahal, Stonehenge, Colosseum, Eiffel Tower, Cristo Redentor, Acropolis, Borobudur, St. Paul's Cathedral, Notra Damme, La Sagrada Familia, Petronas Twin Towers, Golden Gate of San Francisco, Statue of Liberty, and a whole lot more.....

9. Navigational Vehicles: You name it, from Noah's Ark, the wooden ship of the Vikings, the Wright Brothers' first airplane, Daimler's first Internal Combustion Engine, the Titanic to the Boeing 747's - magnificent improvement to the traditional caravan of camels or the migration of orientals from China to the North Pole (later known as the Eskimos).

8. Genetic Engineering: Talking about playing God. Items 1 to 7 below involves equipment, chemicals and natural resources. However, Genetic Engineering is a direct human interference into the Creator's realm - the manipulation of the devine building blocks of life itself!

7. Atomic and Nuclear Powers: Well, what more can I say,.. Isn't this the most dangerous discovery ever that made it possible for Armageddon to be caused by humans themselves?

6. Medical Discoveries: Whilst this has its roots thousands of years ago via the early civilisations of China, Egypt and the like, recent discoveries from the age of the Muslim Scientific Era in Baghdad in the 600's a.d. right to the present day has been quite an exponential achievement.

5. Telecommunication: Be it telephone, facsimile or satellite; every aspect of telecommunication would have been regarded as Black Magic just 200 years ago!

4. Electricity: Well, I am sure anyone can live without Oil, Computers or walking on the Moon; but, electricity! It is almost impossible for the modern urbanites to live without electricity. This extends to the related applications such as Television, Hot Water System, Lighting, Microwave Ovens, Igniting Automobile Engine, Electric Guitar, etc.

3. Walking on the Moon: Hail Armstrong and his crew. What a quantum leap - one day we will be living in Space - Branson's Virgin Galactic is already launching its first spaceship soon.

2. Computers: The closest ever in man's attemp to imitate the biological brain - my favourite being Excel Spreadsheets.

1. Discovery of Oil: Who on Mother Earth had the idea of drilling into the ground to extract ugly looking black liquid with the confidence that it will bring very high Return on Investment? I just cannot comprehend how someone would have that investment instinct. It's not like walking in the woods to discover nice looking berries and had a go at it just to find out whether it is edible or not. This is drilling into the ground! Amazing. I'd rank this as No.1 most significant technological discovery given that its value, in utility as well as monetary terms, is far more than Gold, if not equal. People go to war for this. (Therefore worthy of being the image of BUANA VII)

The links to all the BUANA series are as follows:

BUANA I: The physical
BUANA II: The spiritual
BUANA III: The creation
BUANA IV: The environment
BUANA V: The destruction
BUANA VI: The after-Death
BUANA VII: The civilisation
BUANA VIII: The passion and love