Editor’s Comments: The Best of Tech 2016

Sept. 29, 2016

In the 19th Century when the world was making the transition from horses to automobiles, the choice of engine technology was between electric, steam, or internal combustion. John D. Rockefeller helped to make the decision. He had built an empire refining kerosene oil for lamps, but as the development of electric lights began to take hold, demand for kerosene dropped. It so happened that gasoline was an abundant byproduct of making kerosene and also a stable fuel for the internal combustion engine.

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Innovation and technology advanced in large measure as a result of a confluence of economic, social, and industrial needs of the time.

The continuing innovations and development of technology found in today’s heavy equipment is in large measure a reflection of what is increasingly recognized as an anemic-skilled workforce leading to the necessity to field more versatile, efficient, and robust, cost-saving machines.

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This issue contains feature articles that were previously published in 2016. These articles focus on technologies that range from machine control, to building information modeling, to simulators, to innovations in compaction technology. We did this to provide an inventory of some of the major and minor leaps in technology as a waypoint in the development of new horizons for construction trades that are today engaged in such a dramatic acceleration in the rate of change as to suggest a shift in perspective from evolution to revolution.

Moore’s law basically states that computer processing power will double every two years. That creates a virtually open playing field for innovation that’s bound only by the imagination of the engineers and software developers. How long will we have to wait for battery-powered excavators? How long will we have to wait for autonomous front loaders? Decades? Years? Months?

The entire range of infrastructure in the United States is in dire need of overhaul at a time that the skilled workforce is shrinking at an alarming rate. Construction companies and contractors are desperate for cost-efficient equipment that can yield a reasonable return on investment in an arena in which the margins between success and failure are shrinking. Equipment manufacturers are rushing to meet the challenge where, in order to do so, they’ve discovered it will be through technological innovation and advancement. While considering this situation, bear in mind that they’re also competing with each other for your business.

All of the ingenuity we’ve reported this past year have been impressive to say the least. This “Best of Tech 2016” issue attests to that. But I also want you to consider the issue as a new starting line for the technology to come. Think of all the factors that will be the catalyst for the next wave of technology. Think of who will adapt to, absorb, and utilize these. As writer and futurist Alvin Toffler once said, “Technology feeds on itself. Technology makes more technology possible.”