Technology: tool or master? November 27, 2006
Posted by halleycomm in Uncategorized.trackback
Musings on technology
#1 The evolution of man as a thinking individual capable of acting as one of many for the common good is not readily obvious or easily discerned. Because we, as a species, have been here on planet earth a mere spec in time as compared to, say the dinosaurs, our evolutionary progress is harder to recognize. I wonder if time is the only factor, or are we as good as it gets?
#2 No matter how advanced technologies become, we still seek the basic human component – companionship, friendship…It’s obvious Adam still needs Eve.
#3 Technology is the great equalizer. It brings information, once unavailable, to your fingertips. With information comes power and control. It’s no wonder so many people in high places wish to place restrictions upon its use.
#4 Mobile technology mixes space and place. You can be physically located in a particular place, but can simultaneously occupy many different spaces (depending on how many other people you are talking with) at the same time. Numerous virtual realities. It’s rather a god-like experience.
#5 People are considered connected to an event, even if not physically present. For this behavior, you used to be marked absent.
#6 Users always find new ways to apply technology unthought of by their designers. No matter what technologies are emerging, users will tailor them to fit their specific needs.
#7 Do we really need all of this information inundation 24/7? When do we sleep? Don’t you sometimes want to shut down, sneak away to be alone, if not just for a little while?
#8 I like writing in longhand, running a sharpened pencil with soft, flowing lead across the clean, smooth feel of paper. You lose the tactile feel with the hardened plastic of a keyboard. You get one step further from natural materials, one step closer to becoming one with the machine, with the tools of technology.
#9 It’s a seductive trap technologists set up for us. Give us your money, we have a device you can use without too much thinking involved. We are expecting machines to shoulder much of our responsibility for simple, everyday tasks. I fear technology will replace man’s using his brain. It will make him brain lazy.
#10 I don’t believe technology has made, or will make us better people, or collectively a better society. However, the computer and the internet have exponentially expanded our abilities to communicate with anyone, and seemingly everyone, around the globe. So, with an open, two-way, interactive system to talk to each other, to easily discuss any topic, to promote acceptance of different ideas/points of view, perhaps faith in a positive use and outcome for technology is worth serious consideration.
Interesting thoughts. I recently saw the movie “Marie Antoinette,” which was a good (but not great) film that clearly had difficulty finding an appropriate audience. One thing I took out of it (and one of the points I think the filmmaker was trying to make) is that in many ways your average, middle-class American lives in a kind of luxury that would make a pre-Revolutionary French aristocrat blush.
We have music and entertainment on demand; thousands of different ways to make ourselves beautiful (or try, at least). If we want to visit someone, we can fly out and be there tomorrow, or we can just pick up the phone, hop on the computer or get out the Blackberry. We not only have plenty of food to eat, but can choose among a staggering array of options for any given meal. The finest palace in 18th century Europe would have difficulty providing these things that we take for granted.
But you’re right: If it’s making us any happier than our predecessors were, we rarely acknowledge it. In fact, we always express this nostalgic yearning for “simpler” times. (Which sound nice until you consider how much it must have sucked to wake up at 4 to milk the cows and churn butter.)
We always look at technology as something that’s “advancing” or “improving,” with the idea that at some point someone will invent something so brilliant that all your problems will go away. And sometimes they do, but society always seems to invent new ones.
I wonder how many people really worried about dandruff before the invention of dandruff shampoo!