Month: January 2017

Reflecting on this past week of classes I wanted to zero in on one particular aspect of class that was especially thought provoking to me. To me it was the idea that at any particular time in history, no matter what that time period is known for or the light that it is painted in, there will always be people who didn’t see it that way. History is not necessarily kind to all people, just because a time period was known for it’s advancements or it’s carefree lifestyle that does not mean that everyone who lived at that time thought of it that way. This reminds me of the fundamental idea that history after all, is a tale told by the victors. The losers are never the ones who’s story lives on, the positives are always taken into account first. This makes me think of today’s society and our endless technological advancements and how we as people are shaping society and the world around us. We may see what were accomplishing as being purely beneficial, but is it beneficial for all? Are we taking advantage or overlooking certain aspects of our world and society that normally we wouldn’t consider? I think that this is an absolutely valid question and this notion could be one that we’ll look back on years from now and regret. I firmly believe that as a society it couldn’t hurt to use precautions as were endlessly churning out new technological advancements and take a step back and think about what were impacting by doing so. As our time in this class goes on I want to continue to think about this question and see if this is a trend that has happened throughout history.

Technology has become more and more commonplace as time has progressed. That has never been as true as it is today. The reliance we have on technology has reached a point that the educated entities of the world have begun taking serious concern on the roll they play in our lives. This week we talked about the reliance that the students in the class have on technology and related it to several external understandings and points of views on the subject.

We began our first full reading of the course in Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s court” which has begun to discuss the differences in technological advancement between these time periods. This is analogous to our world today where, in comparison to Hank Morgan, we would find ourselves in very similar situations as to what he is experiencing in Camelot.

As the course continues I expect that we will see more discussions of the differences in technological innovations as the name ‘Time/Machine” would suggest. Furthermore, I think that the discussion of our brain as a computer will play heavily into our discussions in the future since it is a powerful metaphor for technological innovation.

Technology is everywhere. Without it what would we become? Imagine a world in which some of the most impactful technological advances just vanished. We’d feel less complete without it. For example, for us millennials a day spent without our “smartphones” is almost equivalent to the sensation felt by amputees – phantom limb. We might as well have legitimately lost an appendage. The euphoria one feels once reunited with their beloved “smartphone” is worrying to say the least. Instant gratification in the form of “text messages” and “social media” has overrun our lives. Human communication has become a farce of what it once was. But don’t get me wrong I am a supporter/optimist when it comes to the advancement of technology. I would go as far as to say scientific literacy should be demanded of all our politicians. But it isn’t. How can someone truly exercise their “power” fully without a true understand of the world around them? I believe you can’t.

The first week of class felt as if I was being called out for a crime I committed subconsciously. New technologies are introduced into our lives on a regular basis. No one questions it and sort of just go with the flow of things. Why would anyone reject an easier way of life? Our world is obviously based on commodity. The less we struggle the more we are willing to pay. But what is the actual price that we are paying? We usually aren’t worried about the side-effects technologies have on our lives until it’s too late. I personally feel addicted to my “smartphone”. I periodically find myself in this back and forth with my own mind. I notice I spend too much of my time on “social media” or texting those who aren’t even in my vicinity. Then I tell myself I need to make a change and try to be more present. Swiftly I delete every social media app on my iPhone. Sometimes I last a week without re-downloading these apps. Most of the time I can only hold off for a day or two. Why do I succumb to my urges so easily? Well, my generation suffers from something called “the fear of missing out”.

The crime I’ve committed is allowing technology to shape me instead of using it to shape the world around me. What it means to be human is rapidly changing alongside technology. Should we remove ourselves from technology altogether in hope of preserving our “humanity” as the Amish do? Or should we embrace all baggage technology comes with and enjoy the ride redefining humanity on the way?

As we talked about whether or not the brain is a computer it became more and more clear that most people including myself don’t truly understand what a computer is. Similarly there is so much about the brain that we don’t know. This makes it very difficult to make comparisons between the two but it’s interesting how the two are so commonly compared. As humans I think we are curious about how people think in general and because we don’t really know how the brain works we like to use the most advanced piece of technology. I think we do this because this is the most some of the most advanced information.

The way technology has evolved has clearly had an impact on our society whether it’s good or bad. We see the way that people interact change dramatically. We use our phones to talk to people from all over the place instantly. This change has positive and negative aspects and whether or not it’s a good or bad change differs for each person based on generation and background. In my personal opinion it’s not a good or a bad thing it’s just different. People throughout history people have claimed that each new piece of technology that alters social interaction is harming society.

Sometimes people will adamantly resist technological advances. The most striking example of this would be amish communities. I have lived around amish my entire life and it’s difficult not to notice the differences. They won’t use phones or cars which are pretty obvious but they also won’t use things we don’t traditionally think of as technology like buttons or zippers. As much as people resist new technology it tends to work its way into people’s lives and in some parts of society more than others. Some amish though they will not drive cars but they will ride in them. I think as much as people try to resist technology it has an affect on our lives because in order to keep up with society we have to keep up with social changes.

Technology and time have been two concepts that I always had hoped would merge completely in my lifetime. I always fantasized mostly about the future, from wanting to see how different customs and technology could change in a century to witnessing humanity’s end, as grim as it sounds. Curiosity and wonder are two gifts that I am grateful to have as a sentient being as they can drive entire populations to strive to discover the truth. As a STEM major, it does somewhat irk me that so many past trials and research have been consistently refuted and replaced with something closer to the truth. It makes my window of time here on earth seem somewhat pointless. As my high school physics teacher said, “compared to what we will have learned in about one or two hundred years into the future, we are currently teaching the world is flat”. Time goes on and we can only continue to validate and invalidate past claims. Perhaps, given what we’ve learned, the brain is like a computer, perhaps it isn’t. The only thing we know for certain is that time goes on and that we will continue getting closer and closer to scientific truth.

In A Connecticut Yankeee in King Arthur’s Court, reading about Hank Morgan’s thoughts on the “primitive” time period he was in and how clueless the people were in terms of technology and understanding made me take an uneasy step back and reflect. How primitive our era of flying rockets onto distant planets must seem. With this comparative thinking, the iPhone 7 I currently have in my pocket is like carrying around an old clunky typewriter! With our class discussion about technology and reading about the adventures of Hank Morgan and how easily he was able to fool people of a different era made me think about time and its infinite nature. It’s almost a little bit sad in a way, that perhaps I will never see the next biggest technological innovation of the 23rd century, or if we really can get an entire species off the planet Earth and explore the cosmos. Or maybe how easy it would be for some random person from the year 2200 to trick myself and many others by having a more advanced understanding of, well everything. In another sense, I am also somewhat completely content with the technological pace of today. Since I have no basis other than curiosity, wonder and imagination to think about what the future could look like in a few centuries, I can safely admit that I am currently in the most technologically advanced era the planet Earth has ever seen. To think that we rose from a single cell eons ago to a multicellular, full-bodied species that mastered and manipulated the elements to work for our convenience is an amazing thought.

As amazing as the ride technology and science takes us, our brief discussion about the culture of the Amish also was eye-opening. We usually discard these odd communities as “backwards” people, but they also teach very valuable lessons about what technology can do in a negative way. As easily and as quickly as we can be connected to things like family, friends, information and entertainment with the touch of a button (scratch that, touch of a touchscreen), we can as easily and as quickly be disconnected from the aforementioned. I don’t always like to admit it, but having my iPhone 7 can be a blessing and a curse in many ways, and I now have much respect for the Amish and what they value in life. Technology and time are forever intertwined, and as much good as technology can provide our daily lives with, we must also keep an open mind and see how it also takes away from us in certain ways.