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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.

The comparison between a human’s brain and a computer is only created by over thinking and giving meaning, or connection to items that should not have either. The idea that we have compared our brains to the latest and greatest invention of each time period is due to our utter and complete disbelief in how incredible our brains are. If the comparison to a computer is a certain number of steps after the comparison to a telegraph means we never really believed our incredible, enlightened, gift-from-god brain was even in the same universe as a machine it created that could only send symbolic messages, so why is a computer even incredible enough to be considered? We would have to rethink our greatest and most important species in existence if what controlled and guided us was only on par with the capabilities of a telegraph, so as soon as something better was invented we saved our egos a little by instead comparing our brains to the next thing and the next. I cannot be sure about the other seven some odd billion people on the planet and however many there are elsewhere, but I do not understand what my brain is, what its capabilities are, or even if mine is different than some else’s. My best guess is that I am not alone as there are plenty of movies and television shows based on debunked rumors about what our brains do and what they are able to do. Furthermore, I do not believe the limit to our brains’ abilities have been seen yet even with the genius ten year olds graduating college, so who is to say that even something eighteen steps past a computer will even be able to hold a candle to a brain. Computer experts could say that they have the same parts, or function similarly, or even an AI that acts like any other human is similar; however, brains are what created the ideas for everything that exists unnaturally in our world, any dream anyone has ever had, any crazy, abstract and terrifying thought that has ever been had and no computer, piece of machinery, or human-created invention can ever be made to have the same unlimited, world changing and foolish potential that a brain does.

Mark Twain lived through an era of significant industry growth. In class on Thursday, we talked about technological advancements such as typewriters, telephones, and railways, which made it easier for people to stay in touch. National corporations also began to play a huge role in society. With everything developing around him, the idea of going back in time with new progressive technological knowledge seems like a great position to be in. To the people in the past, Twain could use his modern knowledge and would seem like a genius; a magician. Before class on Thursday, I didn’t consider where Twain found inspiration; if the culture he was always surrounded by influenced his writing. After Thursday’s discussion, I can see how external events in his life could have led him to write “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court” and I feel as though he is living a what if scenario through Hank Morgan.

For Thursday’s history exercise, I chose to go back to the 60’s/70’s. To be honest, I chose this time era because of the musicians and bands that were leading the music industry. I could definitely picture myself as a hippie, I would love to have gone to Woodstock, and worn loose-fitting clothes. In class I was thinking of being me in the 60’s/70’s, but now that I have had more time to consider the question, I think it would be very interesting to be someone completely different. I would want to be someone who was a strong and effective leader and who identifies with the LGBT+ community. I think being someone who helps lead and organize the Stonewall riots would be such a different experience than anything I could have in the present era. And the riot helped start the beginning of the LGBT rights movement.

One thing to note is, there wasn’t internet in 1969. It is interesting to think about the present era. The Women’s March on Washington started out with a few women on Facebook and now it has spread across the whole country and it is expected that at least 200,000 people show up. In 1969, people still had phones and transportation, but didn’t have social media. Social media spreads news faster than word of mouth, newspapers, and radios. I wonder what it would have like there was Internet in 1969.