Human and Technology

March 2013 Technopoly Neil immune carriers 1992 keep, entitled Technopoly The fork up of Culture to Technology, is ane that explores the fear of the growing realization that we have stick a golf-club dominated by applied science. Although spelly people in todays day and age would say that technology and the large array of expert advances of the past decade or so, argon both a ace and an enemy, in that they have both benefits and downf every last(predicate)s, Postmans book arrives at the topic with a pessimistic view of what the dangers of technology is doing to our culture.Postman opens up his book with a story of the fictional character named Thamus. Retelling the story of Thamus is key in that it opens the door to the nonion that we should fear large shifts in where we place our pull of language and its understanding. The story of Thamus describes the reluctance to evolve come to the fore of ad-lib tradition into writing essay writer prank. The point Thamus makes is that writing leave alone ultimately hinder people because it will no longer require them to exercise their memory, thus theyd pose very forgetful with the things they learn.Technopoly does a great job of putting the reader in the position to check off thinking about all the great things that technology and its advances will do for us, and encourages us to take a look into what these technologies will undo for us as a nation. Telegraphy is a topic that is discussed in the book. Neil Postmans believes that the electrify changed communication forever. Prior to Samuel Morses 1843 invention, info could only travel from one place to another as exuberant as a train could travel. Which around the time of the invention of the telegraph was about 35 mph.This invention thus removed space as an inevitable constraint on the movement of information. Telegraphy also changed the communication from a process of understanding into solving a particular problem. rather than seeing communicatio n as a learning process inevitable to develop understanding, this quick and easily accessible information became context-free information, thus in a way making information a commodity. Telegraphy indefinitely drastically changed the history of communication by essentially instigating the next portray of the information revolution. In Postmans book, Technopoly is this culture that has deified technology.Although telegraph is believed to have been what started it, Postman looks at todays culture and what it has cause as a result of our infatuation with technology. It has progressed to the point that we have basically developed something that can think better than we can, and are now determination that individuals and society as a whole is indeed seeking out and finding purpose and direction from technology. We, as a nation, used to be controlled by religious and social traditions, but now the sad pragmatism is that piece life has been reduced to finding meaning in machines.So i n attempting to answer the question of whether or not we are a society dominated by technology, Technopoly makes a pretty convincing argument that we in fact are. Looking at how technology has changed how we rifle in areas alike science, medicine, language, and education, is where we will be able to see the significant shift that has taken place in the past few decades. In regards to the medical checkup perseverance, one example of the effects of technology has been the shift in trust from man to machine.Doctors actually trust blindly what machines and tests have to say about the hearty macrocosm of a patient. Granted there are hundreds of pros that come with these medical advances, but the cons are in fact doctors losing their bedside manner, or their weighing of the patients literal complaints. Another negative effect technology has had on the medical industry is that dehumanization of the patients have become more and more prevalent. Problems are being fixed, rather than patients being cured. In regards to language and science, technology has also had society altering effects.Our language and how we communicate has become digitalized. No long are communities coming together for block parties, but rather they are all friend requesting their neighborhoods Facebook Page. With science, or the industry side of our nation, humankind are being replaced with more efficient machines. They cost less to operate and maintain and can be perhaps 1,000 times as fecund in a 24 hour period than a human being could be. One last area, in which Technopoly discusses the negative effects that technology is responsible for, is the area of education in our nation.The book states that, knowledge is not a fixed thing but a stage in human development, with a past and future. (Postman 190) This idea then infers the question of, what should technologys role be in education? Education how it was intend to be instills not only knowledge but also a sense of meaning and purpose in a child. Postmans book then argues that computers, a key symbol in Technopoly, counterbalance this old idea of school. They do so by eliminating a habituation on an educational environment that values group learning, cooperation, and social responsibility.In conclusion, it would be foolish of us to denounce the reality that technology and its advances have brought a world of good into our way of life. Having been aware of this though, we need to also become aware of the fact that as much of a friend as technology has been and always will be to us, it can also be our worst enemy that very well might lead us into a future filled with ignorance. Works Cited Postman, Neil. Technopoly The Surrender Of Culture To Technology. innovative York Vintage, 1993. Print.