The question I pose in the title says it all: is the hunger for technological solutions more than we should strive for? What are the ramifications? But seriously, stick around for a bit. The Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment brought new reverence for rationality and its subarea of science and the ensuing engineering. There are issues with this though and that is our growing digitization, lack of self-sufficiency, and allowing the technology itself to overtake our natural world. Are there solutions to these?
We are now so immersed in the digital age that it is hard to think of the last time we went a whole waking day without technology let alone a week or longer. There is hearing loss with Ipods, thumb pangs with texting, and awful vision from looking at the computer screen (I can attest to that!). Facebook depression is another term the docs are throwing out there (Tech and Health). The lack of interpersonal communication is also evident; for instance, I sometimes have troubling making plans with people because all they do is text instead of meeting me really quick or making the phone call. I anticipate only a rise in those with a lack of social skills, especially when we have kids.
As was said in class, technology is promoted yet rarely questioned. Does humanity ever question our use of technology in every facet of our lives? Sure, it is easier to just pop food in the microwave, but can you cook raw meet if you ever had to? How about growing your own food, doing household repairs, or making a fire that even a caveman could do! People always think technology will always be there, and I hope it is to a certain extent as well. However, warfare could cause people to be displaced without anything, and, if you think that disaster relief can save millions across a wide region, you might be disappointed. It is essential to build life skills in pure survival for you never know when you will need them.
Now if we continue with technology as we have been, the above can occur. Nonetheless, what if we went faster, faster, and faster? The so-called technological singularity can occur where machines eclipse humans in intellect, and our advances in technology happen at a pace we have never seen before. I believe the human race will inevitably hit an information overload point, but the advances in robotics and artificial intelligence can help make sense of it all. However, I disagree with the people who believe the robots will take over. For one thing, a robot is only as smart as the code, and I don't anticipate a program malfunction will cause the robot to think: "kill all humans!". That is mere Hollywood speculation. More realistically, the machine will probably just not work, and the engineers will spend weeks trying to figure out why.
Yet, I firmly believe we will achieve intelligence amplification of our own brains eventually, and thus more discoveries will occur. In a few hundred years (or less!), human-machine interfaces on the biological level will happen, but I personally hope that it will be within in reason and our humanity is not stripped down to a robotic persona.
I will leave this blog with a question for you to ponder: what direction will we take? A future of technology enveloping every section of our life to an extreme, a moderate world with it used wisely, or some kind of retro let's-all-go-caveman style kind of movement? Personally, in addition with what I stated prior, I believe people will ultimately use it more in the middle. Remember, technology is neutral; it is the people who use it that give it the bias. It would be nice to take a more biological approach where we grow our houses (MIT Fab Tree). To kick back and blend with the world around us is truly soothing. To me, our society is akin to a child with a new toy. We are in the infancy of technology, and over time we will learn when it is appropriate to use it. However, that will not come without some growing pains!
No comments:
Post a Comment