Technopoly - Neil postman post 1

Technology is constantly changing, and constantly changes the way we live our lives. As described in Neil Postman’s book “Technopoly”, technological change is ecological. In an in environment when one organism or species is removed, it does not remain the same except for that species, instead the entire ecosystem is changed. Technology is ecological in the sense when a new technology is born it changes everything about our lives, from the way we travel, learn, think and even the meanings of our words and concepts.

                “Uncontrolled growth of technology destroys the vital sources for our humanity. It creates a culture without a moral foundation. It undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make human life worth living” (xii). Technology effects us so deeply within everyday life that it changes our perception of core concepts, such as how the TV has changed our meaning of news, public opinion and politics. Writing has changed the meaning of truth and law and the computer has changed our meaning of information. Information in the modern age is the same as data. Our lives have been measured and numbered and there is almost nothing left which cannot be associated with a numerical value. This creates a mathematical concept of reality by categorizing every aspect of life.

                According to Postman, technology creates an “undeserved reputation for wisdom” or “knowledge monopoly”. This is caused by new technology which makes old ways of thinking obsolete, and gives an advantage to those who master the new technology. When writing was invented, it made oral communication look inferior despite the humane advantages of oral communication. When the television and computer were invented they seem superior to books in the amount of information that is accessible. Those who do not master these technologies seem helpless compared to those who master living in the new world run by computers.

                The biggest effect of computers form of information that is presented to each individual in the community. Now that most parts of a persons life concerns (bank accounts, school work, communication..etc) can be accessed through a computer, it affects our perception of the world. It promotes “Imagery, narrative, presentness, simultaneity, intimacy, immediate gratification and quick emotional response” which begins to effect how we view all parts of life. We no longer want to work for the things we earn but rather expect them to be handed to us. We never focus on one thing at a time and expect to finish multiple tasks at once. This reduces the overall sense of morality in a individual, for there is no time or place to worry about morals but only to get where we want to be as fast as possible at all costs.

                Another form of information control is schools. Schools offer only information to students that they think is necessary to complete a certain major or topic, and leave out any knowledge that is useless in the American “hustle” but would be useful for the simple reason of being more human. “If one is culturally literate, the idea goes, one should master a certain list of thousands of names, places, dates and aphorisms; these are supposed to make up the content of a literate American’s mind” (75). Literacy in the modern day is becoming close to expecting the human mind to work like a computer and less like a human. We need to be able to memorize and analyze large amounts of information as fast as possible, but we lose the importance and meaning in much of this information. A good example if this is the very assignment that pushed me to write this blog post. We are expected to write one post about 91 pages from Postman’s book, forcing us to summarize, or categorize a massive amount of information in a short amount of time and length. This is training our minds to tie together similar concepts throughout the 91 pages and categorize them instead of focusing on each concept individually and pondering its true meaning. I could have written a page about each sentence in the book, exploring the meaning and what it meant in my reality or just as easily I am writing about the 91 pages.

                Our “humanity”, or what was our humanity is constantly changing. From living in the woods as animals and worrying about food and shelter, we have become organisms who’s biggest stresses in life are numbered, measured and calculated. We run our minds like computers to figure out the fastest way to overcome our stresses in society, such as money, but slowly realize that once we reach these goals our lives are empty of goals beyond that with more meaning. We must learn to balance the positive effects of technology and continue to hold onto our natural human values, which our grandparents who have no idea how to use facebook in their wildest dreams, have a much stronger grasp of than us.

Critical Analysis - Computers The life story of technology post 2

Computers have come a long way since I was born, let alone since the release of the intel 4004 processor in 1974. The “microcomputer” or now better known as the PC has undergone massive changes in the last few decades. The PC started out as taking up an entire room to the laptop that’s on my lap in my bed. These changes were driven by the competitive forces created by consumer demand. These consumers consisted of personal and business users of computers. The advances were driven by a collaboration of the different components of today’s pc, the competition between hardware companies, software companies and companies who actually built the computers.

                One of the first successful computers was the altair 8800 which used the intel 8080 processor. 4000 orders were put in within the first three months of production. The intel 8080 was used in many microcomputers such as the Micral and the IBM PC. IBM created a close relationship with Microsoft which allowed them to provide MS-DOS on their computers which separated them from the rest of the market. They also obtained programs such as VisiCalc which allowed IBM to dominate many business related market segments. The Microsoft and IBM team up drove out many other companies such as IMSAI, Osborne and Kildall’s DRI. The only other strong company which remained was apple.

                Apple now had to find a way to overcome the IBM stronghold on the market, so it was forced to develop something new. They took xerox’s GUI technology, which allowed the computer to have a visual interface and a mouse and a menu with icons. Apple created the Macintosh computer using the Motorola 68000. Using extensive advertising Macintosh became successful. IBM still controlled most of the market despite Apple’s success.

                Eventually the IBM stronghold was broken, not by Apple but other PC manufacturers. The IBM pc could be copied for three reasons. The intel chips and the Microsoft OS could be bought by any manufacturer, and the IBM ROM bios could be reverse engineered and recreated. Companies such as Compaq, Dell, Gateway and Toshiba emerged, of which Compaq showed great success selling more than “$1 billion of computers a year” (101) by 1988. Intel chips still flooded the market and were in most selling pc’s.

“One of the major reasons for the success of Intel-based personal computer is that other companies also made intel-like chips, forcing intel to continually strive to improve their products and keep their prices competitive” (102). The computer changed the lives of many American consumers and the consumers forced the computer to change drastically over the years. Powered by demand The computer industry sky-rocketed and fueled some of the fastest growing technological improvements in human history. Along with government funding caused by the “space race” and the growing inter-computer network which developed into today’s internet, the lives of many people were changed creating an online world which was used for business, communication , networking and entertainment. Every industry was affected as companies needed to adapt to the new opportunities presented to them with internet advertising and services. Internet businesses are overcoming actual physical stores as our world moves from physical reality to an artificial online reality.

Critical Analysis - Computers The life story of technology

 The evolution of human technology has spanned from the beginning of our history till today. Mans ability to overcome tasks by realizing complex solutions has separated us from every other species and lead to us dominating the earth. We are always looking for more faster, easier and accurate ways to do things and will always be improving by discovery and sharing our knowledge. As described in the book “Computers, The life story of a Technology” by Eric Swedin, we have been looking for ways to automate mathematics since bones were used for counting in 35,000 BCE. Not only is there a drive to create technology for new uses but also to improve the technology we have already discovered. Such as Lord Kelvin’s tide machine in the 1800’s which predicted the tide using pulleys and a pen which drew the result on a piece of paper. This machine was then recreated by the U.S. Coast Geodetic Survey in 1911 which was so accurate that it was not matched till IBM’s 7094 computer in the 1960’s. This improvement was driven by the need to protect ships which needed to come to shore, and avoid hitting low tide which can be dangerous and fatal.

                Before the computer age, information did not travel as fast throughout the world. It took the slow diffusion of information through the world before the capacities of the human minds were put to its full potential use by combining ideas of great scholars from across the world. It took the globalization of resources and ideas to reach where we have come today. The ancient people of Sumer, Egypt and Babylonia had different number systems with different bases and uses. Finally in 500CE the 9-digit number system we use today was developed in India. “The movement of this new system appears to have occurred fairly quickly- most likely due to extensive trade (pg.5).  Over the years the 9 digit number system spread across the world but was not generally accepted in Europe until the 1200’s when Fibonacci “advocated the Arabic system in a book titled Liber Abaci” (p.5). Later in the 1600’s Pascal invented a mechanical calculator named the Pascaline. Many other calculating machines were made until the variable-toothed gear “resulted in a considerable reduction in size and weight for calculating machines” (p13). This made the calculation machine small enough to keep on a desk and was then mass produced by the Brunsviga company in the US. 

                Other forces pushing the evolution of technology was competition, specifically the cut throat competition of world war. The race to the discovery of weapons such as the Atom Bomb was fueled by extensive government funding to produce some of the fastest technological improvements and discovery in the history of mankind.  “World war II was fought on battlefields and in the laboratory” (p. 47).  Inventions such as the radar, computers, jet airplanes, short range missiles, and the atomic bomb were created and improved during this time. As the war created a demand for these improvements scientists were provided with any resource they needed to achieve it. One of the most important discoveries of the time was the transistor by “Bell telephone laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey where the theoretical physicist John Bardeen and experimental physicist Walter H. Brattain invented the point contact transistor” (p.50). As war stimulated the economy and left the country with great production power it left a supply and demand for commercial computers and electronics. This leads to the invention of RAM  at IBM and the minicomputer by DEC which grew into the computer run industry we live in today.

                There are many forces that pushed the human race to where it is today. Our natural craving for creating an easier life through tools and technology has made our lives an “automata, the mechanical recreation of reality” (p.2). Today our culture is based largely on what is given to us through the media, and the new means of communication and sharing information among ourselves. Never in human history has communication been so instant and interconnected over such a large geographic area and number of people. The globalization of our ideas will constantly change our culture daily as we are immersed with cultures from around the world.

Blogging

Honestly, I have never really read or wrote any blogs so far in my internet career, and am only attempting it now for the sake of my class. It never really appealed to me to publish my thoughts online for everyone to read. I think that enough of this is done through facebook, where there is no end to how much someone can stock my profile and put together a biography of my life. Now that I have written one blog I see how it can be useful, to completely write out your thoughts and defend them, and then have many other people look at them from their own point of view and critique you. Its like having a conversation but with no interruptions, allowing you to fully map out your thoughts, but also makes it much less personal because you are filtering your writing for the general public.

Technology Log

Summary of use of technology in the last few days:

Facebook:

Used facebook to invite people to a party in boston that I am not even attending

Forwarded messages from friends internationally to my phone so I can text them

Keep in contact with friends from 3 countries, 5 different states, 9 different colleges

Phone:

Sent/received an average of atleast 15 texts per hour

Use iphone to look at my schedule, email, facebook, to-do list,

Used iphone to look up next bus

Laptop:

Used to take notes

Facebook

Skype

Music

Jailbreak iphone

Homework for Accounting, comp apps, technology and culture, transfer student class

I actually went through three phones in the last three days. Thursday night I broke my iphone by dropping it then got a temporary phone for friday. Then I got a used iphone and had to unlock it because I have no data plan. After three hours of going through the internet and playing with the phone I managed to make it work. 

I think facebook is a great tool for social networking and keeping in touch with people. I also think that it is a huge distraction and can make focusing on the computer almost impossible. An accounting assignment that should take me 10 minutes on paper takes me 30 on the computer. But facebook allows us to do many things that would be impossible before facebook was made. Today I used facebook to invite 120 people from my hometown, Boston, to an event in Boston that I am not even attending. I use the messaging feature to contact people in other countries and have the messages forwarded to my phone essentially to have free texting internationally.

The iphone, or any cell phone for that matter has become a third arm for many kids nowadays. There is not a time during the day or night that we will not reply to a text within 20 seconds. Some of us can operate most of the functions of our phones with our eyes closed, or in our pockets during class. My iphone does create a lot of convenience for me, I use it for almost everything from texting to email or looking up the bus schedule. . When my phone broke I felt lost, i lost all my contacts and could not contact anyone. I didnt know where I was going at night, could not coordinate to meet anyone without having someone else text them. I did not know my schedule and had nothing to keep me busy while waiting 30 minutes for the weekend bus. Despite how helpful it is it also creates a lot of stress on the individual. It has become a subconscious reaction to pull out my iphone, hit the home button to see if there are any messages/calls then hit the power button and slip it back into my pocket, seamlessly. The constant texting keeps me from being able to focus for a long period of time such as in class, in conversation or even writing this blog. People now feel that I have the obligation to let them know where I am and what I am doing at all times. If I dont reply to a text within a minute it is followed by three other texts asking my what im doing that is so important that I cant reply, as if I fell off the planet and am being searched for. Even sleeping is difficult with the phone vibrating the entire table every couple minutes, its like I cannot sleep till every one of my friends are going to bed, like the whole world is wired together and wakes and sleeps at the same time.