Society surrounded
by the youngest generation of technophile, who knows everything about
technology since the smartphones were invented, is a fact that the world is living
right now. What about the rest of Technology’s history? We are used to talk
about the latest cellphone invented, the newest generations of cars or a big 3D
TV with the most impressive high definition ever made. When we need to talk
about a past, even a recent past, as the computer’s invention, we fall in
unknown information.
We have a
wonderful tool in our hands. It connect us to the history, because it has the
written history of anything we can ever research – it may contain the wrong
information, but this is a question on how we research it. The problem is that
we do not research! The internet is a technology that was supposed to make a
bridge between society, old facts, new facts and future facts but nowadays, I
see that, sometimes we are just stacked in present and future.
Moreover,
for us to know what people need and also, to know how a community behave in a
certain situation, information is needed, history facts, the past. It is hard,
or I would say, almost impossible to build a new tool, make an invention
without knowing what happen here a few years ago. That is the reason why we
live in a Technological Determinism¹
where technology controls society. Even thus we own technology as our invention;
we do not use it properly or in our favor all the times.
Maybe one
day the history will not be important anymore, but then I think we will not
think as well, because we will be machines or robots. By the time we are not
robots yet, I really would like to understand how can tech connect us to the
future and the past but we only know what did not happen yet and what is happening
right now. Is that possible: a society without memories?
¹ Technological Determinism is a term invented by Thorstein Veblen, an American sociologist.
Very good discussion, Mabel. George Santayana famously said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" and I think he has been proven right over and over again. All we need to do is look at the succession of wars in the Middle East.
ReplyDeleteBut the same is true about technology. We are constantly reinventing the wheel because we don't remember our history. And one would think that a technology like the Internet would resolve such a problem; at least partially. But you are right there does seem to be a disconnect between what the technology can/should do and what it actually does. A colleague lamented to me the other day that we seem to be the most self-absorbed generation ever. He was referring to how people seem more interested in their devices than each other. This is a theme that we will take up at the very end of the course but I am glad you have raised it here.
I"m making a very good use of technology, as I'm following what you're producing and beleive me, I am proud of you!!!
ReplyDeleteWe are like a black box, each machine has one as we...
ReplyDeleteYes, Mario! Technology seems to have a black box! I like your observation... But we don't explore those black boxes!!!
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