The book Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman begins with a description of why there needs to be someone like himself who is willing to question the benefits of advancements in technology. He claims this is necessary because the people who are making the advances are not going to look at the negative side because they have grown to attached to there work. The book then continues to describe how people have warned about technology advancements moving too fast, how people have had to deal with the problems of these advancements, and what problems will be expected to arise in the near future. Postman claims we are living in a "technopoly" which means that our culture has become completely run by the advancement of technology.
One interesting topic Postman discusses is the idea that teachers are embracing new technologies and claiming how beneficiary they are when in actuality they should be condemning these advancements because in the near future it will force their practice to become obsolete. This is the exact opposite view of technology when compared to Swedin/Ferro's book Computers. Swedin/Ferro show how in order to keep advancement growing and for the individual to stay relevant with technology, one must be willing to accept it. If teachers actually did take a hard line on this issue and refuse to use technology in a teaching environment, it would force teachers to become obsolete even faster because their students would not be equipped to deal with new technologies that they would encounter out of school. The problem is not new technology and advancement, the problem is not knowing how to use the new technology in a beneficial way.
The book Technopoly makes it seem that our culture is completely defined by technology. It claims that most changes in culture are only resulting due to changes in technology. Postman does not describe how culture should change otherwise, but says that these changes are effecting us negatively.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Ferro/Sweden Computers p.85-149
The second half of the book Computers: The Life Story of a Technology by Sweden and Ferro is very similar to the first half in the fact that it tries to list as many technological advancements in close to chronological order as possible up to present day. The difference is the time that is covered in the second half involves once many people have obtained personal computers and the internet was invented. Therefore culture was more heavily effected and computer advancement was happening even more rapidly.
The main idea expressed in the second half of the book, through the numerous advancements in the short period of time, is that the more common computers became and the more connected these computers became to each other the faster the rate of advancement increased. These two things developed through affordable personal computers and the use of the internet. One point that comes up in the book on page 132 is that when a certain part of the world does not have computers and is not connected to the rest of the world through the internet chances of technological advancements goes down tremendously and even the rate of advancement is less making it almost impossible to catch back up. The book describes this as the "digital divide." The TED talk we watched in class discusses this exact issue, but not only about technology, it also talked about how people's hobbies could advance faster such as dancing.
These advances in technology not only increase the rate at which technology advances but also increases the rate at which culture changes. New technology changes culture by just being part of the stuff people use, and possibly makes life easier (even though sometimes it seems to make things harder) allowing the individual to partake in other activities. The thing about the internet is that it brings tons of ideas together which makes it very easy to view other cultures and may cause the individual to act differently when off the internet. Either by learning a new way to cook food, hum a song, or a new dance move off the internet culture is changing no matter how small a change it may seem.
The main idea expressed in the second half of the book, through the numerous advancements in the short period of time, is that the more common computers became and the more connected these computers became to each other the faster the rate of advancement increased. These two things developed through affordable personal computers and the use of the internet. One point that comes up in the book on page 132 is that when a certain part of the world does not have computers and is not connected to the rest of the world through the internet chances of technological advancements goes down tremendously and even the rate of advancement is less making it almost impossible to catch back up. The book describes this as the "digital divide." The TED talk we watched in class discusses this exact issue, but not only about technology, it also talked about how people's hobbies could advance faster such as dancing.
These advances in technology not only increase the rate at which technology advances but also increases the rate at which culture changes. New technology changes culture by just being part of the stuff people use, and possibly makes life easier (even though sometimes it seems to make things harder) allowing the individual to partake in other activities. The thing about the internet is that it brings tons of ideas together which makes it very easy to view other cultures and may cause the individual to act differently when off the internet. Either by learning a new way to cook food, hum a song, or a new dance move off the internet culture is changing no matter how small a change it may seem.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Swedin/Ferro’s Computers p 1-83
The book Computers: The Life Story of Technology by Eric G. Sweden and David L. Ferro is set up to basically list, with a brief description, all the advances that led up to the first computers along with how computers have advanced since their invention. The book begins as far back as when language was first being taken down by using complicated methods like knots in strings or tally marks on sticks. By page 83 Sweden and Ferro did their best to list chronologically all the advancements in computers up to the development of the microprocessor in 1971.
The idea of the first half of this book is to show that computers exist due to people's want to keep information. Even the machines that were used just to find logarithms were just a way for people to obtain a piece of information more easily than before. Another point of the book is to show the speed at which computers are advancing. Describing this rate Sweden/Ferro write, "...commentators have predicted that this trend would hit an obstacle that engineers could not overcome and slow down, but that has not yet happened..." (p. 68). This was predicted in Moore's law to occur in 1980 but like the book says it still has not happened. Even looking at the the timeline in the front of the book shows that the rate of these developments are not slowing down and are even increasing exponentially. It starts off by showing a significant development about every one hundred years, but by the end is showing numerous advances for every year. This idea was also presented in the PBS special we watched during class while talking about the difference in regular years versus computer years. By saying this it was not only showing how fast old technologies become outdated, but also how people in the industry can only keep up for a certain amount of time before fresh minds are needed.
American culture is affected the most by the speed at which these technologies are coming out. If technology advanced at a slower rate people's ability to adapt would not have to react as fast. Many of us feel that if we do not obtain the latest piece of technology, it will become impossible for the individual to keep up, once the new technology becomes part of everyday life.
The idea of the first half of this book is to show that computers exist due to people's want to keep information. Even the machines that were used just to find logarithms were just a way for people to obtain a piece of information more easily than before. Another point of the book is to show the speed at which computers are advancing. Describing this rate Sweden/Ferro write, "...commentators have predicted that this trend would hit an obstacle that engineers could not overcome and slow down, but that has not yet happened..." (p. 68). This was predicted in Moore's law to occur in 1980 but like the book says it still has not happened. Even looking at the the timeline in the front of the book shows that the rate of these developments are not slowing down and are even increasing exponentially. It starts off by showing a significant development about every one hundred years, but by the end is showing numerous advances for every year. This idea was also presented in the PBS special we watched during class while talking about the difference in regular years versus computer years. By saying this it was not only showing how fast old technologies become outdated, but also how people in the industry can only keep up for a certain amount of time before fresh minds are needed.
American culture is affected the most by the speed at which these technologies are coming out. If technology advanced at a slower rate people's ability to adapt would not have to react as fast. Many of us feel that if we do not obtain the latest piece of technology, it will become impossible for the individual to keep up, once the new technology becomes part of everyday life.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Technology Log/Feelings on This Blog
Technology Log (thoughts and opinions):
For the past three days I've tried to keep the best log I could when it came to using the internet. It turned out to be harder than I thought because of how often I use it unknowingly. I would be doing my homework and realize I should have logged it down because I was streaming music off the internet. On saturday I watched Popeye and that even involved the internet because I was streaming it from Netflix. A certain amount of time was spent on the internet during free time and for school work. The most interesting part was how long it would take me to get through my everyday activities on the internet. About once a day I check my e-mail, facebook, and myspace. The facebook and myspace were originally created to help me book shows for my band, but soon after I was using facebook like everyone else (to look at pictures of cute kittens that my friends post). Over the past three days I spent about an hour everyday just checking those three sites. Obviously over time that adds up to a lot of hours.
Feelings on Starting This Blog:
I am pretty excited about starting a blog. I think it is an interesting way to creatively write about one's life or express one's opinion. The only thing that makes me uncomfortable about it, is that by having a blog it puts out the idea that I have decided that I've got something so important to say that it should be made public on the internet for everyone to read. This is the reason why I have never done one in the past, but now I can just say I started it for a class and no one will really know how full of myself I really am.
For the past three days I've tried to keep the best log I could when it came to using the internet. It turned out to be harder than I thought because of how often I use it unknowingly. I would be doing my homework and realize I should have logged it down because I was streaming music off the internet. On saturday I watched Popeye and that even involved the internet because I was streaming it from Netflix. A certain amount of time was spent on the internet during free time and for school work. The most interesting part was how long it would take me to get through my everyday activities on the internet. About once a day I check my e-mail, facebook, and myspace. The facebook and myspace were originally created to help me book shows for my band, but soon after I was using facebook like everyone else (to look at pictures of cute kittens that my friends post). Over the past three days I spent about an hour everyday just checking those three sites. Obviously over time that adds up to a lot of hours.
Feelings on Starting This Blog:
I am pretty excited about starting a blog. I think it is an interesting way to creatively write about one's life or express one's opinion. The only thing that makes me uncomfortable about it, is that by having a blog it puts out the idea that I have decided that I've got something so important to say that it should be made public on the internet for everyone to read. This is the reason why I have never done one in the past, but now I can just say I started it for a class and no one will really know how full of myself I really am.
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