Technology versus Human Race - Term Paper Example

Technology vs. Human Race- Neil Postman A. Introduction Technology has integrated deeply into almost every walk of life. It has changed the mode of living for humans. Technology has benefitted mankind to a great extent; people are aware of the global happenings from the vicinity of their rooms, students can attend class lectures from the vicinity of their own choice. Computers have blended in the lives of individuals to such a high degree that their usage often goes unnoticed. However, there seems to be an ongoing debate about the merits of technology versus its demerits. The level of incorporation of technology seems to be increasing with the passage of time and attracting attention from numerous researchers. With the same inspiration, the chosen book encompasses details about the journey of technology and how it has successfully made mankind its slave rather than the opposite. Neil Postman was a technology critic, who doesn’t favor the uncontrolled growth of technology and the reliance on technology more than human intellect and judgments. His book “Technopoly” has addressed various professions ranging from medicine to education, advertising to business management etc. The current technological trends are troubling and causing impact on the lifestyle of individuals, culture, language and personal relations. Its gradual invasion has been unnoticed by many and has just been accepted as the eventual change of times. However, some people, like the author of the book, are conscious about the changes and try to repel them as much as possible to ensure that they are not overpowered by it. The book stresses on few main adverse effects that have been discussed in the paper. B. Main Concepts from the Book The book explains the gradual technological changes that have taken place in the history of mankind; the main factors that are considered harmful by Neil Postman are: Effects on cultural values Effects on human intellect Effects on social capabilities These three aspects are very important as they effect the social and mental development of humans, alongside the morals and traditions of societies. The power of technology overpowers the intellect of humans, changes cultural values and reduces the need for personal relations. These effects will be discussed in detail in the later sections of the report. These changes have not been sudden. On the contrary, man has witnessed varying degrees of integration of technology with the passage of the years. The author termed these changes as “ecological” i.e. the original form of something is altered due to some change. The author categorizes the changes into three main eras; tool-using culture, technocracy and technopoly. Tool-using culture has been defined as the era in which tools were invented to solve problems. The tools did not threaten the cultures, traditions and mental capabilities of humans. Technocracy saw the integration of technology in the lives of the individuals; however industrialism and technical incorporation were still not strong enough to drive away culture, language and morals. Technopoly is explained as the prevailing era in which technology has overpowered human intellect as machines are considered more reliable than humans. It is due to the technological integration in the society that machines are considered more dependable than humans. 1. Effects on human intellect The advent of scientific management took place in 1911 by Frederick Taylor. The principles of scientific management were originally developed for the production processes in industries but soon the respective concept intervened in the whole society and started being followed religiously by people who weren’t even a part of the industrial sector. Scientific management provoked the employees to perform their jobs strictly according to the rules and laws that had been laid down for their specific positions. This created the dependence on technology and freed the people from the responsibility of thinking creatively and making decisions. Technology started doing the thinking for them. Taylor and other researchers advocated that the element of emotions, subjectivity, morals tend to become hindrances in making decisions therefore it is better to rely only on technology. These aspects have created a general lack of confidence on human judgments, decisions, intellect thereby making machines more reliable in every profession. Such robotic procedures and rules tend to extract the creativity out of the work of individuals since their minds are already occupied with the objectives of meeting the targeted standards. Neil Postman explained that technology has even changed the mental processes of doctors and how they identify diseases. The noble profession of medicine has been greatly affected by the invasion of technology since doctors have stopped relying on their own judgment, rather resort to the results and analysis from the machines. Postman explained that the doctors do not feel confident about their diagnosis unless it is verified by the aid of some technical result. Due to the availability of the technical analysis and diagnosis, the doctors tend to become dependent on machines; this inhibits in the growth of their expertise as doctors. Patients do not evaluate the effectiveness of a doctor only according to his skill set, rather, in combination with the medical equipments that might be available for the treatment of the illness. Postman also pointed out that technology has changed the mode of perceiving reality. The difference in the perception of things lies in the difference of exposure to technology by individuals. He quoted the change in the way of thinking in the following manner, “New technologies alter the structure of our interests: the things we think about. They alter the character of our symbols: the things we think with” (20). The field of education has also been affected due to the invasion of technology. Even the children of the present generations tend to think differently than the children of the past generations due to the exposure of technology from their early years. Postman stated they start their schools with preconceived notions and concepts about the things around them due to the integration of technology, specifically television, in their lives. It is due to this reason they are already awed by the power of technology and automatically rely least on their own mental capabilities. Human thinking capabilities are perceived as numeric figures and measured in the form of IQ tests, SAT scores etc. Individuals are considered intelligent or smart on the basis of such numbers, although a subjective thing like mental capability can never be measured on the basis of written tests and evaluations. 2 Effects on social capabilities Technology has increased the importance of the following words to a great extent; efficiency and speed. The people have been made to believe that these words are related to the progress of the society. The concept of broadcasting and computers has promoted these factors to such a level that it has reduced the vitality of interconnectedness and personal communication. People tend to prefer sending quick messages by their cell phones rather than taking out the time to call someone. Emails are sent to deliver files and huge data records rather than meeting in person. Postman specified that these two platforms provide abundant information for individuals but the undirected and impersonal nature of it creates an overdose of information for the masses. Doctors have always maintained a certain level of communication with their patients that highlighted relevant factors about the patient’s symptoms and experiences. The advent of medical equipments has reduced the level of communication between these participants, in a medical context, since the doctor resorts to the results of the machines rather than trusting the statements by his patient. Postman considered the relationship between a doctor and his patients very important and stated that “interposing an instrument between patient and doctor would transform the practice of medicine; the traditional methods of questioning patients, taking their reports seriously and making careful observations of exterior symptoms would become increasingly irrelevant” (99). Postman also negates the usage of computers in the field of learning and education. The supporters of this notion state that computers increase the speed of learning and make learning fun. However, Postman stated that the acquisition of education is not about speed; rather it is about learning new concepts and perceptions from the teachers in the light of the available text. Computer technology promotes the acquisition of education in an impersonal manner thereby reducing the relationship between students and teachers. Neil stressed on the need to discourage the usage of computers in the field of education in the following argument, “we shall be breaking a four hundred year truce between the gregariousness and openness fostered by the orality and the introspection and isolation fostered by the printed word” (17). The secluded learning from a computer also destroys the relationship amongst the students and eradicates the chances of mutual discussions that might have helped them in their learning process. 3 Effects on cultural values Postman highlighted an important factor of the prevailing cultures i.e. the excess of information available to humans. This factor usually goes unnoticed by individuals and has been accepted as a norm. The beginning of the twentieth century saw an increased flow of information in the societies in the form of images and written text. It is often assumed that the lack of information and data destroy cultures. However, a new revelation can be made by noticing the current times; excess of undirected and meaningless information can also prove to harm cultures. The abundance of undirected information causes state of confusion and makes people lose focus on relevant information. Postman stressed on the need for defense mechanisms that can serve as filters for information; give meaning to useful information and help to disregard the one that has no use for an individual. Some of the defense mechanisms that have been discussed by him constitute family, religion, social institutions etc. The adverse effect that has been caused by technology is that these defense mechanisms are being replaced by other technologically influenced factors; bureaucracy and experts. Bureaucracy was defined as the “administrative tyranny”. Experts are individuals who possess information about a certain domain and then exercise absolute power over it. Their notions are considered more worthy than any other idea or view. Technology has given them absolute powers on their own domains, as well as others. These factors have grown to become the main defenses to control information in the modern cultures. Postman explained the influence of these two factors in the following statement, “As the power of traditional social institutions to organize perceptions and judgments declines, bureaucracy, expertise and technical machinery become the principal means by which Technopoly hopes to control information” (91). The reliance on machines and technical results have made individuals lean towards the technical and methodical processes rather than subjective defenses like family values, religious customs etc. He considered "loss of narrative as one of the most debilitating consequences of Technopoly" (171). Adverse effects are being witnessed on the cultures due to the incompetency and incapability of the modern educational institutions to highlight the different cultural aspects to their students. These adverse effects might include the indifference of the younger generation with their origins and cultures. This is due to the excess information that is being provided to the students thus creating incoherent educational programs. Teachers have also become “intellectual relativists” who are not able to defend their own cultures or pass information that has been transmitted to them. C. Critical Ideas from Another Author As stated earlier, technology is considered as an intrusion by many other researchers and they have also been vocal about their concerns regarding its adverse effects on culture, humanity and social relations. Vaclav Havel, who was the President of Czech Republic, stressed on the relevance of morals in the following manner, “we still don’t know how to put morality ahead of politics, science and economics” (6). Vaclav highlighted the need of morals in the society by considering it even more important than science and economics. He further explained that the main emphasis of all endeavors should be on morals and responsibility rather than technological dependence. World views are generally defined as the perspective from which an individual observes his surroundings. The world-views are broadly categorized into two types; traditional and technological. Aldous Huxley warned mankind about the consequences of the invasion of technology on the world-views. Huxley stated in his book “Brave New World” that technology makes the traditional world-views disappear and irrelevant in the eyes of the individuals due to which the technological world-views become widely accepted. This is accomplished by changing the traditional definitions of religion, family, art, history, truth etc according to the new requirements of the technologically affected systems. These traditional factors form the basis of a culturally rich and moral society. The loss of such concepts develops the lack of direction and certain level of ignorance in the society. D. Recommendations Postman proposed many techniques to reduce the adverse effects of the technological intrusion in the lives of individuals. However, he placed greater stress on the role of educational institutions for providing the students with coherent educational programs to help them focus on relevant information. He proposed that the curriculums should be based on “ascent of humanity”. The ascent of humanity requires the addition of art, science and literature to teach the students about the intellectual progress of humans over the years. This will program them to filter information effectively on their own and save themselves from the information glut that is being witnessed in the modern world, in other words “crap detectors”. After the extensive study of the respective topic, it has been concluded that technology should be utilized with the consideration that it doesn’t overpower the mental capability of humans thus making them dependent on technology for life. Before using any technology, the following questions should be asked: Which problem will be addressed by the utilization of the technology? Technology has adverse effects related to its usage. Therefore it is useful to inquire “Is the problem significant enough to be solved with technology?” Whose problem is it? Am I using the technology or is it using me? These questions will help reduce the invasion of machines in the society and the dependence on technical processes and results. Another recommendation is to discourage the use of computers in the early years of education of a child. The child should experience the traditional form of oral teaching more since it exposes the child to participative discussions and mutual tolerance for differing opinions. The introduction of computers from such an early stage promotes isolated learning processes and causes lack of spirit to help others. E. Conclusion Technology is an integral part of societies in the modern world. It has intervened in all walks of life and has changed their mode of processes. Alongside the changes in the business fields, technology has also affected the prevailing cultures, human intellects, perception of reality etc. Humans have become dependent on machines for their decisions and do not even realize their extent of dependence in this matter. This book has raised many interesting notions about technological intervention in our lives; the awareness of such notions will make the readers aware of their unconscious dependence on technology and make them avoid it as much as possible. The abundance of information is causing states of confusions for humans. This aspect has been raised by the author and it will help the readers to try to stay committed to their traditional defense mechanisms (family, religion and social institutions) so that only useful information can be extracted from the plentiful information in the prevailing times. References Havel, Vaclev. Address of President of the Czech Republic to a Joint Session of the U.S Congress, Washington, D.C., 21 February 1990. Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 1932. Postman, Neil. Technopoly- The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Vintage Books, New York, 1993. Read More