As I was sitting at my desk trying to figure out the answer to this latest word problem one thought ran through my mind, I wish my teacher would let me use a calculator. In eighth grade, my teacher wouldn’t let us use a calculator to figure out the math problems because she had a firm grasp on a very important principle: when we no longer NEED to do a task ourselves, we typically don’t. At the very beginning I want to point out that I understand this is not a hard and fast rule and that I realize there will be eager souls that don’t fall for this laziness, and that there will be some who keep doing a task even after they could pawn it of on someone or something else purely because they enjoy it. The point is, those people are absolutely in the minority, they are the exception.
Calculators, the internet, and cell phones, have had dramatic impact to the progress of knowledge, the advancement of business, and the altering of the fundamentals of human interaction. Think about it, when was the last time you did long division or solved a quadratic equation by hand, went to the library to research the history of some topic of debate among friends, or dialed a number from memory? Maybe you’ve done one or two of these things, but most likely, thinking about it made you realize how much different it is now than when you were younger. The times they are a changing, and now even faster than ever before.
When technology comes along that makes our life easier, it is a simple thing to embrace that and thank the R&D firms for the wonderful gifts they’ve given us: we can listen to any song we own, instantly, wherever we are, find pictures and videos for free at home or on the go, talk to almost anyone we want to whether we are in a park, a car, or the bathroom, and the only time I’ve solved a complex equation by hand in the last 4 years was because I wanted to see if I still could.
It’s great that I no longer have to remember the phone numbers of every relative, friend, and random person I meet. However, it’s a bit frightening that the only 3 numbers I can think of right now are my personal cell number, my work number, and my parent’s home number. Two of those three are because they haven’t changed in 8 years and one because I have to give it out on a daily basis. Other than those three numbers I couldn’t tell you a single cell phone number, not even my wife’s and, personally, that scares me.
The future of “technology” reads more like a fantasy novel than a science fiction novel every day. In Hogwarts the pictures in the newspaper and in peoples frames move about – and advances in thin displays and flexible displays mean this type of technology is less than 10 years away; early adopter technology can be purchased today. Magic bought with money is called technology, and the bounds between science and science fiction is wearing thinner every day.
The question is, what consequences are we willing to live with, even embrace as the outcome of progress? Hopefully, we all enter into the new world only after having thought very carefully about what kind of life we want to have, and where our priorities are.
Contact Lenses for super human vision/real time information updates?
Flexible displays “printed” into the rest of the newspaper?
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
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2 comments:
I think I agree with you (or rather, I agree with what I think you're saying): it's important not to forget the fundamental knowledge and skills (mathematical understanding, human interaction, etc.) that helped us to advance to our current state of technology. Unfortunately, a purist approach based on this principle means that subsequent generations will have to absorb increasing amounts of information before engaging in the world of technological industry and innovation. I guess my question is, what should our priorities be? If T is the set of knowledge and principles required to responsibly use technology, what should be in T? How do you keep T to a manageable (teachable) size?
I suppose my post wasn't about an absolute set of boundaries, but rather hopefully to encourage anyone who read it to simply be intentional.
What will the impact of a given technology be, and are we willing to accept/embrace that impact given the good it will bring with it?
The hardest part is that it doesn't seem there's any real way to know what those consequences are going to be ahead of time.
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