Technology: Society's Doom?

      We see a lot of technology in Brave New World. It seems to cause some problems for them, but does it cause some for us, too?

      I have a serious love-hate relationship with technology. On one hand, it has made my life much easier through my cell phone and has given me opportunities to entertain myself through video games and Netflix. On the other hand, it infuriates me and cripples our society.

      On second thought, even the technology that I love can tend to make me angry. When Hood College's trademark email barrages at noon at five o'clock light up my phone like a Christmas tree, I often want to throw it against the wall just to get it to stop vibrating. When I begin losing a video game that I've invested a lot of time in, I kinda get the feeling that I want to throw my laptop out the window.

      But maybe I'm just a sore loser.

      Let's look at what technology has done to the generation that follows ours. We boast that technology has made children more connected and much smarter than we are. Perhaps the children are more connected, but Facebook and other social media are making it more difficult for them to communicate in face-to-face encounters. My local Board of Education even considered creating a mandatory “Social Relations” class in order to help kids develop effective interpersonal skills.

A class for developing skills that come naturally for most people?! You've got to be kidding me!

      Our boasting that they're smarter is also kind of misplaced. First, I'm not even convinced that they know more stuff. I went to school with kids who couldn't find Maryland on a map of the USA and thought that Austria was located adjacent to Massachusetts.

Second, these kids have sacrificed some of their childhood innocence to get to where they're at (and remember that their current intelligence may actually be worse than ours was). Two years ago, I spent some time tutoring kindergarteners at my old elementary school. Aside from the whole experience being extremely throwbacky, I learned some things about how kids have changed in the thirteen years since I had been in kindergarten.

      These kids were swearing at each other. Not the “Oops, it just slipped out in the moment” or the “I don't know what this word means, but I'm going to say it anyway” kinds of swearing. No, these kids knew what these words meant, and they were hurling them at each other without getting in trouble.

      Five-year-olds. Dropping the f-bomb. I can't even articulate how much trouble that would have gotten me while I was in kindergarten.

      We've given the next generation cell phones so they can stay in touch and computers so they can write their papers. Instead, they have used their phones to spend our money and used their computers to look at porn and play those silly MMORPGs. The results of these choices stay with them for the rest of their lives, hurting them, and in turn, society.

      So, is technology the death of society? The devices themselves are fine; it's how we've used them that is hurting us. If society is damaged by technology, it will ultimately be us, and not the technology, that will be to blame.

(The first meme is from weknowmemes.com. The second is from blog.hsoi.com.)

"Brave" my foot.

This novel gets my goat in a big, bad way. Bad grade or no, I just don't think I will ever finish this book. It grates on me like nails on a chalkboard.

Can't you just hear it? Doesn't it just peel the enamel from your teeth?

Yeah yeah yeah. I know its a dystopia  I know that it is sarcastic and supposed to be taken with a grain of salt and we are supposed to hate the things being said in this novel. It's a warning, its actually speaking out against these things. I get it. But I still hate it. 

My Mum is a bit old fashioned in some ways. She's pretty terrified of technology. Not because she doesn't know how to use it, but because she is always afraid of it being used against her. She hates using her credit card online, or really at all. She hears about spy drones and almost has a conniption fit. Don't even get me started on the time she found out her cellphone has a GPS locator in it. 

Don't get me wrong. I love my Mum, a lot. But we all have our quirks, don't we?

And it's not just her, or her age group or anything like that. I've seen this fear everywhere, from technological enthusiasts and troglodytes alike. Out right terror at the idea of technological advancement, of change. As though our cell phones will wake up and slaughter us in our sleep. Nonsense. 

When I see a new breakthrough in technology, I am filled with joy and hope - never fear. At worst, it makes me desperately sad to see technology abused as it is from time to time. Still, advances in robotics that kill people today become robots that preform surgery or keep hospitalized people with no family company tomorrow. Its the circle of technology. What is created for war is re-appropriated by the populace for peace. Hopefully someday, war won't be a part of the equation at all. 

When people hear about drones that you can fit in your pocket and guide with your tablet computer, they are usually scared. What if the government straps a poison dart or a gun to this thing and they can send a robot the size of a finch to kill anyone they want? What do I think? I think, what if you put heat sensors on there, and use it to locate people stuck under collapsed buildings in natural disasters? What if you could carry them food and water and medicine while the rescue teams worked? What if they make these little guys into taco or chocolate cake delivery machines for every day? How awesome would that be?! What if every child had one to watch it and make sure it was safe, and alert people of any problems? What if the elderly had ones that could monitor their vitals, and call for help if it was needed? Think of the freedom that could give them. I see endless good possibilities, where other people only see fear. 

Oooh! Yummy!

In technology, I see humanity's last great hope. Our world is becoming smaller by the day. Communications anywhere at all are instantaneous  Knowledge of every culture and individuals of those cultures are right at our fingertips 24/7. Even language barriers are beginning to collapse as translators get more and more sophisticated. We can see things, go places, talk to people in ways that would have been totally inconceivable when my parents were born. And when my children are born the world will look even more different again. And I am so excited to see it. The world is becoming integrated. The internet has bound nations together in their economies and government decisions, people are getting organized. This isn't scary! This is great! Its a whole lot harder to hate a group of people if you can see and talk to them, much less play games and laugh together. 

So why do I hate Brave New World? Because there isn't anything Brave about it. Its a book of a coward's fears. He saw the very first production lines and believed that it was the end of his world. Look at his crazy ideas: technology will make the world fall apart. Technology will destroy our values. Factory made children, promiscuity required not stifled, opportunity destroyed, mobility destroyed, caste systems and a complete society enslaved by themselves. BRAINWASHING! *Gasp*

Rubber Ducky... You're the one.... You make bath time lots of fun....

I'm pretty sure practically everything we have, or eat, or use is made on, or at least worked on production lines. The shoes on my feet, the burger on my plate. I look around and I don't see these things, do you? Human morality hasn't changed, for all that some people claim we are getting more randy. Read Chaucer an then tell me people didn't sleep around hundreds of years ago, before the production line was even a thought in the back of someone's head. I'm decently that I was born and raised by parents who loved  me and each other - and equally as sure that I want to have kids of my own someday in a similarly soppy, loving, happy home.

I can't wait to see what the future brings. I look forward to nanobot viruses that can cure cancer or genetic illnesses. I look forward to augmented reality software that lets you access the internet's entire knowledge with your brain. Self driving cars, 3D printers making human organs, bring it on! Technology has been bringing us together, and pretty soon I hope they make us those "People of Earth" things I have been talking about since the beginning of the semester.