Blog #1

The underlying premise that the author places before us is that the increasing dependence on technology is diminishing our humanity and social skills, as well as binding us under the guise of freedom.  This premise, I believe, is inherently flawed.  One cannot on one hand rely on technology for their very existence and on the other denounce it as slavery. If computers are condemned as undermining our humanity, then why not the engine, agricilture, medicine, or electricity? Humans have become so much more dependent on these than computers.  Slavery implies servitude for nothing in return. I propose that technology enhances our quality of life, and simply gives us time to be inactive.  The days before humans developed refrigeration and the internet, countless hours were spent laboring in the fields to simply be able to eat, or countless hours poring over books and journals to find the answer to simple questions.  Now these things are unnecessary.  Technology is not vital to our existence and we can live without it. It only improves our lives in a way that we are reluctant to relinquish. In the same way it is hard to say goodbye to a girlfriend or boyfriend. Not because you need them to survive, but because they improve your quality of life. During every technological advance there have been people that have resisted the change, claiming the new advancement would be the end of civilization as we know it. Advancement, and by extent science, only gives us the means to travel a path. Which path we choose to prursue is up to us. I believe that how we have used the computer has been largely beneficial.  It is true that things are different now, we as a society do not socialize in the same way as our parents or grandparents did. Technology will not stop advancing, all we can do is try and make the coming changes positive.