That is a bit of a silly question i hear you say....
Of course it has, hasn't it?
Well, i think it has, but i also think that we have changed our way of life in a very short time due to advances in technology. I am a child of the technological age just as most of you are no doubt, but i can remember when there were no computers (not available to the masses anyway), no mobiles, no GPS, no MP3/CD......
I know, it sounds like nostalgia doesn't it. But in all seriousness, which areas of technology have truly benefited us and which areas have made us lazy and dependant on automation?
Lets get this out of the way, i love technology and science in general and think we are in a very interesting time where things are being discovered and developed all the time.
However i do think that some of our technology has made us less likely to want to learn and has made us a society of expectant people that take things for granted.
Lets take a few examples:-
If i said to most non science type folks, "Do you think quantum mechanics is important?", they would probably look at me like i had three heads and walk off. Or may ask "What the hell is quantum mechanics?".
Without too much technical understanding, quantum mechanics is the theory of the very small parts of a world. We are all made of atoms, and as such are all governed by the laws that govern atoms. Just look at some of the technology we have evolved over the last 25 years that we now and more importantly our children take for granted.
Microwave ovens, mobile telephones, PC's, Televisions, CD's, Sat navs etc etc....We all have them but how many of us really know or appreciate how they work and why?
All of the items on the list obey the laws of physics, and all were born out of a need to fulfill a requirement for something, but most people have not understood the truly staggering amount of work that has gone into developing such things.
Quantum mechanics for example was pioneered back in the 1930's thats 80 years ago yet they still do not teach it in schools, even in its simpler forms.
I think that we have become too accustomed to technology and what it does for us without universally understanding how we got there!
Hi Chris, bizarrely, I was thinking about this just this morning. To explain, we have just bought a projector. We watch lots of movies streamed over the internet, and watch British TV through a website link that connects to a UK server and allows us to watch Downton Abbey in Manhattan. And I haven't a clue how all that works. Not even the projector. And I think of myself as being relatively intelligent and well educated (I was a corporate lawyer and I'm now a political analyst). I was good at science and maths at school, but went the literature/history route as I got older. And now, I can't dot he simplest of algebraic equations (I know because when I was toying with doing a maters I tried out some GRE maths questions which was quite a humbling experience.) But science is not part of my every day life and it's not something I rub up against accidentally. And I think I'm the worse off for it. Now I'm sure if I were to type in "how does a projector work" into google I'd find a response at a level that I could begin to understand, but doesn't that feed into the very point you're making... Anyway, thanks for making me at least want to begin to find out.
ReplyDeletewell for me it is simply looking at a light bulb occasionally and wonder how on Gods earth they figured out how to do it,if it were up to me i would still be rubbing sticks together to amke fire which in turn would give me some light,praise God someone comes along every once in a while and can put ideas into action!Carole
ReplyDeleteJust popped over from your wife's blog to see what you are all about. As I read..my husbands first computer came to mind. He bought and made a kit up for a Super 80 computer. After grappling for quite a while learning some of the programming language we were able to play tabletennis on it. The pinnacle was playing 'snakes'. Then one day it refused to work...a mouse had wee'd on a connection and he had to resolder the destroyed pathway! A couple of years later Telstra, for whom he worked, sent home a marvellous computer..complete with floppy drive. Our eldest son..now 32...then 3..put a little block of wood into the drive opening. The computer was worth five thousand dollars in those days...early eighties. Mr B had to very carefully take out the drive..deconstruct it to take out the piece of wood and then put it back together..there was a huge sigh of relief when it worked again. That is part of our computer history!
ReplyDeleteIts not that i expect people to learn all about these sorts of things, not everyone is interested in science etc.
ReplyDeleteI meant it more as a general perception with people these days that there is an expected level of products out there. You here people saying in shops 'does that TV do this or that?'. I think kids at school now between the ages of say 7 onwards are exposed at a very early age to technology but again not all of them understand the background that has gone into developing the latest 'i phone' or the latest video game.
That i think is the failing of education systems generally to express the importance of learning such things. Unfortunatley we seem to be churning out a world full of technological dependant people from a very early age.
I wouldn't expect that we all know down to the nuts and bolts of something, but what i am saying is that even some of the people that are now coming through the education system as grads etc fail to draw parallels between media based technology and what they may use in industry.
This is of course just my opinion and is not directed at anyone in particular. I had to learn the hard way by getting it wrong lots of times and then learning what to change to make it work and thus learning true application.
I worry that these days we have become slaves to technology as opposed to it serving us!
For example: years ago mobile phones did not exist so losing one was not really an issue, now if somebody loses one its a major problem as all your numbers and contacts are in there.
GPS takes you the wrong way in the car....
5 out of your 200 TV channels don't work....
Most adults are not too bothered, but our kids are being brought up in a very different world today than even i was 35 years ago......
In line with developments in technology i just think that our educational system should be overhauled to reflect the evolution. I currently done' think that they are fully up to speed.
That reminds me of my first computer, a Spectrum 48+.....complete with rubber keys.
ReplyDeletehaha...god i feel old now!
That was a great first computer and i learned so much from it and subsequent devices. These days its all 'plug and play'...or sometimes 'plug and pray' as my old boss used to say.