Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Technophiles, Technocracy and Technopoly
Neil Postman's creative novel titled Technopoly makes the argument that every technological innovation has positive and negative effects on society. The term technophiles is introduced by Postman as lovers of technology who can only think of technology positively. In regards to computers, it is encouraged by Postman to focus on the way it alters our conception and undermines our old ideas instead of focusing on its efficiency (pg. 19). This argument may be refuted by the authors of Computers:The Life Story of a Technology, Eric Swedin and David Ferro, who greatly emphasis their discussion on the ever improving efficiency of the computer. Swedin and Ferro seem to take pride in America's advancement in technology by listing numerous innovations but Postman regards this advancement as strange and dangerous; Postman creates the word Technopoly to describe America's altered interest, "character of symbols" (pg. 20) and community due to technology.
Although Postman begins his novel by encouraging the view of technology as both positive and negative part of society, further reading of the book suggests that Postman himself has a negative outlook on technology. I agree with Postman's argument that technology became "one sure thing to believe in" (pg. 55) when religion and tradition were being challenged by Nietzche, Darwin, Marx and Freud ( pg. 54). However, Postman believes that "Any conception of God's design certainly lost much of its power and meaning, and with that loss went the satisfaction of a culture in which moral and intellectual values were integrated."(pg. 38) This statement sounds very dramatic and I believe that Postman overstates the effects of technology. Postman's opinion that sin and evil have disappeared in Technopoly because " Their god speaks of efficiency, precision, objectivity"(pg.90) and not "righteousness or goodness or mercy or grace"(pg. 90), is extreme and suggests that America's society has totally lost a sense of morality. It is true that morality has been challenged by technology but not to the exaggerated extent that Postman states. Overall, Technopoly has introduced some interesting concepts of the way technology has changed the culture of America but if Niel Postman states that it is obvious that there are two sides to technology, and proclaims himself as a Thamus ,one who speaks of the burdens of technology(pg.5), he sounds just as narrow minded as technophiles; I look forward to reading what kind of society Postman would prefer America to be.
Although Postman begins his novel by encouraging the view of technology as both positive and negative part of society, further reading of the book suggests that Postman himself has a negative outlook on technology. I agree with Postman's argument that technology became "one sure thing to believe in" (pg. 55) when religion and tradition were being challenged by Nietzche, Darwin, Marx and Freud ( pg. 54). However, Postman believes that "Any conception of God's design certainly lost much of its power and meaning, and with that loss went the satisfaction of a culture in which moral and intellectual values were integrated."(pg. 38) This statement sounds very dramatic and I believe that Postman overstates the effects of technology. Postman's opinion that sin and evil have disappeared in Technopoly because " Their god speaks of efficiency, precision, objectivity"(pg.90) and not "righteousness or goodness or mercy or grace"(pg. 90), is extreme and suggests that America's society has totally lost a sense of morality. It is true that morality has been challenged by technology but not to the exaggerated extent that Postman states. Overall, Technopoly has introduced some interesting concepts of the way technology has changed the culture of America but if Niel Postman states that it is obvious that there are two sides to technology, and proclaims himself as a Thamus ,one who speaks of the burdens of technology(pg.5), he sounds just as narrow minded as technophiles; I look forward to reading what kind of society Postman would prefer America to be.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Copy and Compete
The last half of the book Computers:The Life Story of a Technology by Eric Swedin and David Ferro is by miles more interesting than the first and although it took a while for me to warm up to the book, Computers has made the history of computers much more interesting. Reason being that it is refreshing and entertaining to read about innovators who are still alive and companies that I am familiar with. When evaluating the time line of the microcomputer, it is surprising to find that within 37 years, the microcomputer has evolved from a machine with no peripherals to what it is today. Swedin and Ferro continue their attempt to meticulously list every important innovation in the field of computers so the information given on this evolution and everything around it is plenty.
Through the reading, it can be concluded that competition has kept the ball of progress in computers rolling.Patenting ideas proved to be an important factor of beating competition. For example, Edward Roberts, the founder of MITS, did not patent the idea of the microcomputer or "the bus" which is the "mechanism through which the computer communicated with its components"(89) and because of this, various companies and hobbyists copied these ideas.Therefore, competition for the advancement of the personal computer launched in 1976 with the microcomputers of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems(MITS) and IMSAI. Later, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs' company Apple Computer became head competitors with IBM. IBM allowed Microsoft to "sell it's operating system to other hardware manufacturers"(101) and had an open architecture for it's personal computer so competitors were able to copy IBM PC's hardware. Apple on the other hand had "a tight legal hold of their Macintosh ROM BIOS chips"(101) so copying of their microcomputer was harder to do. Software companies also ran into copying problems with "open source software" which published the source codes for software; this fired competition between software companies and forced them to continually create and improve their products. Other competitions in respected fields of computer technology are presented in the book but this brief overview is enough to conclude that the impact of competition has been beneficial to the advancement of computers.
I, like Swedin and Ferro, am excited to see what else the minds of innovators has in store for us in the future. The stories of Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak prove that the ability of a person to create and produce new technological advancements can start at an early age.Because of this, I believe that the potential for innovation by children today is greater than any generation before them. In the year 2000, studies showed that "51 percent of U.S. families owned a computer and 41 percent of U.S. homes had Internet access"(132); these numbers have only been increasing and with that the access to technology. Although the excessive usage of computers by children today is often viewed as a frightening addictive habit, it is encouraging to know that some children are feeding their strive for technological innovation.
Through the reading, it can be concluded that competition has kept the ball of progress in computers rolling.Patenting ideas proved to be an important factor of beating competition. For example, Edward Roberts, the founder of MITS, did not patent the idea of the microcomputer or "the bus" which is the "mechanism through which the computer communicated with its components"(89) and because of this, various companies and hobbyists copied these ideas.Therefore, competition for the advancement of the personal computer launched in 1976 with the microcomputers of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems(MITS) and IMSAI. Later, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs' company Apple Computer became head competitors with IBM. IBM allowed Microsoft to "sell it's operating system to other hardware manufacturers"(101) and had an open architecture for it's personal computer so competitors were able to copy IBM PC's hardware. Apple on the other hand had "a tight legal hold of their Macintosh ROM BIOS chips"(101) so copying of their microcomputer was harder to do. Software companies also ran into copying problems with "open source software" which published the source codes for software; this fired competition between software companies and forced them to continually create and improve their products. Other competitions in respected fields of computer technology are presented in the book but this brief overview is enough to conclude that the impact of competition has been beneficial to the advancement of computers.
I, like Swedin and Ferro, am excited to see what else the minds of innovators has in store for us in the future. The stories of Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak prove that the ability of a person to create and produce new technological advancements can start at an early age.Because of this, I believe that the potential for innovation by children today is greater than any generation before them. In the year 2000, studies showed that "51 percent of U.S. families owned a computer and 41 percent of U.S. homes had Internet access"(132); these numbers have only been increasing and with that the access to technology. Although the excessive usage of computers by children today is often viewed as a frightening addictive habit, it is encouraging to know that some children are feeding their strive for technological innovation.
Monday, September 20, 2010
My Venture into The Techy's Holy Grail
If you have ever wanted to know about the history of the technology which you are using right now, Computers by Eric G. Swedin and David L. Ferro is a must read. Everything from computation methods used before computers to microprocessors are explained within the first four chapters of the book. Personally, the brief timeline printed before the book even begins is enough information to fulfill my curiosities about computers. However, for a tech savvy person, the very thorough history presented in the book might be very entertaining.
When the history of computers is considered, it is easy to date the birth of computers back to 1939 when John Vincent Atansoff and Clifford E. Berry's computer which was "digital, used vacuum tubes, used binary numbers, used logic circuts..." (27-28) but what Swedin and Ferro acknowledge is that the journey of the computer began centuries before. In fact, the first chapter of the book begins by discussing a computing machine which is speculated to have been made by Romans "between 100 and 40 BCE"(1). Mathematics, which is the base of any technology regarding computers, is dated even further back in time; artifacts like notched bones from 35000 BCE prove that people used mathematics in their daily lives (x). Most importantly, counting and numbers proved useful in commerce and finger calculation which "existed prior to 500 BCE" has "allowed bargaining without the need to learn another language" (8). Having various minimum wage cashiering jobs over summer breaks has taught me that this is as true today as it was then; when dealing with customers who speak very little English, it is always a relief to know that numbers are universal. Through these personal experiences, I have also come to appreciate computer cash registers which I have to thank Pierre de Fermet for leading the way to mechanical adding and subtracting through his invention, the Pascaliner (11).
One theme which resonates throughout the beginnings of the book is that the journey to making the first computer was an international effort; it is not a credit which can be given to the United States alone. In the first chapter, Before Computers, countless nations are mentioned which birthed computational ideas and inventions. To name a few there was the Peruvian Incas and their knotting string system, China and their tally sticks (6) Hindu-Arabic numbers, the Japanese soroban abacus, Greece and the astrolabe, Italy and the sector(8),and Scotland's Napier's bones(9). The list goes from nation to nation across the globe. Even the numerical bases which John Vincent Astansoff studied and used for creating the electronic computer rooted from different societies like the ancient Babylonians and Mayans (26).
The development of technology and science became a race between nations by World War II; ideas for innovation were bouncing back and forth from one nation to the next (30).For example, Germans patented the Enigma encoding machine in 1919 which helped encode and decode messages (31) and soon the Dutch, Italians, Poles and British were purchasing and utilizing this invention to get ahead in their military efforts to win the war. Later, during the Cold War, computer technology developed at a rapid pace through the United States and the Soviet Union's competition to have "more advanced computers, computer networks,the internet..." than the other.
It can be argued that the reason why the United States has made the most computer advances is not only due to the federal governments efforts to advance but also because of the country's acceptance of brilliant foreign immigrants. Johann von Neumann who has been dubbed the "father of computers" was a Hungarian native who "received his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Budapest" and only later moved to the US to become a professor at Princeton University and member of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study(40). The United States is a place where people of all backgrounds can come and share their ideas and innovation and through this the country's efforts to get ahead of foreign competition in technological development is enhanced.
When the history of computers is considered, it is easy to date the birth of computers back to 1939 when John Vincent Atansoff and Clifford E. Berry's computer which was "digital, used vacuum tubes, used binary numbers, used logic circuts..." (27-28) but what Swedin and Ferro acknowledge is that the journey of the computer began centuries before. In fact, the first chapter of the book begins by discussing a computing machine which is speculated to have been made by Romans "between 100 and 40 BCE"(1). Mathematics, which is the base of any technology regarding computers, is dated even further back in time; artifacts like notched bones from 35000 BCE prove that people used mathematics in their daily lives (x). Most importantly, counting and numbers proved useful in commerce and finger calculation which "existed prior to 500 BCE" has "allowed bargaining without the need to learn another language" (8). Having various minimum wage cashiering jobs over summer breaks has taught me that this is as true today as it was then; when dealing with customers who speak very little English, it is always a relief to know that numbers are universal. Through these personal experiences, I have also come to appreciate computer cash registers which I have to thank Pierre de Fermet for leading the way to mechanical adding and subtracting through his invention, the Pascaliner (11).
One theme which resonates throughout the beginnings of the book is that the journey to making the first computer was an international effort; it is not a credit which can be given to the United States alone. In the first chapter, Before Computers, countless nations are mentioned which birthed computational ideas and inventions. To name a few there was the Peruvian Incas and their knotting string system, China and their tally sticks (6) Hindu-Arabic numbers, the Japanese soroban abacus, Greece and the astrolabe, Italy and the sector(8),and Scotland's Napier's bones(9). The list goes from nation to nation across the globe. Even the numerical bases which John Vincent Astansoff studied and used for creating the electronic computer rooted from different societies like the ancient Babylonians and Mayans (26).
The development of technology and science became a race between nations by World War II; ideas for innovation were bouncing back and forth from one nation to the next (30).For example, Germans patented the Enigma encoding machine in 1919 which helped encode and decode messages (31) and soon the Dutch, Italians, Poles and British were purchasing and utilizing this invention to get ahead in their military efforts to win the war. Later, during the Cold War, computer technology developed at a rapid pace through the United States and the Soviet Union's competition to have "more advanced computers, computer networks,the internet..." than the other.
It can be argued that the reason why the United States has made the most computer advances is not only due to the federal governments efforts to advance but also because of the country's acceptance of brilliant foreign immigrants. Johann von Neumann who has been dubbed the "father of computers" was a Hungarian native who "received his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Budapest" and only later moved to the US to become a professor at Princeton University and member of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study(40). The United States is a place where people of all backgrounds can come and share their ideas and innovation and through this the country's efforts to get ahead of foreign competition in technological development is enhanced.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Technology Log And Reactioin: Thursday/Friday/Saturday
Technology Log:Thursday/Friday/Saturday
Thursday: 9/9/10
-Internet to check homework, drop a class, check school map, check e-mail, write an essay, go on facebook, print out articles for class.
-Computer/Register to charge customers at work
-Cell phone to call, txt, alarm clock, note work schedule
Friday: 9/10/10
-Internet to print out articles for class, check e-mail, check homework, check movie listings
-Computer/Register to charge customers at work
-Cell phone to call, txt, alarm clock
Saturday:9/11/10
-Internet to make a blog, online homework, face book
-Computer/Register to charge customers at work
-cell phone to call, txt, alarm clock
Reaction to Technology Log:
So, this technology thing…I’m not so good with it. Hence the reason why I’m writing my first post on this Description area of my blog. Side note: I tried writing post but the thing didn’t load. Anyways, writing a log of my technology use wasn’t so difficult or shocking to review because I know that most people my age use the internet more than I do. My use of the internet mostly was associated with school and homework. This isn’t to say that I don’t socialize through technology because facebook and cell phone uses were part of all three days; I’d like to think that the amount of time I use these methods of social networking isn’t as long as most American teenagers but of course there seems to be a need to visit facebook every time I’m on the internet which is alarming. The duration of my visits to facebook did not exceed two hours and often times, I left the page on while doing other things on the internet. My reasons to visit facebook is to check posts on my wall and other messages from friends. Facebook, simply put, connects me to my friends.
Most of my time away from home and school was spent at work and even during this time, I mostly used the computer/register to ring up my customers. Side note: I worked at Aunty Anne’s pretzel shop. If I hadn’t worked five hour shifts on Thursday and Friday or a ten hour shift on Saturday, I probably would have used the internet more for leisure than schoolwork or at least watched a little more TV. My free time was obviously limited during those three days but I can attest that my use of the internet isn’t excessive compared to most.
Starting a blog and my failure to figure out how to post something on it proves that besides facebook, I don’t use other social networking sites. So far, after getting to read some of my classmates bogs, blogging seems like a more productive and creative use of the internet than most other online activities. I was surprised to find that my friends already had blogs and so it is exciting to join them in their blogging activities. I look forward to writing more entries and expressing my thoughts on other blogs. Before that however, I must learn how to write a post. This shouldn’t be too hard.
Thursday: 9/9/10
-Internet to check homework, drop a class, check school map, check e-mail, write an essay, go on facebook, print out articles for class.
-Computer/Register to charge customers at work
-Cell phone to call, txt, alarm clock, note work schedule
Friday: 9/10/10
-Internet to print out articles for class, check e-mail, check homework, check movie listings
-Computer/Register to charge customers at work
-Cell phone to call, txt, alarm clock
Saturday:9/11/10
-Internet to make a blog, online homework, face book
-Computer/Register to charge customers at work
-cell phone to call, txt, alarm clock
Reaction to Technology Log:
So, this technology thing…I’m not so good with it. Hence the reason why I’m writing my first post on this Description area of my blog. Side note: I tried writing post but the thing didn’t load. Anyways, writing a log of my technology use wasn’t so difficult or shocking to review because I know that most people my age use the internet more than I do. My use of the internet mostly was associated with school and homework. This isn’t to say that I don’t socialize through technology because facebook and cell phone uses were part of all three days; I’d like to think that the amount of time I use these methods of social networking isn’t as long as most American teenagers but of course there seems to be a need to visit facebook every time I’m on the internet which is alarming. The duration of my visits to facebook did not exceed two hours and often times, I left the page on while doing other things on the internet. My reasons to visit facebook is to check posts on my wall and other messages from friends. Facebook, simply put, connects me to my friends.
Most of my time away from home and school was spent at work and even during this time, I mostly used the computer/register to ring up my customers. Side note: I worked at Aunty Anne’s pretzel shop. If I hadn’t worked five hour shifts on Thursday and Friday or a ten hour shift on Saturday, I probably would have used the internet more for leisure than schoolwork or at least watched a little more TV. My free time was obviously limited during those three days but I can attest that my use of the internet isn’t excessive compared to most.
Starting a blog and my failure to figure out how to post something on it proves that besides facebook, I don’t use other social networking sites. So far, after getting to read some of my classmates bogs, blogging seems like a more productive and creative use of the internet than most other online activities. I was surprised to find that my friends already had blogs and so it is exciting to join them in their blogging activities. I look forward to writing more entries and expressing my thoughts on other blogs. Before that however, I must learn how to write a post. This shouldn’t be too hard.
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