Monday, March 23, 2015

A World Run by Technology


There has been a lot of discussion about technology over the past years and lately focusing on how far should we allow technology to advance. Basically, how much is too much technology? According to Brian Merchant there is no such thing. Many people like Merchant would argue that I only disagree with this because I am afraid of the word communism or just do not fully understand what a world run by technology would entail. However, I beg to differ, just the phrase “a world run by technology” alone should make people cringe. Merchant uses points about how factories are shedding jobs and many jobs are at risk of being taken over by technology to somehow “support” his argument, however, for me it clarifies that technology is not the answer. Yet some readers may challenge my view by insisting that technology is one hundred percent the way to go and that there is no better answer for the world’s problems. Humans are so unique and regardless of religious or political views everyone can agree we are unique creatures who were given so many advances from our vast intricate brains, our structurally advanced body’s, down to our hard working and determined spirits and I believe we were given these qualities for a reason and we should value and use them. We as humans have more to offer than a brain capable of creating technology that will perform every task for us. I agree that robots or self-driven cars would be totally cool and maybe readers could argue that self-driven cars would result in less car accidents and I would love to listen, however, it is just not realistic that this will happen. In a perfect world maybe life would be easier if technology did everything for us, however, there is no way to test the effects it could have. The consequences greatly outweigh the rewards in this situation. Although I grant that Merchant has valid points regarding that technology is helpful, I still maintain that there is such thing as too much technology and at some point a line needs to be drawn.

8 comments:

  1. I can strongly agree with a lot of the points that you are trying to make. The phrase “a world run by technology” makes me just about as uncomfortable as one can get. As far as Brian Merchant’s argument, I also thought it was strange the way he set it up and the supporting points that he added to his essay. It really is hard to believe that an author could use sources talking about shredding jobs and how much technology is taking over as an advantageous source. To me actually, it took me a while to realize which side he was on because of him using words and phrases such as “communism” and “a world run by technology”. I agree with you when you say that there is such a thing as too much technology and that the consequences would outweigh the rewards of even more of a technology based world. I think that the age of technology that Merchant says we are headed to is very much possible, but I would firmly stand by my opinion that too much technology could prove to be disastrous. If there is nothing left for humans to do, if they just sat around while machines and technology did everything for us, the outcome could not possibly be conceived as positive for us and our society as a whole.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I totally agree with you Brianna about how too much technology can damage a society as a whole. Everyone knows that technology is the most important resource tool that we need almost everyday in our daily lives. Of course it would be nice to have mechanical robots or cars that can fly but we as humans have to realize that these unrealistic aspects that we crave for does not grant a perfect world we wish to live in. According to Brian Merchant’s article, supporters believe that living a luxury lifestyle equals a post work society. In this case, I honestly disagree . I was able to find a video online of Aaron Bastani, co-founder of Novaro Media in which he discusses the benefits of a fully automated luxury communism and vision of utopia where people tend to work less and live more. He mentions how high inflations on essentials equal the cost of living crisis. He also mentions how living standards and self-employment rates has declined tremendously in the UK. The UK is basically at risk of being automated because many people experiencing low wages and many factories are shedding jobs. If you really think about, we don’t really need robots assisting us with our everyday lives. We humans have many purposes in life and many skills that can help impact our society in a positive. Maybe their will be flying cars by the year 2030, but having a automated luxury communism should not be the vision of living in a perfect world.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with many of your points, especially when you say that "'a world run by technology' should make people cringe," and it most certainly should. However, we, as a society, do need a substantial amount of technology to survive and thrive. I definitely don't think technology is 100% the way to go, it certainly can't answer problems like world hunger and poverty, as far as I know! But, I do believe that the right amount of technology will help the human race. I mean, look at us right this second, we're doing assignments online, like these blog posts and comments. We have a blog to post on. That's incredibly cool and without technology, we wouldn't have this. I have nothing against learning on paper or chalkboard, but I must say, this is a nice change! Automated luxury communism is at the extreme end of the spectrum. We can do so much with technology, but I truly believe that we cannot go as far as cars that drive themselves, although I would love real life Transformers, or Robot Maids. Maybe one step at a time towards the future.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree on many points on your technology points. I agree that a "world run by technology should make people cringe." For these very reasons, for starters if the world were run by technology, robots, etc...most people would be out of work. Since most jobs in America a robot can most likely do I assume, mostly with maintenance and assembly lines. With people out of work there are less jobs on the market which means higher competition. possibly higher crime rates, dropouts, etc. You couldn't just tell these people to be smarter and work harder because people aren't made the same and too many people for that one job. I strongly believe technology will be the death of mankind, having it is a luxury but soon our luxuries in technologies become demands, then more technologies are developed to satisfy these demands. Before you know it, it will be too much to handle then it will get the best of us and turn we against one another. Don't get me wrong I love technology, but we can live without. It would be cool to live to the day where we can just sit and a car, and it just take us to our destination without worrying about car accidents or road rage.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree very strongly with many of the points that you are making, I do believe that the “consequences outweigh the rewards” completely. In our day and age we now rely so heavily on technology, such as our smart phones, and laptops and whatever else they have come out with that I can’t even keep track of. While these pieces of technology help us out in many ways, I think expanding technology to replace the work that many humans do is a bad idea for everyone. Not only would the use of highly automated machines put people out of work, I can’t see these pieces of technology helping us any more than they could possibly hinder us. While it’s always neat to see what crazy technology is out there being tested in our world, most of it we would be better off without integrating into our everyday lives. For example, there are a few celebrities that actually do have the fully automated cars that can drive them around without them having to do a thing, but one problem that they hadn’t fixed for a very long time was the reaction to stop signs, the car would stop at the sign correctly, but then see the other stop sign across the street, or from behind them and stop again, besides, don’t celebrities have chauffeurs to drive them around anyways!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I totally agree with all of your points being made across using Merchant’s ideas. Everyone in the United States owns or has owned something dealing with technology in their life. It can either be a car, a television, a telephone, a microwave, etc. And many have been totally useful and efficient up to this date, if it wasn't for cars it would take us hours in order to make it to work, without microwaves how would we heat up our food during lunch break. But with the phrase “a world run by technology” can be something to think about. I mean yeah it would be fascinating and cool to see robots walking around and flying cars in the air, but what happens with us when that happens? Do we just sit back and let robots take over the world, while we do nothing? Merchant points out that our working wages would be cut down to 10 or 12 hours a week by machines, by 2030 there would be driver-less cars. Who wants that? Who wants to be left with nothing to do the rest of their lives and die of boredom?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I fully agree that technology running our world is scary, and quite frankly, redundant. Humans were given all the biological tools to run this planet, and many people love their jobs; whether it's healing people with modern medicine, feeding and clothing people through farming, building cool gadgets, engineering, city planning, etc. As a race we have one large flaw, Greed. Having more than your neighbor and putting more value into money and economy than health and culture. I value technology, but I completely understand and admit that it can make people lazy and takes away the beauty in a lot of things. How much can someone enjoy a conversation with another person about their vacation, when they saw the pictures while it was happening, honestly. The food industry is a good example of how technology has taken value and beauty from our lives. I can guarantee that a meal made with your family, with vegetables your friend grew and meat that was CAUGHT(after living a natural full life) is going to be more valuable to you than ordering pizza or picking out a random whole chicken (that grew up in a dark and ammonia filled filled warehouse) in the meat isle at HEB, to eat with frozen vegetables. Our society failed, when people had to choose jobs for money, instead of passion. Communism isn't scary to me either, if we all got paid the same amount, got access to better education, (at schools where they value Education and not Recognition through statistics) we would choose to do jobs we enjoy and thus do them better than some do now. Consider the people who once dreamed of being surgeons, but couldn't because of lack of access to worthwhile education and loads money, or the guys with loads of money who want to get dirty and live on farm and grow vegetables, being pressured to make more money, so they become half-assed doctors taking care of you instead of following their dreams. SO if the gap in socioeconomic scale were smaller, who cares what you do as long as you love doing it, wouldn't y'all agree? Build computers, grow food, get that cute boutique, make movies, play music, cure diseases follow your dream because you love it, because you all get paid almost the same. Don't hand off humanity to a piece of metal, live a fuller life and love it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I agree with all of your points that you made. I like the point you made about "consequences outweigh rewards." because it goes as an all around life lesson. As far as working and technology taking over jobs, I think that there are certain qualities people have that can never be attained through a machine, and despite how much hassle it can save to have a computer do something that a person doesn't have to, it also means that there is one more person without a job. Another thing to consider is that with a world completely centered on machines there is also more room for error. For example a car that drives itself is slowly becoming possible, but what if that car malfunctions? The driver cannot drive the car to save their life and therefore the machine (car) could be responsible for a persons death. I feel that maybe there should be a line or maybe a moral code that we need to draw so that machines don't become a threat to human life.

    ReplyDelete