Technology is a monument of the human spirit, never settling, always raising the bar. There have been tremendous leaps forward since the creation of the telegraph. Whether its cloning sheep, prosthetic hearts or small things like doing my holiday shopping thru the WAP interface of my cell phone – advancements cannot be stopped. What may seem cutting edge at this moment quickly becomes part of our every day routine. And their once miraculous hype that surrounded them soon gets drowned out by next round of state of the art innovations. The question that arises is “how does this effect humanity, do we get lazy and when is enough enough?” Jonscher believes that as the world becomes more globalized there will be a great change in social status and economic structures (Jonscher, p.266). But he does not predict the outcomes of this change. I believe that as life becomes easier with the aid of technology, human culture with turn to more of a communal based society like described in A Brave New World or depicted on Star Trek episodes. I think that we will lose our competive edge as robotics and other innovations make our life easier. We will work for the greater cause of each other rather than to fill our own selfishness. People will (already are) cocoon themselves around their monitor and create & maintain friendships and relationships with their assistance of their virtual words. Already I know that I spend more time on AOL IM than I do on the telephone. And how does this affect the dating scenes nationwide, if people rather sit at home to chat on a Friday night rather than go out. Like Jonscher said – we must be careful not to trade the basics of our culture just for a quick jump ahead. We must continue to reinstall the importance of math and the literatures into young students so that they can build a strong foundation for which they can add knowledge onto. ...
