Technopoly Part I

This book begins nicely and seems to be interesting until he starts with his rant against technology. I was intrigued by his explanation of how dependent we are on computers and such and how he broadens the definition of technology to include all the tools that we use and take for granted everyday. Postman has a point though, there is nothing that we do today, with the exception of sleeping, which doesn't have technology subtly built into it and now that I think about it, sleeping may not be the exception due to the fact that mattresses are engineered with our proper spinal position in mind to get the optimum sleep experience. Everything that is man made has science involved; what we eat, how we go, what we walk around in, the toys we play with, technology has infused itself in our entire lives.

In Technopoly, Postman writes, "The idea that if something could be done it should be done was born in the nineteenth century." (42)  He may credit that idea to the nineteenth century but I believe that it has existed for far longer than that. Men (and women) have been trying to improve their place by using new tools since the first person used a rock to kill their animal as opposed to their bare hands. And the idea took off until someone else used a spear and less people used rocks. The evolution of how people killed their food and cooked it could be seen as technology and not just progress. Postman uses writing and the printing press as his great example and it is but dissemination of information, good and bad, is progress.  It is bad to have too much information but good when you have multiple viewpoints so to make an educated choice. To follow another person's idea wholeheartedly without exploring your own is dangerous, to yourself and sometimes to others. Look at the Charlie Manson followers. There was no shortage of information for his followers to discover that he was crazy and homicidal, they just chose to ignore it. I believe that we all have to make decisions daily based on the information we have, sometimes too much and we ignore it, sometimes not enough and we hope for the best result. It is not information nor technology that should take responsibility for our actions or lack of them, but ourselves. 

Computers: The Life Story of Technology, Part 2

Somewhere during the reading of the second half of the book, I realized that I have lived through much of the explosion of technology that we take for granted today. Even in doing this assignment, I am using the technology that was written about in the second half of the book. I am writing on a PC clone (Dell), using Windows Explorer to open the URL of my blog, typing on an ergonomic keyboard and seeing it appear on the flat screen monitor, and posting my comments after previewing my work. These innovations were impossible a few decades ago but today we take it all for granted.  Some of these "new" innovations were created after years of hard of work, some were fluke ideas that took off and were accepted by the populace, some were improvements on previous inventions of people past but all have become second nature and integral in our daily routine. 

Being that I am older than most in this class, I still remember the Commodore 64 and still have a Apple IIB or C up in my attic. There wasn't anything written in the book about the size of the disks that held the memory in the Apple but they were gigantic 5 1/2 " bendable floppy disks that were heat sensitive and easily breakable. I remember the games that you could play, made up of mainly crude graphics made with dots and dashes but  we were so excited that we could play anything at home we didn't care. I also recall that for one Christmas, Santa brought me an Atari. It was the hottest new toy, and to be able to play Pong with a friend made me the coolest kid on my block. Through the years after having children of my own, Santa has brought various Nintendos, beginning with the 8 bit grey box, the 64, the GameCube and now the wii. We have also received from a very generous Santa Sega, several versions of Xbox, not to mention Gameboys, Gameboy colors, Gameboy advances, DSs, and PSPs. The video game market has had a very strong supporter in our family. With that said, I have seen firsthand the progression of technology that has gone through the years, and I can attest that the improvement in the realism and interactive ability of each new generation of game system has surpassed the previous and the will so again when the new systems come out, probably in time for Santa to strike again. What I am trying to say is that we don't ever question the improvement of technology, we just purchase the next new thing that comes out, assuming it is bigger and better than the one we already have.  This mentality is pervasive worldwide but especially prevalent in the United States, and is one of the reasons why many families are in debt and young people find themselves more and more in serious financial straits even though they may be working and making a "living". 

Towards the end of the book, Computers, the Life Story of Technology, Swedin and Ferro say, "By improving the means by which we communicate, entertain ourselves, travel, calculate, and do a thousand other things, the computer will be an essential tool in reaching for the stars and our quest for all that might follow."  I believe that the computer and all related technology is already an essential tool, all encompassing and invasive in our lives and we can't live without them even for a day. Even if you were to ignore your personal computer, there is almost nothing that you can do in the course of a day that does not touch some form of technology. It is here to stay whether you like it or not.

Computers: The Early History to Now

According to Computers The Life Story of a Technology, by Eric G. Swedin and David L. Ferro, the use of technology by humans began eons ago, although the face of technology has changed greatly with the times. The use of technology seems to be well documented by the remains of the earliest tools found in archeological sites and in later times, in the published works of the various inventors and the users of the assorted systems. Through this evolution of technology, humans have become more accepting and dependent on different types of machinery and now embrace it as an integral part of their daily lives. Swedin and Ferro say "...devices representing reality became very popular as both tools and objects of curiosity" (2) 
I believe this is an accurate statement that is relevant both in ancient times with the use of the mechanical computer used for navigation by the Romans and its more recent manifestation in the use of the Cray supercomputers that drive the operations of the world's most complex equations and calculations. But what is most interesting about this evolution is that it is always a human whose imagination and "thinking out of the box idea" that makes the great leap that leads to the advances that become commonplace a few years later.

The story that particularly intrigued me is the story of the genesis of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). All our lives, we have taken for granted that Big Blue has always been there and this story confirmed that idea. When Herman Hollerith developed a quicker and more precise way of processing census data for the U.S. Census Bureau in 1889 (21), and formed his company the Tabulating Machine Company, he could not have imagined that it would grow into the computer giant that it became over the next hundred years. Remnants of the monopoly that IBM had on the computer world for decades still exists today and there were few other viable choices for business and government use of technology. Their business model is still studied in business classes and IBM's approach to development of new products by using the deep pockets of the U.S. government to finance research was copied by developers of defense systems and other companies which require mega-million dollar investments. Using the trickle down theory, we are the beneficiaries of much of their original research, from calculators to memory chips to software, which are all commonplace today. These advances once pioneered by IBM have become more applicable in our lives years after they are declassified.

I was surprised that there wasn't anything written on ARPANET and the beginning of how computers began their communication network since we watched that documentary on it. I guess it is to come in the second half of the book. In the meantime, I do my blogging on an IBM clone desktop, I have an IBM laptop, and my work computer is also an IBM clone desktop. I would hazard a guess that IBM has had an impact on my computing life, albeit a weakening influence since my entire family is now using Macs.  



 

Log and thoughts of creating blog

I was surprised that I spent as much time as I did on the computer based on my log. My job normally requires me to be out in the field, teaching nutrition in the community, but I have been spending most of my time in my office recently and thus have had much more time than usual to be online. Including email and normal paperwork and reports that are done weekly, there usually isn't a lot of free recreation time. Due to some individual projects that I have undertaken, I've had to do some research and it's easiest done online. So I've been "on" more often at work which is the bulk of the day. In the evening when I get home, I choose not to go on the computer unless I have to. I don't play games or do too much youtubing and I don't want a facebook page. I am thinking of joining linkedin, which is a  social networking site for professionals that my friends keep inviting me to join, but I have resisted so far. The computer and internet are tools for me, not a viable replacement for spending time with family and friends. I do manage to keep in touch with people via email but I rather talk to or text them. 


Creating was blog was relatively simple. I'm glad that google chooses to make it easy so normal people can just write about whatever they please. I do follow several blogs daily, mostly written by retired reporters or community activists who are taking their time to keep up with the news in my town. Through their postings, I get a sense of what happens at meetings and various other events that I don't have time to attend, and still feel like I'm somewhat involved. It's a sharing of information and much appreciated by the readers. I don't see a whole lot of people caring about what I may have to say in this blog but we'll see!