I learned a great deal about the history of technology and can honestly say that I gained a new perspective on the man and machine relationship. Humans are ever-so -evolving and can and will continue to adapt to new lifestyles. And without the development of technology and the internet, it would be extremely difficult to communicate effectively, especially in times of crisis! Not just with the internet, but even post-nuclear America, we humans have always needed a command and control network, a beneficial way to communicate messages amongst one-another. Progressively there have been many different methods and modes of communication, but after reading these two articles, I can see how the internet has made communication much more convenient.
The human and the machine have become ONE over-time. I like how the essay Being Analog describes how humans and the computer are such different systems because it truly makes sense. I believe that this is the way it should be. Humans should be unlike computers. We want technology to enhance what we humans do not already have, what we are lacking! Although many approaches today say that computers should be more sensitive like humans and humans more intelligent like computers, we should just be happy and focus on the two as separate identities and not try to compete, but instead appreciate their own attributes. Humans have emotions and are pretty disorganized and inconsistent, while computers are precise, logical, and factual. Humans are made to make errors and I think that that is what makes us human. When it comes to computers, we do not want errors, we turn to it for support and help. In today’s society we need both, which until reading these articles I did not recognize. I never understood why we rely SO much on the internet to do everything for us, but can now see its benefits, especially since back in the day humans had a difficult time relaying information and protecting information, like the telegraph, which took minutes to deliver a message only a mile away. I feel lucky to have the resources that we have today although there is a lot of information overload, I would rather have more than less.
Questions:
Do you think that it is a good thing that humans are not like computers and computers not like humans? Should we just appreciate these differences instead of trying to combine them?
Do you think that it would be more beneficial for humans to be like computers this way a machine’s intelligence does not surpass that of a human? Is this a bad thing that a computer knows more than a human?
Do you think countries worldwide should all be required to adopt the computer/ internet making it an automatic universal communication tool for everyone, especially leaders and govt. officials?
