How Technology Fits in Our Modern World

Throughout time technology has paved a path for us, the human species to continue to grow, learn and evolve.  In the past something as simple as a shield or an axe could be called technology but in the modern age of computers, cellphones, and the internet has evolved in people’s definition of technology and how it is used.  Nicholas Carr in his publication in the Atlantic entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, Carr looks to prove that technology is in fact changing the way we humans think, and possibly changing the way we view the world.  Technology is not only changing our thought process, but eventually will control us completely, due to our ongoing addiction to it, and it being too deeply ingrained within our society.  Carr’s argument is backed up by personal, and historical, along with scientific examples and he also incorporates logos to appeal to his audience’s logic and reasoning skills.

Carr uses a historical example of Friedrich Nietzsche in 1882, who completely changed his writing style after he had lost his sight and the typewriter was invented.  He began to write much differently. Carr uses this example to show the readers that technology is not only changing the way people think in modern times, but also even in the nineteenth century (Carr 4).

To further back up his claims that technology can change the way we think, Carr draws upon three different scientific expert witnesses that inform us that the brain is always adapting with this ever changing technology crediting the brains plasticity for being able to make this constant adaption (Carr 5).  One of them being James Olds, a neuroscience professor, who directs the Krasnow Institute of Advanced Study, at George Mason University, informs the audience that this plasticity quite literally gives the brain the power to “reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions” (Carr 5).

Since Carr himself was once not aware of the many dangers that could potentially occur with technology, he tries to serve as an advocate so others will possibly put the dangers of technology in conversation; not just brush it under the rug.  In our brief 25-year marriage with the internet, she has undoubtedly enlightened us, however the overall cost of this enlightenment is yet to be determined.  It is a marriage that doesn’t have a foreseeable ending any time soon.  Social media has turned to an addiction for many of us instead of a good way to connect with those around us in the world.  The day has come where people actually use “sorry I was checking my twitter” as a legitimate excuse

In the beginning of Carr’s article, he discusses a scene from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Space Odyssey, in which a computer’s brain and memory circuits are being ripped out and screams “my mind is going, ‘I can feel it.  I can feel it” (Carr 1).  Carr strategically places this scene in the reader’s mind to set up his concluding paragraph, there he describes how much that particular scene haunts him.  “Thoughts and actions feel scripted, as if they’re following an algorithm” Carr states, he describes humanity as almost computer like in these modern times saying that we “go about our business with an almost robotic efficiency (Carr 10).  Relying on technology too heavily will in fact dumb down our own intelligence to that of a blank screen on a computer.  With so much potential inside but a one dimensional thought process on the surface.  Artificial intelligence facilitates our inherent laziness.  It allows us to take credit for things we didn’t learn on our own.  We merely “googled” it.