29 January 2007

Speech and Writing

Along with this class I am taking intro to society. I was reading my chapters for the week and I came across a line of text that really caught my attention. It says, "A society that possesses writing can locate itself in time and space." I found that this statement took my mind to a comparison between the people who were the first to discover writing and myself. Whoever discovered it had just started the climb up the technological mountain. They had no idea what this would lead to and I know that they would have never predicted that people would have the power to read about anything they felt like within the click of a few buttons. I feel so lucky to be able to sit behind a computer for at least 3 hours a day and be able to look up and see anything I feel like. We as the society of 2007 have this power to all become knowledgable to any extint we wish. We have computers that hold an infinite knowledge. In comparison to the earlier societies that roamed the world we not only can locate ourself in time and space but we can also learn from the past at a lighting speed that was unknown until the internet was presented to us. We also can get knowledge of what the future holds for us. Amazing.

2 comments:

Taylor P said...

I completely agree. We have seemlessly infinite boundaries and capabilities with how society is evolving technology. We have access to so much information from our home. Imagine if Benjamin Franklin could have read any piece of work he wanted instantaneously. I merely repeat what you say in order to bring up the irony of what is human. We're bored with it. I could gain incredible amounts of knowledge right now...read up on whatever I wanted, learn how something is made. Instead, I'd rather watch tv, or sleep. Are we lazy? Or is this just why technology advances? To fulfill our insatiable need for more.

kellyt said...

Your thoughts on this are really interesting. I can definitely see the comparison between them and us, in that we both are on the brink of major technological shifts and have absolutely no idea. I mean, reading even just the first few chapters of everyware is like an awakening for me. There are so many new technologies around us that we don't understand or more frequently DON'T EVEN KNOW EXIST. For example, I had no idea how the paypass at the gas station worked. I wasn't even really aware of it as a technology per se. It is so easy to just accept it as part of daily life that it is kind of worrying.I think as a society we need to step back and really recognize how much technology we use on a daily basis. And we have to wonder, just how far up that technological mountain are we? I think we are STILL just starting to climb.