Technology's Influence

In reading this Technology and Modern life I like how it's approaching the questions I think we all wonder about. Essentially, what has technology done for us, or to us? Is it controlling us?
I particularly like the idea of the billiard ball metaphor. Cars reduced the need for horses, which reduced the need for feed, which increased available land for edible food planting, which decreased the price of food. I like how it brings to mind the multiple and varying effects of technology. We can't simply say the telephone was influential because it allowed us to communicate of vast distances. What else did it do? What did talking from country to country instantly change about the world? It's almost like the idea of everything and everyone being connected. Like a ripple effect in the world.

When Fischer brings up the argument about specific groups develop technology for specific purposes I don't think it is entirely wrong, but I also don't think it should be an argument against the rippling effect. There is no doubt a group develops a technology for a specific purpose. As consumers we all have a void, or hole, in ourselves in which we seek to fill with material objects deemed valuable by our social settings. First it might be that ipod, then it might be the ps3, then it might be the HDtv. The point is, inventors create technology in an effort to fill that void in us. They try to manipulate us to want it, to feel like we need it and it's the thing that will satisfy us. So in this way, technology is created for a purpose. But I agree with Fischer in that we aren't changed by technology, we use it to "more vigorously pursue our characteristic ways of life." Technology is created for a purpose, we buy it for that purpose, but eventually we mold it, it doesn't mold us, and then something new has to be created. This keeps the circle going. We have a need, it's temporarily filled, then it's empty again. All the while we can't forget about the billiard effect of technology. All in all, I think the effects of technology is an interesting topic.