Research Paper

At first I thought the books I got for my paper were going to be a complete hassle to read over and get information out of, but the readings actually were quite interesting and I got a lot out of them. After reading small parts of each source I got from Nye, I got really interested in technology and wanted to know more. The information I read allowed me to form questions in my head and narrow information down into a research question. Althought I dont have my research topic fully ready to go considering there's so much information I could get from the broken down question I already have, I do plan on getting a good experience out of this research paper and am excited to learn more about technology and what people think.

Before this class I had no idea people thought this way about technology and had no idea that it was as big of a topic as it really is. It really enhanced my knowledge and my interests to want to discover more about technology. Due to the information from the books and in class, I was able to come up with my research topic. My topic has to due with technology taking over the jobs of humans and I find it really interesting because it will be a serious problem if it actually does happen. I guess I came about this topic because I saw through the readings and in class discussions on how this topic is a serious topic. I dont think its a high topic for technology, but I still feel its an important issue. Working is important for living and/or survival so it would be a tough life or a much different life without a job.

In discussing it in further terms, I think this is also a big issue because I am still a college student working hard to get a job for my future. What will happen to me or schooling systems if we are no longer in need of preparation for jobs due to the fact that technology does the job for us? Will additional education in colleges even be needed if technology takes over jobs? And how will people make a living and/or what will they do if they don't work? The society would become lazier and less informed of their own capabilities if technology completely takes over. Jobs are how we make a living. They are how we buy homes and take care of our families and go out to dinner with friends. Jobs are our lives and if technology takes over those jobs, we would have an intense change in society, and, to my understanding, not for the better. Life, to me, would honestly be so boring.

All in all, even after writing this i'm really excited for my topic now and excited to start the research!

Blog Assignment #7

For this assignment, considering my books were quite big and had a lot of information in them, I looked at the abstract version of the books to figure out what each section of the book was about. Additionally, I skimmed the chapters until I found a good source of information that I could use in my paper, or to what I thought would be useful for my paper. I didn't exactly use all the information I noted, but the information helped. If I would have had more time, I would have read each chapter throughly, however, I feel that the way I did it was great too. It allowed me to just get the main points I needed.
I got kind of excited to explore other sources beyond Nye's book. I thought it was great to learn more and understand more about the information Nye talked about in his novel. Once I picked out a good quote or picked out good source information, I tried to think about questions I had about the information Nye provided. Since I thought that Nye provided the abstract version of the issues discussed about technology, I wanted to try to get as many questions as possible out of his information so I'd know what to look for in the other source's information.
As far as the peer editing goes, I thought the person was very helpful. I liked what they said and liked the ideas they had. It made me think more about my paper and understand what I needed to change and/or fix in my paper. The only two problems I had with the peer editing was that I only got one comment and that I also like to hear the teacher's comments before I turn the final in.
Lastly, I think writing these papers is somewhat difficult. In terms of a research paper, I think they are really fun and interesting because you gain a lot of information out of them that you hadn't known previous, but I think the actual writing part of them is very hard. I am so used to writing regular papers that just involve my thoughts and feelings to the information I talk about in addition to the factual information given throughout the paper. I think I'm really kind of struggling with this though because I don't know whats good or bad about my research papers or what I'm doing right or what I should be doing. I've writen a few research papers in the past (high school) but feel like my information or the things I write about isn't good enough. I like how Nye does it and how he uses sources throughout his novel. That's great, but I feel like I'm still struggling a little bit with my research paper(s) in comparison to Nye's research information. As said before, I really like research papers and think they are fun because you learn so much and it's actually fun to do the research part. The only problem for me though is that it's harder than I thought and nobody likes to struggle. Getting the information is fun, but then having to put it down on paper and into your own words is the difficult part.

Nye’s Source Views of Technology

David E. Nye’s thoughts about technology have been all over the place in his book intitled Technology Matters. One of the main topics he discusses in his book is the evolution of technology and that much of where technology came from was through using tools in the earlier centuries of human lives. Nye states a small amount of detailed information about his idea of tools being used as a starter of technology for the Homo Sapians species in the earlier years of the human life: “Learning to use tools was a crucial step in the species’ development, both because it increased adaptability and because it led to a more complex social life” (Nye: 2). Nye continues his discussion on tools in not only notifying his readers that tools built up a more diverse social life, but also states that tools can be used in survival and safety mechanisms for these earlier species. Using the tools to kill animals, tend fires, and for murdering for safety matters are all examples of these survival and safety mechanisms. As years and years went on, these tools were made into bigger and better technologies that could be used for a higher purpose. In stating this, Albert H. Teich also discusses the topic of tools having a higher purpose in his novel Technology and the Man’s Future.
Albert H. Teich discusses the idea of tools becoming bigger and better and gaining a greater purpose as something that should be a bigger issue than most think. Teich states that there is a current situation that seems different from the past years of our lives. Teich gives three reasons on why he believes this, however states one specific reason about tools that is in comparison to Nye’s ideas on tools.
“(1) Our tools are more powerful than any before. The rifle wiped out the buffalo, but nuclear weapons can wipe out man. Dust storms lay whole regions wast, but too much radioactivity in the atmosphere could make the planet uninhabitable. The domestication of animals and the invention of the wheel literally lifted the burden from man’s back, but computers could free him fromall need to labor” (Teich: 102-103).

In this quotation, it goes further into the fact that, yes, tools have been something that has been a starter technology since the beginning of time, but as technology continues to grow throughout the years it places a higher impact upon our lives. This impact, in reading Teich’s information, may not be as good of an impact as humans may have wanted.
In addition to talking about the tool usage and its changes throughout the years, a second source of ideas has been brought up in comparison to Nye’s information about how those tools have caused issue for the social aspects of our human lives. Christian Heath and Paul Luff talk about the current uprising issues of technology and the technological social complications it brings to humans.
“Over the past decade or so, a substantial body of literature has emerged concerned with social aspects of tecnology. Perhaps the most important and wide-ranging contributions are concered with the ways in whuch new computer and commiunication technologies are changing the character of contemporary society… (Heath & Luff: 7).
Now that we have all these new technological tools that are constantly being updated and being turned into things that are known to draw a greater attention to the human race, it is becoming a social problem for many. Heath and Luff really dig deep into the matter of social technologies and the problem technology causes all throughout our society and really want to notify people that it really is a bigger issue than many people may actually realize.
I believe the arguments here to be simple. In putting Nye, Teich, Heath and Luff’s ideas together they really want people to understand that if technology keeps growing the way it does, and keeps having such a great impact on our lives, there won’t be much hope for the lives of us humans. In stating that, I mean that the more we depend on technology,the less we are able to look upon ourselves for the answer and do things on our own. I think its good that we use tools and they help impact our lives in what seems to be a helpful way, however, I do agree with the authors in saying that technology continues to be a social issue.
Nye clearifies his information about technology in a smaller amounts of detail than Teich, Heath and Luff. Teich, Heath and Tuff really identify that tools and/or the social aspects of technology have become greater problems than many realize and that people really need to realize these issues before it becomes a bigger problem than it already is. Nye’s information is a simple abstract version of the other authors’ detailed information. I think that Nye just wants it to be straight forward and real. He wants to state something about technology, and be straight forward about it the information. Teich, Heath and Tuff on the other hand really want people to see what they are saying so that is why they write an entire book about the issue as apposed to Nye who writes an entire book about all the technological issues of this world.
Furthermore, in the idea of discussing Nye, Teich, Heath and Tuff’s reasoning and understandings for their novels, Nye’s information, as stated before, is the abstract version of the other authors. This means that Nye tries to aim at the audience of everyone. His information causes the readers to think about the subject involving technology. With that information and that new thinking process the reader can then look at the other authors, that Nye uses, and find further information on the subject through those authors. In reguards to the other authors, Teich seems to focus on the audience of many ages. Since he talks about tools and information concerning the technological tools that form over time, it’s to my understanding that he is looking at people of all age levels. Heath and Tuff on the other hand forward their information on the concerns of technology socially toward business people who form the new technologies that affect our social lives, but also only older individuals. I say only older individuals instead of younger individuals because Heath and Tuff use actual statistics and great amounts of in depth information that may cause some kind of difficulty comprehension for someone at a younger age.
After reading, analyzing, and comparing Nye’s information to Teich, Heath and Tuff’s information throughout their novels a series of new questions based off their information have come to my mind. Is there a point in which we should stop updating the tools that have already been presented to the world or, better yet, is there a point that we will stop looking for new tools at all? In addition, as far as the social issues go, I wonder what kind of society we will have once the technology “completely” takes over our lives. Can we stop it before it does, or has it gone to far? Where did we start to get out of control and why didn’t anyone see it before, or, furthermore, why didn’t these authors themselves do something to get the information out to the world in a different way beyond their novels?

Technology Research Sources

“Technology is more than just machines. It is a percasive complex system whose cultural, social, political, and intellectual elements are manifest in virtually every aspect of our lives” (Teich: 1). This brief definition of technology was said by a man named Albert H. Teich in his novel Technolog and Man’s Future. In this novel, Teich discusses these kinds of issues based off technology and how it is considered a threat to our human race. The book is based off three major ideas of technology: Thinking About Technology, Forecasting, Assessing and Controlling Technology, and Reshaping Technology. The first, Thinking About Technology, involves discussing the relationship technology has with society itself. This first section is comparable to Nye’s book because it doesn’t necessarily state one specific opinion about technology, but it causes the readers to think deeper about technology and question their own personal thoughts that they had before reading this book. The second section, Forecasting, Assessing and Controlling Technology, focuses on the concerns of public actions of technology and involve making public decisions about new technologies. This section also discusses governmental mechanisms for handling technology. Finally, Reshaping Technology addresses the current ideas of technology; Is it considered to be good or bad? Finally, the novel then discusses ideas in discovering alternatives for technology. For this novel, in terms of Nye, I believe that Nye may have touched slightly on these kinds of issues but not in as much detail as Teich does in his book. The book breaks down three main ideas to technology and discusses those three specific issues. Nye’s book discusses some of the issues, but not in as much detail.
In my second novel, called Technology in Action by Christian Heath and Paul Luff., discusses the different types of technology. It starts with the introduction of the basic information system, further more into the medical practices of technology, and then discusses the intrapersonal communication in media. Breaking it into further detail, the novel has eight chapters discussing a variety of different topics about technology such as related ethnographic studies of technology, informational medicine and general practice of technology, the actions and activities of individuals based off technology, control rooms of urban transportation, and the impact technology has placed on the workplace environments. For this novel, I believe it to be more like Nye’s novel because it discusses a variety of different issues about technology. However,Technology in Action seems to discuss one basic thing about technology: how technology effects the working world and actions that have taken place while using those technologies all throughout the world. Nye discusses these ideas of technology slightly different, however, this novel uses just one of Nye’s ideas. I think that Nye didn’t get further into these ideas, including the information in Technology and Man’s Future, because, as stated before, Nye uses technology as a whole and uses a variety of different ideas about technology in his novel. These two novels “take one of Nye’s ideas” and break that idea down even further than Nye. Both novels are similar, in comparison to Nye, to Vicente and Vonnegut’s novels. Vicente and Vonnegut both seem to “use” one of Nye’s idea’s discussed in his novel and breaks it down into a more simple way, just as Teich, Heath and Luff do in their novels.

Chapter 11: Nye's "Not Just One Future"

David E. Nye uses many complex terms and provides a great amount of benificial information about why technology matters to the world. His extreme detail and true life statistical information puts the idea that technology is a good thing down in the gutter. In similarity to Vicente and Vonneguts influences on the views of technology, both “The Human Factor” and “Cat’s Cradle” are smaller ideas of Nye’s bigger ideas on technology. Both Vicente and Vonnegut chose smaller things to talk about involving technology and chose to educate the reader in different ways than Nye. All, in which, were great ideas because it did indeed educate the reader, however, Nye really seems to get down to the facts of technology and really plants new ideas in the reader’s heads. That’s atleast what he did for me.
In chapter 11, “Not Just One Future,” Nye discusses many bad things that are going to come out of technology in our near futures if we continue to let depend on it as much as we do. Nye talks about a situation that had happened from technology involving the safety of technology itself to the people using it, a similar situation to Vicente’s opening senerio in “The Human Factor” involving an unexpected explosion due to technological safety failure.
“The inability to understand or fix many modern machines is also linked to issues of safety. Even if each divice functions perpatibilities that can cause malfunctions, accidents, or even disasters. Although each individual machine can be improved and made safer, the overarching system of machines may contain dangerous inconsistencies that manifest themselves only in extreme or unusual circumstances” (Nye: 221).
This information is more straight forward and to the point kind of information, as most of Nye’s information is all throughout thebook. Vicente’s information about the issues of safety of technology. However, Vicente breaks down the information into more simple terms and provides a senerio to the reader so they get a better understanding of what is meant by the issues in the safety of technologyand national disasters.
“The first violent explision unleashed a power spike one hundred time greater than anything the reactor was designed to produce under normal operating conditions. It hoisted the thousand-ton steel and congrete plate covering the reactor, exposing the 1,680 nuclear fuel rods in the reactor core and spewing deadly radioactivity into the atmosphere… The problem was that the plant designers hadn’t paid enough attention to the human factor – the operators were trained but the complexity of the reactor and the control panels nevertheless outstripped their ability to grasp what they were seeing” (Vicente: 11).
Clearly, this is a more detailed quote from Vicente introducing the idea that technology is very dangerous and that it can cause a great majority of problems if you don’t know how to use it or what the possible effects it can bring to our lives. As you can see from the second half of the quote, we may be knowledgable to the technology we are using but not as knowledgable as we need to be. In addition, I think that Vicente and Nye are trying to point out that even the highest of our knowledge couldn’t prevent things like this to happen. Disasters happen all the time whether it involves technology or other things, and we can never be completely knowledgable or prepared for whats to come from these new technologies. In stating this, this information is very valuable because it tells us what can come out of technology in the future, and if the path we are going down with technological uses is the right path for our futures.