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have always been opponents to new technology. Long before 'luddites'
smashed the machines that stole the work of men during the Industrial
Revolution, many early philosophers (including Socrates) argued
that even writing was dangerous technology. They said that the written
word was not alive and the act of reading was passive unlike taking
part in an argument. This is actually true and during learning,
involvement is much better than reading a textbook.
There is another reason why writing
is bad technology; it allows us to forget and to use our m emories
in a sloppy way which has destroyed the continuity and accuracy
of oral tradition which lasted tens of thousands of years. Obviously
writing has so many plus points that we tend to overlook these two
small handicaps.
But what about other, more recent
technological developments where the advantages and disadvantages
are far more evenly matched?
New technology makes idle promises
that it often fails to keep, or by doing so causes new, unforeseen
problems.
In 1980 by great aunt bought a microwave
oven. She must have been one of the first people in the north-east
to have one. In those days they were heavier, noisier and weirder
than they are today. A large number of the family had gathered for
Christmas dinner. Aunty Madge was to impress them all. Their Christmas
dinner was to be cooked entirely by microwave, 80s style. We can
all guess what that meal was like. They had a course of carrots
followed by a course of sprouts followed by a course of gravy .
I don't think the turkey was quite edible and the brandy soaked
Christmas pudding burst into flames.
New technology is often misunderstood.
Around the same time there was the story from America where a woman
had put her poodle in the microwave to dry its fur. We of course
all know that microwaves cook by vibrating water and salt molecules
on the inside of small dogs.
A decade ago a machine was invented
that sliced onions perfectly. It peeled and sliced the entire onion
into exactly the size of pieces you required. Gone were the days
of weeping or getting smelly onion acid on your fingers. Now it
was all self contained and perfectly sliced in no time at all. A
wonderful labour and hassle saving device. Until of course you tried
to clean it. It required disassembly and all the small delicate
parts had to be hand washed to remove the onion. So now you were
exposed to the tear making acid and the process took ages. Using
a simple knife would have been better after-all.
There has been a surge in the number
of people who have problems getting to meetings due to over-reliance
on sat nav. Satellite navigation is an incredibly sophisticated
and complicated technology. Just think about it for a moment. It
requires the ability to put a self-powered complex computer system
in a geostationary orbit around the Earth. It requires radio transmitters
and receivers, advanced micro processors and speech simulators.
It is so wonderfully advanced and
useful that people repeatedly get lost using it. "Take the
B408 for two miles and then take the third exit onto the B3129"
says an emotionless voice. What are you talking about? If you were
describing it to a friend you'd say "turn left after the pub".
People place their trust in the machine so much that they turn their
brain off and then wonder how they ended up on a farm track in a
field instead of at the conference centre.
Technology is neither goo d nor bad
of course. It provides us with tools which we can choose to use
to make our lives easier. But be careful - there is always a trade
off. There's an argument that the pursuit of technology for it's
own ends is certainly bad, that is when we run into problems.
The best idea may be to apply Occam's
Razor to any new development. Occam's razor is a principle attributed
to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William
of Ockham which advises economy and simplicity in scientific theories.
Occam's razor states that the explanation of any phenomenon should
make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating, or "shaving
off", those that make no difference in the observable predictions
of the theory. Applying the razor to our examples here give us the
following simple answers: use a conventional oven, a knife and a
map.
So when you are confronted with any
new idea, gadget or method, experiment with it by all means, but
don't, on any circumstances, as you turn the gadget on, turn you
brain off.
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