Page 80 - ISLA 240 REVIEW PACKET

always perceived as problems. Just because something isn’t broken, that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved. I would like to think that most technology is developed for some greater purpose to take us forward as a society. From a historical perspective, technological progress has not always resulted in the betterment of humanity. Take the spread of water mills for grinding corn, which began around 1000 AD in Europe. Watermills have always been presented as an example of enlightened development, enabling people to grind much larger quantities of grain at once. Yet milling by hand preserves more nutrients in the grain than mechanised milling, and a move to watermills — generally owned by feudal lords — was imposed by force on a reluctant peasant population. Around this time the average height of European peasants began to decrease, indicating a worsening diet, therefore not showing progress as a result of technology. Additionally, for example, technologies like phones were created to increase productivity. But really, does my phone make me more productive or does it do the opposite? This may be a generational issue, but it exists nonetheless and it’s important that technology evolves with society’s needs.
Is technology lessening our ability to be human? This is an interesting question. I don’t think it is immediately, however, maybe in the big picture it is. Before the industrial revolution, I feel like technology was developing a lot slower, so society had time to adjust and adapt to it with more time. Nowadays, technology is obsolete within months or even days of the previous version being released. I feel like sometimes our technology is developing faster than us as a human race so it’s hard to keep up and we lose some humanity in that game of catch up. I definitely think we are losing our ability to be in the world that isn’t always supervised or mediated by some electronic appendage like a phone or laptop. I personally worry about artificial