Randomness

Forum 6

They say our reluctance toward fixing these changes will be the downfall of our society. On and on the older generations look down upon the technologies that they themselves use aswell. It is said that our devices, our shared media, will corrupt those after us. While many of these things do look alarming, they, in many ways, are far from the truth. However, studies Steven Pinker pointed out in Chapter 15: Cause and effect. This is not the first time our media has looked down upon progress. The same outlook was upon inventions like the printing press, paperbacks and television were all viewed as things that would "make people lazy." These inventions, however, had a very different effect. I really like how Pinker helps illustrate the situation in a new way; showing us all the technology is doing, how we as people have are having to adapt ourselves to the broader knowledge, therefore, a need for these technologies. Pinker goes through the situation systematically, reality checks, why people see this as a bad thing, then rebutting those reasons in replacement for a broad-scale scientific answer, and finally to how we as humans can and should adapt to the world around us. In the end, I find one of the most impactful summaries I can remember, strait to the point but also summarizing flawlessly: "Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart."