http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8046659.stm
Having a whole house that is technologically alive is truly absurd. Although it may seem convenient and helpful, a house like this can be detrimental to our society because it teaches us to rely on technology for everything; all the material items are replaced by technology. Is it that necessary to have a computer system on your kitchen counter to read a recipe? What about looking up a recipe in one of the many cookbooks we have? Or what about your fancy countertop that reminds you to take your medicine—that takes all the responsibility from you and teaches you to depend on technology once again, but what’s so wrong with that?
Well then, we would not be able to take care of ourselves without help, and it teaches the future generations that our life must revolve around technology (which in reality it does not need to). But do the detriments of technology override the conveniences it provides for people, so they are able to look past them?
(by Molly Gaynor)
I saw a lot of potential parallels between this post and the Disney movie from when we were very young "smart house". I'm not sure how many people will remember it, but here is a link to a short trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZF-KtBwpYs
ReplyDeleteThough the technological house in this video doesn't seem to pose any initial threats, as Molly points out it's likely that it would cause us to become even more overly-reliant on computers than we already are. In the movie "smart house", the smart-programmed computer mom, Pat, even takes care of having the paper brought in for the family, breakfast put on the table, and their outfits picked out. In a sense the both the Microsoft technological house and the "smart house" in the Disney movie are examples of how technology makes us lazier people. Even the task of spellcheck shows that we would much rather take the opportunity to have something corrected for us than put in the extra effort to do it ourselves.
After watching this I also immediately thought of the Disney movie "Smart House". When I was little I remember being scared that something like a talking wall could take over your family. The fact that a smart house is becomming a reality still scares me today. At what point does something cross the line between being convenient and intruding on our lives. Yes, having a screen to scan in a business card seems helpful, but would it really kill me to type in a name and phone number onto my phone. As for a mirror that can sense what I'm wearing, that's pretty creepy. Pretty soon there's going to be a mirror that comments on how I'm looking that day too. All I know is that I'm staying far away from any smart houses.
ReplyDeleteWhen I watched this clip I was thinking about how useless all the appliances in the microsoft home were. Technology is spoiling us and turning us into more lazy beings.
ReplyDeleteHowever, my mom reacted in a completely different way. She was amazed by the technological advances evident in the microsoft home and viewed them in a positive light. She didn't even consider the negative implications tied in with the microsoft home. Her reaction made me realize that most people do not think about the consequences of technology. For us, it is required because analyzing technology makes up the bulk of our ap english curriculum. But, people who aren't exposed to these ideas have no idea about the dangers technology brings. It just reminded me that we shouldn't be blinded by the novelty new technology has.
Advertisements often trick us into thinking that using a new and fancy technology is going to help make our lives significantly easier. However, if you think about a lot of the technologies shown in the video, they could be done just as easily the "old-fashioned way". For example, it would probably take the same amount of time just to read the label on the medicine container and piece of clothing, or enter the number and name into your phone. I can admit that new technology is extremely appealing and fun to play with, but much of it does not actually help that much. One part of the video that made me sad was the device that gave you the recipe to make any food. What happened to old family recipes? Does this mean that everyone in a "microsoft home" will be using the same recipes. Technologies like these threaten to make our society homogeneous and destroy anything unique or different.
ReplyDeleteWhen man made fire, he began to rely on fire. When man invented agriculture, he began to rely on agriculture. When man made cars, he began to rely on cars. When man innovates, he relies on his innovations. Though technology has its potential detriments, it is narrow-minded of us to repudiate it in all its forms. Houses such as these are the homes of the future. One day we will live in homes with computer screens that remind us of our daily schedule, automatically regulate the temperature, and other activities. We should not give such promising technology the cold shoulder. Instead, give it the wary eye.
ReplyDeleteLike many other people, this video also made me think of that disney movie "Smart House." With both the movie and this video, I got the same creeped out feeling. At first it sounded really interesting but when I heard what this house was capable of doing, it scared me rather than impressed me. Not only does the kitchen counter display information we could easily figure out on our own, it also reads it for us? Now we can't even read? The part where the table transfered the information from the buisness card to the cell phone also shocked me. That is simplifying already modified technology. These advances do make our lives easier, but is it really worth it? Is it possible modern conveniences like these will make us forget how we did things before? And if so, is that a good or bad thing?
ReplyDeleteThis post had me thinking of the movie Wall-E and how all the citizens of Earth were transported into a giant shuttle so that Earth could be cleaned. On board the ship, everyone has become obese and transport by chair. Everything has become impersonal, they don't need to think or act for themselves. The lines underneath their chairs determine where they go, the robots do everything for them (even play a game of tennis), and they obey everything they are told. The auto pilot pretty much controls the entire ship and renders the humans useless. They survive in a dazed state where they just exist without thinking. I remember in one part of the movie a giant screen tells them to change their shirt colors from red to blue, and with a flick of a switch, their entire outfit changes colors. They just obey.
ReplyDeleteAndrew pretty much hit the nail on the head. When anything society deems as "helpful" is made available to the masses, it becomes a daily part of human existence. What is to stop one from asking a computer a recipe orally, rather then searching through scattered cookbooks or--dare i mention it, remembering it. More then ever we see people leaning information by memorizing it, not by actually learning or understanding it. Why bother to retain knowledge, when you can simply retype the question back into google and have the answer instantaneously. Reliance is a dangers tool that in most cases, only truly benefits the manufacturers. One wouldn't deem it possible to get from New York City to Albany by using anything other then a plane, train, or automobile. Our dependence has created a whole marketing line of cars fast cars, and faster cars. It only further proves how our reliance can be morphed and twisted by others in order to control us.
ReplyDeleteLike a lot of you, I was immediately reminded of the movie "Smart House". PAT does many of the things shown in this smart house. She's basically a computer, but she ends up being very real and it gets quite frightening as she fights for control over the family. This future home could have the same implications although not exactly to the point of the technology behind it becoming a virtual woman who locks all the doors and pretends to be the mother to two children and the wife of a widow. Although I do fear that we could become too dependent on this and lose touch with our human abilities, I also thought about the points that Andrew and Jake made. It does seem so intrusive and absurd to even accept that this is potentially our future, but there are so many things in the past that were vehemently rejected at first (as seen in Anastasia's post about the CollegeHumor video) but we've come to not only accept it, but also embrace it and know no other life without it. What I do dislike about the future home is that it makes us much more lazy and it seems like it would make us stay in the house a whole lot more. Another thing would be that technology is not infallible as I was reminded of as I was rudely interrupted by an unresponsive laptop in the process of writing a post for this very blog.
ReplyDeleteThis can be connected to when we discussed the difference between technophiles and technophobes during one of our Socratic seminars. The technophobe fears the possibilities of new technology and focuses on the consequences that it will bring whereas the technophile praises the release of new technology and is only capable of viewing what benefits it may bring. We have a tendency to go with one or the other when we see this new technology, but is it not possible to find a middle ground? Julie brought up a good point regarding how our opinions on technology depend on the amount of information one pertains, and yet we as AP English students are only being technophobes while the general public act as the technophiles. It only seems fair that we make our decision from the perspective of both sides, not just one of the other.
ReplyDeleteALI BOHRER this reminds me of "Smart House" too haha. For everyone who hasnt seen it, the house is basically a huge machine that can do whatever you ask it to. In the kitchen you ask for recipes, it would give you recipes, just like the one in this video. The kids that lived in this house eventually get trapped in the smart house. The house then gets a mind of its own, turning evil and at some point starts attacking the kids.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of the smart house is really cool - life would be so much easier without having to do all of the little things; but having this priveledge will lead society to be even lazier than we already are. If we keep going in this direction, technology would eventually be doing everything for us. If that does happen, what else is left to do? We learn virtues and lessons from doing things ourselves. Once we let technology do it for us,we won't get anything out of life. Technology might eventually prevent us from having to learn anything.