In today's world, there is no such thing as "too much". Like we discussed in class, we no longer see the whole forest, just the twigs left on the ground. When my dad and I were talking about driving one day, I explained how I learned how to parallel park. That's when he told me that there are cars made that can now parallel park for themselves. I know the advances made with technology has been crazy in the past years, but for some reason, this was just completely weird to me. Now we can't even parallel park ourselves? The article I found that discusses this concept actually seemed quite interesting at first. To a person that's always on the go, which is most people, the whole idea actually seems quite intriguing. Then I dug a tad deeper. The fact that technology has a hold in every part of our life, to me, is quite intimidating. If a car can now park for itself, why would there be a need for a human behind the wheel. How can we possibly live up to the intelligence displayed by this machinery?
The process of learning how to drive, making your first successful parallel park, and then continuing on to pass your road test has been a tradition for a very long time. But with this new technology, I'm not so sure how long that tradition can stay in place. The fact is, technology is increasing at a rate never seen before, and it's hard to tell if we can really keep up with it yet. If we let technology do everything for us, we won't remember how to do anything for ourselves.
But why worry about stuff like that? Like the article explains, just "press a button, sit back, and relax", and let your problems just drift away...
Some technological advances are for the better, but, as we've discussed in class, there is a consequence for every benefit (Einstein himself blamed technology for not only giving him the chance to communicate overseas with his relative, but distancing that person from him in the first place). The question is, when will technology have gone too far, and when will we know it has? Will there be a point when robots replace us? If items have been invented so that we won't have to do a certain action anymore, will there ever be a point when we won't have/need to do anything? With this in mind, the last thing we would want to do is "press a button, sit back, and relax", because it is best to be skeptical about technology.
ReplyDeleteI think a very intimidating point this topic raises is how far is too far for technology? Yes, parallel parking is something most of us dread, but it's a right of passage to learn into the driving world.Technologies are slowly taking away things we have in the past been forced to learn, which now can just be done with the push of a button. Now it's parallel parking, maybe next year we won't even have to steer the wheel.
ReplyDeleteI saw a commercial about these cars when I was learning how to parallel park. I was fascinated and desired one, so I would never have to do the daunting task myself. After reading this, though, I truly became aware of how intimidating this new creation is. Technology has invaded our lives in more ways than we can fathom, and it seems as though we are unable to stop it. In response to your question: How can we possibly live up to the intelligence displayed by this machinery? I may have an answer. I believe that with increasing technology, we have to use our brains less and less. Machines do everything for us, so why should we have to think? Therefore, technological advancements have made us dumber, so as long as it continues to improve, we may not be able to combat it.
ReplyDeleteThe comment that "If a car can now park for itself, why would there be a need for a human behind the wheel" was so interesting to me. My mind raced forward thinking of the possibilities in the next years of cars that drive themselves, robots and other science fiction ideas. The ending sentence was also very striking and reminded me of Brave New World. The characters in the story have no worries, they just need to enjoy life and sexual pleasures. The similarities are scary and warn us that if we continue at this rate, our intelligence and capabilities will soon be replaced by technology.
ReplyDeleteJust like you I find this rather funny. How lazy are people nowadays? I have just started driving and I have to admit parallel parking is a bit of a struggle but that doesn't mean I would create an invention to avoid the problem. People have to realize that making new inventions doesn't solve problems, it creates them. Who knows if this new concept will be safe? It might cause more damage than good. But who cares if it makes our lives simpler, right?
ReplyDeleteI haven't really started driving that much, but I know parallel parking is going to be a challenge. Of course it would be much easier to just "press a button, sit back, and relax", but then we'll never know how to parallel park. We'd be so dependent on technology that we would not be able to overcome our own challenges. It seems like a good idea, but it does no good in teaching us to advance in driving. Instead of swerving our way around our problems, we have to face our problems raw, without the aid of technology.
ReplyDeleteI was actually thinking about something similar to this lately. I was out practicing my driving with my dad a couple weeks ago and I was pulling out of the driveway. Our car, like many others now days, has a GPS system built in that also, when the car is in reverse, shows an image of what is at the rear end of the car. I thought out loud: how convenient, I don't even have to turn my head around when I back out of the drive way to see if I'm going to hit anything. My dad told me I wasn't supposed to use the camera on my road test, but really, what's stopping me? The camera reminds me a lot of the self-parallel parking car. It's not as extreme of course, but it's a subtle example of how technology is quietly easing into our lives and making us forget the things we once needed to know to survive.
ReplyDelete-- Nicole Schoenbrun
This is a such a perfect example of humanities dependence on technology. could we manage without cars that park themselves? i think so; just as we managed without any cars at all at one point. We were always able to continue our existence regardless of the technology around us. The obvious counter-argument would be the benefits that technology provides humanity with, as it increases our health and ability to complete tasks. Seldom would one argue the advancements in medical sciences have not been helpful to the human race, side effects or death are apparently the worst thing one could encounter in many potential treatments. Humanity might as well be spitting on Darwins grave. We have cut out natural selection, the weak no longer have to die, we are causing everyone to have the ability to reproduce. Though it sounds positive, the negative inclinations of this procedure could be drastic. By using something as simple as hand sanitizer, we are weakening our future generations immune system. Healthcare,while preserving the present, is essentially destroying our future. Our own motives for self are driving us to be a weaker, unhealthier, lazier people. By removing human error we are destroying that which can be attributed to what makes us human.
ReplyDeleteIt's amusing to see how much technology has evolved throughout history and will continue to evolve and improve in our lifetimes. We have a huge number of sci-fi movies that portrays mankind possessing advance technology that we deem impossible and will stay in the mind of the creator. However, what if we are deceiving ourselves into believing this? A couple of hundreds of years ago, the people thought that global communication and traveling into space were unthinkable, and yet we have achieved these seemingly impossible accomplishments. Putting this into consideration only makes it coherent that we will eventually have this advanced technology. We're already working on a car that parallel parks for us, at this point it would now shock me to hear that they will work on a car that can drive by itself.
ReplyDeleteWe are beginning to be be belittled by technology. Technology is taking the driver's seat while we're stuck in the passenger's seat (to keep up with the car analogy). Parallel parking is a seemingly mundane action that people have to take part in but for teenagers, especially, it can be the center of their minds due to their road tests. Parallel parking could fail you or pass you and it's because of this power that we struggle over it. But now cars can do it for us. So, basically, us teenagers have little need to stress anymore. But we should be stressing--why should we allow a technology take place of what we can do (after a lot of practice). This small life lesson may soon be unnecessary because cars can do it for us so therefore we'll remain dependent on technology even more than we already are. What's next for us...shoes that walk for us?
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up a great point when you questioned the neccessity of having a human behind the wheel of a car that can practically drive itself.People are becoming so absorbed in technology these days that soon we won't be doing anything on our own. Technology is beginning to control more and more aspects of our lives today, and personally I think that it's going way too far.
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