Technology Responsibilty
An Essay on
Personal Responsibility and Technical Advances
There is currently a popular misunderstanding in vogue.
Martin Luther King once said, “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
In today’s world this phrase has taken on a wider meaning in its warning. In the modern world information has become the main commodity of exchange. It is valuable. To have information is to have wealth and ability. To get to this information a certain amount of technological experience and knowledge is necessary.
The work necessary to get to the information has been defined as difficult. In the not too distant past the term ‘geek’ was placed upon those persons who not only could extract this information but were busy in the work of creating it and the technology used to house and share it. The term geek started out as a pejorative but later was turned into a term of respect. In the end that word was so sunken with negative connotations that it fell away.
The general notion we are concerned with here is the idea that this wealth of information and the technology used to get to it is not understandable by the general population. That is an expression of willful ignorance. Suffice it for now to label it thus.
The word geek as referring to technologists (and not a carnival performer) has made way for a new label. It is still fashionable, you see, to pretend to ignorance when it comes to technology and information. We’ll touch on that again in a moment. For now let me introduce to you the word that has taken the place of ‘geek’. That is ‘millenial’. In this case those who are pursuing the line of reasoning that technology and information are so complex that most humans cannot understand it are allowing for one exception. The exception belongs to an entire generation of human beings.
This is the generation, or generations, born into the new century, or just before. It’s all very confused. The specific target, however, is not confused. A large swath of modern American society is convinced not only can they not operate the simplest of technology that perhaps one of their friends or contemporaries invented, but that, all millennials can.
Why is that? What would move a person to so devalue themselves that they would endow upon an entire generation of humans a superhuman ability to understand all that they themselves cannot?
Those questions cannot be answered here. Suffice it to say for this discussion that negative ideas ultimately lead to a lack of ideas while positive ideas lead to new ideas.
As Henry Ford once said, ‘Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.’
What can be addressed here, however, is that by looking for the solution outside one’s own ability to solve a problem amounts to a surrender of personal power. The vacuum that is caused by this thought pattern is neatly filled by assigning superpowers to another person, or, in this case, to an entire class of other persons.
Without delving to deeply into this issue, and it has moral, ethical, psychological and religious aspects, this sort of behavior is a negation of personal experience.
The use of new technology, like a cell phone, or looking for new information, as in an online library book catalog, is not something that most Americans cannot do. It appears to be something that very many of them appear unwilling to do. This is quite different.
There is no magic generation. There has been a mistaken assignment of abilities from those unwilling to work through some very simple issues.
Let us take for an example the purchase of a cell phone.
An individual buys a cell phone from a cell phone store front. The individual notices that most of the people, including management, are of a certain age. The purchaser does not understand the technology. The salesperson appears to be able to. The purchaser, in a state of rising tension, notices that most of the people purchasing these expensive items are of a certain age as well. The seller and buyer seem to belong to two different generations. To make matters worse any question the purchaser asks the salesperson has an answer for!
What just happened?
Let us first examine why all the salespersons are from, generally, the same or close generations. A lot of these young people are at their first jobs or have taken a job that is flexible and easy to do. The primary choice was not made by them. The companies that sell just the cell phones have a very strict profit margin. The more you learn about them the more their social structures and business models appear to be and the less complex their actual products are. So the age difference in the store is an economic event not an intellectual and biological development.
Let us examine why the purchaser notices that many of the other purchasers are of a similar age – simply put, these are the individuals with the disposable income that allows them to purchase these devices. Whether they are overpriced would be a matter for someone confident with technology and information sharing to state. There is an important point. Is it to the advantage of a company that depends on the ignorance of its clients to educate them or to encourage the idea that the company is the sole repository of all the information and technology they need to live their lives?
To clear up this final point – no one is born with the manual for a cell phone or laptop computer embedded in their genetic code. It is not implanted at birth into the brains of those now being born. That is just not happening. It is an insult to self, to others and most importantly to those this magical ability has been foisted upon.
The central fact is that technology has advanced so far at this point in time that no one, not even those who have created it, are able to fully comprehend it, let alone operate it to its fullest potential.
Much of the technology available remains unused because uses have not been created for it yet.
The general population is not ignorant. They are not incapable of operating or exploiting this software and hardware. They are more than capable of operating and exploiting it. It is a matter of wanting to and that cannot be forced upon anyone.
If it remains easier to force someone else to do the thinking then this will continue. Is it right, however, to force entire generations into intellectual slavery? That is essentially what is occurring. Society in general, right now in modern America, is in very real danger of turning the ‘millenials’ into their servants.
Why?
There doesn’t seem to be rhyme nor reason for it. The automatic response from some older Americans who were alive, even, when the first humans landed on the moon, are quick to determine their total lack of ignorance and understanding with the operation of a cell phone if their ‘Candy Saga’ game stops operating or their phone ceases to ring.
If it were a radio or older type of television the repairman and store they bought it from would hear about it. We already spoke about how that traditional responsibility of the store or manufacturer has been avoided. Whether that happened on purpose or through happenstance is hard to say.
It would be interesting to see what the general impression of most Americans would be if they were aware that the reason many technology stores are packed with clients is not because they are there to buy some new gadget but because they need help operating what they have. They might have quite a different attitude if they realized that the reason they cannot operate their device is not because of their own ignorance but because the device is undependable and it is not working properly.
Believing in the infallibility and indestructability of one generation over all others in regards to technology is a betrayal to those very individuals. They are, in fact, being segregated and demeaned.
Let us take one last example. An individual goes to a store and purchases two cellular phones. One they keep and the other they give to their child. Over time the email function on the parent’s phone stops working. It fails. Instead of returning to the place where it was purchased the parent asked the child for help. The child, wanting to please the parent and, possibly, show off, goes through a variety of steps, some of which might be considered illegal or wrong, and gets the email application to work again. Keep in mind there is no guarantee that it will continue working, just that it is working again.
The parent is pleased. The child is filled with pride.
Time goes on.
One day the child’s phone bursts into flames for seemingly no reason.
The child shows the destroyed object to the parent.
Whose responsibility is or was that?
In conclusion, technology and information, as well as their use, can only be mastered by all those involved in creating and using it by working together.
Personal Responsibility and Technical Advances
There is currently a popular misunderstanding in vogue.
Martin Luther King once said, “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
In today’s world this phrase has taken on a wider meaning in its warning. In the modern world information has become the main commodity of exchange. It is valuable. To have information is to have wealth and ability. To get to this information a certain amount of technological experience and knowledge is necessary.
The work necessary to get to the information has been defined as difficult. In the not too distant past the term ‘geek’ was placed upon those persons who not only could extract this information but were busy in the work of creating it and the technology used to house and share it. The term geek started out as a pejorative but later was turned into a term of respect. In the end that word was so sunken with negative connotations that it fell away.
The general notion we are concerned with here is the idea that this wealth of information and the technology used to get to it is not understandable by the general population. That is an expression of willful ignorance. Suffice it for now to label it thus.
The word geek as referring to technologists (and not a carnival performer) has made way for a new label. It is still fashionable, you see, to pretend to ignorance when it comes to technology and information. We’ll touch on that again in a moment. For now let me introduce to you the word that has taken the place of ‘geek’. That is ‘millenial’. In this case those who are pursuing the line of reasoning that technology and information are so complex that most humans cannot understand it are allowing for one exception. The exception belongs to an entire generation of human beings.
This is the generation, or generations, born into the new century, or just before. It’s all very confused. The specific target, however, is not confused. A large swath of modern American society is convinced not only can they not operate the simplest of technology that perhaps one of their friends or contemporaries invented, but that, all millennials can.
Why is that? What would move a person to so devalue themselves that they would endow upon an entire generation of humans a superhuman ability to understand all that they themselves cannot?
Those questions cannot be answered here. Suffice it to say for this discussion that negative ideas ultimately lead to a lack of ideas while positive ideas lead to new ideas.
As Henry Ford once said, ‘Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.’
What can be addressed here, however, is that by looking for the solution outside one’s own ability to solve a problem amounts to a surrender of personal power. The vacuum that is caused by this thought pattern is neatly filled by assigning superpowers to another person, or, in this case, to an entire class of other persons.
Without delving to deeply into this issue, and it has moral, ethical, psychological and religious aspects, this sort of behavior is a negation of personal experience.
The use of new technology, like a cell phone, or looking for new information, as in an online library book catalog, is not something that most Americans cannot do. It appears to be something that very many of them appear unwilling to do. This is quite different.
There is no magic generation. There has been a mistaken assignment of abilities from those unwilling to work through some very simple issues.
Let us take for an example the purchase of a cell phone.
An individual buys a cell phone from a cell phone store front. The individual notices that most of the people, including management, are of a certain age. The purchaser does not understand the technology. The salesperson appears to be able to. The purchaser, in a state of rising tension, notices that most of the people purchasing these expensive items are of a certain age as well. The seller and buyer seem to belong to two different generations. To make matters worse any question the purchaser asks the salesperson has an answer for!
What just happened?
Let us first examine why all the salespersons are from, generally, the same or close generations. A lot of these young people are at their first jobs or have taken a job that is flexible and easy to do. The primary choice was not made by them. The companies that sell just the cell phones have a very strict profit margin. The more you learn about them the more their social structures and business models appear to be and the less complex their actual products are. So the age difference in the store is an economic event not an intellectual and biological development.
Let us examine why the purchaser notices that many of the other purchasers are of a similar age – simply put, these are the individuals with the disposable income that allows them to purchase these devices. Whether they are overpriced would be a matter for someone confident with technology and information sharing to state. There is an important point. Is it to the advantage of a company that depends on the ignorance of its clients to educate them or to encourage the idea that the company is the sole repository of all the information and technology they need to live their lives?
To clear up this final point – no one is born with the manual for a cell phone or laptop computer embedded in their genetic code. It is not implanted at birth into the brains of those now being born. That is just not happening. It is an insult to self, to others and most importantly to those this magical ability has been foisted upon.
The central fact is that technology has advanced so far at this point in time that no one, not even those who have created it, are able to fully comprehend it, let alone operate it to its fullest potential.
Much of the technology available remains unused because uses have not been created for it yet.
The general population is not ignorant. They are not incapable of operating or exploiting this software and hardware. They are more than capable of operating and exploiting it. It is a matter of wanting to and that cannot be forced upon anyone.
If it remains easier to force someone else to do the thinking then this will continue. Is it right, however, to force entire generations into intellectual slavery? That is essentially what is occurring. Society in general, right now in modern America, is in very real danger of turning the ‘millenials’ into their servants.
Why?
There doesn’t seem to be rhyme nor reason for it. The automatic response from some older Americans who were alive, even, when the first humans landed on the moon, are quick to determine their total lack of ignorance and understanding with the operation of a cell phone if their ‘Candy Saga’ game stops operating or their phone ceases to ring.
If it were a radio or older type of television the repairman and store they bought it from would hear about it. We already spoke about how that traditional responsibility of the store or manufacturer has been avoided. Whether that happened on purpose or through happenstance is hard to say.
It would be interesting to see what the general impression of most Americans would be if they were aware that the reason many technology stores are packed with clients is not because they are there to buy some new gadget but because they need help operating what they have. They might have quite a different attitude if they realized that the reason they cannot operate their device is not because of their own ignorance but because the device is undependable and it is not working properly.
Believing in the infallibility and indestructability of one generation over all others in regards to technology is a betrayal to those very individuals. They are, in fact, being segregated and demeaned.
Let us take one last example. An individual goes to a store and purchases two cellular phones. One they keep and the other they give to their child. Over time the email function on the parent’s phone stops working. It fails. Instead of returning to the place where it was purchased the parent asked the child for help. The child, wanting to please the parent and, possibly, show off, goes through a variety of steps, some of which might be considered illegal or wrong, and gets the email application to work again. Keep in mind there is no guarantee that it will continue working, just that it is working again.
The parent is pleased. The child is filled with pride.
Time goes on.
One day the child’s phone bursts into flames for seemingly no reason.
The child shows the destroyed object to the parent.
Whose responsibility is or was that?
In conclusion, technology and information, as well as their use, can only be mastered by all those involved in creating and using it by working together.
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