Technopoly: Critical Analysis Part I (pp. xi-91)

It seems as if the authors of both "Computers" (Eric G. Swedin and David L. Ferro), and "Technopoly" (Neil Postman) have this deep skeptical, negative feeling of technology in the near future. As Swedin and Ferro conclude "Computers," by predicting that in the near future, computers will "completely transform humanity's ability to manipulate reality" (p. 149), much of the beginning of Neil Postman's "Technopoly" explains how technology has transformed the American Culture for both the good and bad.

Postman commences his book by disagreeing King Thamus' claim that "writing will be a burden to society and nothing but a burden" (p. 4) by stating that "every technology is both a burden and a blessing..." (p.5). Postman uses King Thamus' story as a platform to question how the advancements of technology are benefiting us, using the example of "winners and losers" (p. 11). Further, he takes his questions to witness how America has gone under "collisions everywhere..." (p. 16), forming a new American culture that is making the old fashioned/traditional life obsolete by explaining how schools have taught our children to "operate computerized systems instead of teaching things that are more valuable to children" (p. 11). The rest of the first chapter merely sets the tone for the rest of the first half of the book as it mainly criticizes the effective, dangerous movement of technology, which Postman calls it, the Technopoly.

Further in the reading, Postman deeply goes into a transition movement describing Tools to Technocracy. I never thought of this whole movement in depth, but as soon as Postman compared tools to technology by stating "tools did not attack the dignity and integrity of the culture..." (p. 23), it became real to me that technology can really be a threat to the American culture because we are all beginning to depend on it. Technology is in fact attacking our culture as it is seen in "Computers" that "the computer has opened up global communications to multitudes. By improving the means by which we communicate, entertain ourselves, travel, calculate, and do a thousand other things, the computer will be an essential tool in reaching for the stars..." (148-149).

It then comes to my interest and questioning of Postman's conclusion of how America is "the only culture to have become a Technopoly" (p. 48). Postman includes four reasons why a Technopoly has developed in America, one of them being because of the "men who were quicker and more focused than those of other nations in exploiting the economic possibilities of new technologies...Samuel Morse, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison..." (p. 53), all also stated in "Computers" because of their major inventions that drastically changed technology. Though it comes to my mind to argue that America is not the only Technopoly. In "Computers" we saw that European nations like England, Germany and Russia were developing technologies such as the inventions developed at Bletchley Park in London, and the release of Sputnik in Russia. Why doesn't Postman consider Asia, primarily Japan and China to be in a technopoly?

Critical Analysis Part II: Computers (pp. 85-149)

If we were to credit the incredible and fascinating development of technology in the past decades, we should definitely be commemorating only a selected few. In the past generation we have been introduced to newer electronic device each and every year, and both authors of "Computers" educate us on how the major technology corporations have established a new virtual world within the second half of the life story of technology. Personally, I enjoyed this half of the book as a good part of the content primarily focused on how major corporations today like Apple, Google and Yahoo! started their dominance of the technological world.

As Swedin and Ferro continue to write about every possible technological invention that has contributed to computers, many of these inventions are now expanded on or still lasts today. For example, the Apple II which cost "$790 with 4 kilobytes of RAM" has now been developed into iMac's that have up to 27-inch screens with 4 Gigabytes of RAM. Moreover, operating systems have evolved superbly. As seen with Microsoft, who provided IBM PC's with their Windows operating system starting in the early 1980s (as early as Windows 3.0), we now have Windows 7, and XP, in which most businesses and corporations use to run their operations. Another example of an expanded or developed technology is Gopher. Gopher, founded in 1980s aimed at "finding information content on the Internet easier...by creating a massive online library" (p. 124). Sounds familiar right? Jerry Yang (Yahoo!) and Larry Page (Google) made "the web search engine business extremely competitive in the late 1900s" (p. 129) as they both created their well profited businesses, Yahoo! and Google.

Presently, there are numerous of technology companies out in the very demanding technology market, but only a couple are the dominant ones. It's obvious that those dominating companies are Apple and Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! and all of their stories to becoming powerhouses today is what made this reading exciting. The founders of all these corporations have one thing in common: they started small, and grew like a beanstalk as they all had the highest ambitions. Paul Allen and Bill Gates (Micro-Soft) were "enterprising teenagers both worked as programmers for several companies...just for the fun of it" (p. 88). Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs (Apple) both showed their impressive abilities to build homemade computers during high school, and worked in well respected companies like Hewlett Packard. In depth, Swedin and Ferro reiterate that the smaller technologies were essential to building what we have now. Companies like Compaq, Dell, Gateway; several different operating systems like Linux, Lotus and Windows; and programs like WordPerfect and Wordstar are all essential developments for our current technological world today.

After all the talk about the fierce competition that still lasts today between Apple, IBM (they have been a quiet company in the past 6 years), and Microsoft, Swedin and Ferro briefly introduce the developments of the Telephone that was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1844 that continues to be a prime source of communication today; wireless networking, that was started by Norman Abramson in 1970 started in Hawaii; and the "social standard of net etiquette" (p. 123) founded by Usenet became the start of social networking, now that we constantly are using IM language such as LOL, BRB, G2G, smiley faces, etc.

All in all, the authors of "Computers" conclude the book questioning the future of technology as we have read a long 149 pages of early technologies. Computers specifically has "accelerated the pace of technological change, so much so that some pundits predict a singularity in the near future when computers completely transform humanity's ability to manipulate reality" (p. 149) and we have now become a world stuck in a virtual world. Everything we do each day involves technology and traditional products have become obsolete. As a college student, still young and somewhat tech savvy, I am excited to see what technologies continue to make up this virtual world.

Critical Analysis: Computers (pp. 1-83)

The first half of Computers by: Eric G. Swedin and David L. Ferro is a very thorough introduction of how early technologies have introduced our tech savvy world today. This detailed read can be categorized into a couple genres based on the many facts consisted in each sub-chapter. Each new invention that has contributed to the developments of computers have a brief biography of the man most responsible for the founding, along with some history facts of what occurred at the time of the invention. Within the 83 pages, there were a few main concepts (inventions/developments) that I find critical to the development of computers.

First, America's involvement in wars in the 1900's seems to have a large responsibility for the rapid developments in technology. Both World War II and The Cold War ignited technological advancements. From the "ABC Computer" that primarily did calculations invented by John Vincent Atanasoff, the "ENIAC" which "created artillery ballistic tables" (p.39) invented by J. Presper Eckert, and projects that benefited Air Force tactics such as "Project Whirlwind and Sage" (p.48) are a few developments to be acknowledged. Like Swedin says, "without this Cold War- induced spending, computer technology would have developed more slowly." (p. 48) Moreover, I give a lot of credit to the early governments that ran America as they funded and continued research for better technologies. Because of the demand for more efficient technology, the American government, including the Navy, Air Force, and U.S. Department Bureaus supported inventors in their projects to a certain extent. For example, "the governments of the United States, the Soviet Union, and their allies recruited their best and brightest to serve in defense-related research and development. Scientists and engineers developed more advanced computers, computer networks, the Internet, better medicines, better alloys, industrial ceramics, and technologies with no civilian use, like the neutron bomb." (p. 48) Another prime example of government involved projects was Project Whirlwind and Sage. "The Navy agreed with Forrester and cond continued to fund the expanded project...and the Navy also realized that the digital computer would be used in many other applications besides flight simulators." (p. 48)

On the other hand, Swedin and Ferro mention developments in technology that are the foundations of American culture. For instance, Silicon Valley, California, currently a technology concentrated area of the United States was the spot for developing computer hardware, and transistors. Now, Apple, Adobe Systems, HP, Intel and Yahoo! are just a few large companies based out of Silicon Valley. Not only did early technological advancements establish technology regions, but it structured the higher education system as inventors and scientists studied at schools that are now considered Ivy League. Herman Hollerith, Grace Murray Hopper and John Von Neumann are examples of ones who attended schools like Harvard, MIT and Princeton to create the elite schools they are today.

TFLN Extra Credit Event

If you missed out on Friday's extra credit event, you unfortunately missed an interesting and entertaining program. I departed Livingston Hall quite amazed, yet a little disappointed about not winning the raffled book because I was only a couple numbers behind the last winner. However, there were many moments along the event that made my evening quite memorable, herein are a quick summary of just a few.

Texts From Last Night (TFLN), founded by Ben Bator and Lauren Leto own a unique story behind the development and success of their blog that posts one of a kind text messages that are hilarious and sometimes outrageous submitted by users each day. I was impressed with the way this small idea of socially sharing text messages has all of a sudden"blown up" (as they described the development of TFLN) to be something life changing and profitable.

Both Ben and Lauren, graduates of Michigan State University and law school drop outs, amazed me when they said they had only spent $200 initially to start up a fully functional domain website. They further amazed me when they said what the benefits of being entrepreneurs of TFLN. They have an iPhone app that has been purchased by approx. 1 million people (that's $1 million right there), have a TV show coming out in the near future on the FOX channel, a few books published and plenty of advertisement deals within the website.

After their brief storytelling, I found the texts they presented to us on the Powerpoint presentation not the most original and funny. The only one that got me laughing and chuckling for the rest of the night was the text that had a kid throwing milk at a girl while screaming "osteoporosis." It was also pretty fascinating to see Ben Bator open up his email presenting to us the thousands of texts that are sent to him to potentially be published to the website. Another segment of the event I liked, but thought it could of been better explained was when they described their daily routines each day. I anticipated for both of them to have relatively easy lives, exciting and easy-going, but as entrepreneurs, they have a lot on their shoulders. I'm not sure what their celebrity statuses are, but Ben spends everyday sitting in front of his desk scrolling and reading through the texts, making a decision if its TFLN worthy. Both Lauren and Ben did not describe their daily lives in too much depth, but that they are business people, in the business world.

All in all, it was a fun experience, and did not expect anything less. The story behind TFLN is inspiring and original. It might be another college drop out success, but it shows that the smallest ideas can turn out to be the best ideas. Like Lauren said, find something that you have an utter interest for and expand on it, because you never know what you can do with it just like them.

Reaction To Tech Log & Creating a Blog

In the 21st century we live in, technology has become more than a second world, but a culture and a tool that we can not imagine ourselves living without. Unfortunately, we have forgotten about traditional and old school technology, and have restored them with tools that have become addictions to our daily lives.

Technology seems to be an essential part of my life according to my technology usage log. If I'm not in class or not sleeping, I'm constantly interacting with Technology, more so, the Internet. Glancing at my log, patterns have developed each day visiting the same websites everyday... it's practically a daily routine. The Internet, the main technology I use, has made previous technological tools obsolete. It is incredible to realize that with the Internet, we can access anything or everything needed in our lives. From e-mail, to news, magazines and a professor's lecture notes, everything can be obtained through the world wide web.

Personally, I feel like I use technology too much (particularly the Internet). If I'm not interacting with it, I feel like I'm missing something or forgot to perform my routine. Moreover, it has became clear to my lifestyle that technology has a large effect on who I am. Instead of pulling the Sports section out of the Star-Ledger every morning, I'm often on a sports website reading articles on paper, which is 10x better for my eyes. Without the Internet, I wonder how occupied I can keep myself as it is the primary tool to cure my boredom, but it would be difficult for myself to keep in touch with long distance family members. Each and every day, I start my day using the Internet, and end my day on the Internet. Technology seems to keep me fully entertained, educated, and up to date with my interests.

On the other hand, creating a blog for this class is new for me and very exciting. As many blogs as I read/follow, I never thought about creating one myself as I thought that I would be too self-absorbed about writing my own thoughts to a particularly small audience. However, posting my first post, I feel that blogs are more interesting than I thought. It's definitely another social networking tool, but it's a place to be real, to be deep, a place to write with freedom. Creating a blog to me means that you want to get your voice out that is hardly heard. More importantly, it means to express who you are, and why you are like that. Blogging has shown me that it is far more than a Facebook, as Facebook shows off your popularity, not your true self.