Technopoly pt. 1

Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology... Judging by the severity of the title, I expected the author of this book to have a very one-sided approach to how technology has influenced society. I have heard the arguments about how technology, while as its own entity is progressing rapidly, is causing its users to be less self-reliant and more focused on doing things the easy way. My opinion on this matter stands that everyone in this world thinks differently and if someone wants to use technology as an outlet for their laziness than so be it. I'm not usually one to judge, however, to say that technology is making all (or even most) people lazy, I feel is a misguided statement. Plenty of people are using technology to be productive in their own ways. I was really hoping that this book wasn't going to be a 230 page claim that culture in society is suffering at the hands technology and I was actually pretty relieved after reading the first few pages to discover that it was not, or at least not exactly.

Neil Postman provides an objective look at the evolution of technology claiming that every technology has its pros, as well as its cons and how one technology has a direct effect another. He actually uses the analogy of a technological ecosystem to support his claims which is an interesting a unique way to do it. Thinking about this concept for a second makes understanding how we have arrived at this point in technology a little easier to stomach.

So onto the technopoly, which I think is a word that Neil Postman made up to convey his point of view in this book. Postman talks about three cultural standpoints of technology; tool-using cultures, technocracies, and technopolies. Tool-using cultures are the utilitarians here. They had physical needs that needed to be satisfied so they built tools to help them along the way. So much was able to be done with these tools that they found there way to be a staple in the culture. When this culture started to becoming overwhelming, someone came up with the thought of technocracy.

Technocracy is all about how too much importance was put on tools or technology and the ideas traditions and politics were getting lost. People during this time period thought they could build something that would drastically change the world in a second. They were inventing things just to claim that progress was being made. Postman describes the term technopoly as 'totalitarian technocracy'. Technopoly essentially is all culture consumed by technology. Postman declares the personal computer as the ultimately device of technopoly. It was an invention so good that it has defined an entire generation.

Story of Technology Pt.1

What Eric Sweden and David Ferro have here in their book, Computers: The Life Story of Technology, is a great collection of computer history that, I feel, is often overlooked by most users today. If for nothing else, it is really neat learning about what it was like before computers ruled the world and how early development in electronics lead to the huge boom of computer technology that we have had in the past fifteen years or so. (Which my foresight tells me is going to be largely included in the second half of the book) As an ITI major and a general technology enthusiast, I definitely have a deep interest in learning about this kind of stuff. I also think electronics are unbelievably cool, especially guitar pedals. That’s a different blog all together though.

So the first 85 pages of this book have A LOT of content on all sorts pivotal development points for computers and computing systems. Rather than making a poor attempt to touch base on everything, I’d rather like to discuss something Sweden and Ferro wrote about that really changed the world of computing as we know it. What I’m talking about here is the invention of the integrated circuit. The integrated circuit and the micro sizing of computer components are largely responsible for the exponential growth associated with computer technology. The initial benefits of these circuits according to the authors were that they grouped semiconductors into a single component and were easily duplicated with a high rate of consistency. The idea of this just screams consumerism and in fact, that is what some of the early integrated circuits were designed for. In 1967, Jack Kilby, one of the inventors of the integrated circuit*, created the first handheld calculator for Texas Instruments. The invention sparked a billion dollar business for the production and sales of small and cheap calculators. (Sweden and Ferro) This, however, was only the beginning. As more developers starting using microchips (same thing as integrated circuits) they began to be able to increase their density while decreasing their size. At the time, the potential for microchips could not be for seen. One technologist predicted that the density, and therefore, capability of microchips would increase by two every year. (Sweden and Ferro, 68) As we know from the progression of time, technology has been advancing pretty much on schedule to this prediction, which is amazing. This rate of growth is almost directly proportional to the increase in computer power and it doesn't seem to be coming to a screeching halt anytime soon.

I feel that, at the time, these scientists really had no idea what they were actually inventing. Sure, they created a way to have electrical parts arranged in such a way on a semi-conductive board that it would eliminate the need for slow, rather unreliable, wiring. And I'm not trying to downplay the importance of elegance and efficiency in electrical engineering, but what these guys really invented was the future of computing. Without that one really... really tiny invention, life would be way different. I mean waaaaaaay different. Think about it for a second... and try not to cry.

*In the late 60’s Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce were working independently on similar ideas of a monolithic electronic circuit. After battling over patents they agreed to split the rights evenly.

That's all for now.

What it means to be Phil + the first assignment.

Since this is the first post on my Technology and Culture in America blog I thought I would talk a little about myself and then go on to analyze some of my Internet usage as required in the first assignment. I want to mention that this is the fourth blog that I have created in my life. For those who know me, this might come as a surprise and with that I'll let you determine the success of my previous explorations in the world of blogging. Anyway, I'm in my fourth year here at Rutgers and hope to finish in May with a degree in Information Technology and Informatics... you know, like computers and stuff. I'm also an American Studies minor so taking this course seemed like a pretty appropriate decision for me. I work for the Office of Information Technology here at Rutgers where I am a consultant in the computer labs on the College Ave campus. It's a pretty great job and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for on-campus work. When I'm not working or going to class I'm pretty much always tinkering around with guitars and other musical instruments. I play in a couple bands and am an avid supporter of the independent music scene here in New Brunswick.

So now that I've said a little about a myself allow me to talk more about myself in terms of Internet usage. I kept a log of how much I interacted with the web from Thursday 9/9 to Saturday 9/11 and I was actually quite surprised with my results. For someone that has such a life built around technology my web usage was pretty minimal. I had work on Thursday at the computer lab in Records Hall so that forced my to be on the computer for 3 hours during my shift. I spent most of my time there emailing with a professor about getting a special permission number and trying to finalize my schedule on the last day to drop classes. Needlessly to say, it was pretty nerve wracking. I managed to secure a place in the class so after work I gladly walked over to attend it. I had off on Friday so I spent the morning watching Netflix, then I helped clean my basement and enjoyed the cool weather. On Saturday I was out of the house most of the day and was hardly on the web. I logged on to check my email just make sure I wouldn't be late for a work meeting today.

I feel like my Internet usage will rise quite a bit when I start getting deeper into my classes this semester. Not just because the classes themselves will require me to be doing work on the Internet, but also that they will force me to sit at a computer where the urge to procrastinate will surely get the best of me.

Thats all.
-Phil