Technopoly Ch. 7 & 8

To begin I am not quite sure I am really liking this book. Postman really seems to always be looking at the negative and over emphasizes it ...A LOT! I will give him credit thought he does bring up many thought provoking points which I do think it is good to ask.

Ch. 7-In this chapter Postman is looking at how our world is being dominated by machines, and by dominated I mean DOMINATED. He looking into the opinions of many who think that machines can do everything better than we can, thus making our lives pointless. We no longer control the machines they control us, thus they turn us into machines. Postman does give the human race credit though because he discusses how we have what computers will never have nor be able to fully understand; emotions. While reading parts of this chapter all I could think about was all those scifi movies I had seen over the years and start wondering if they were going to come into real life :) Postman also looking into a very thought provoking comment of how much we blame faults on computers. Think about it! If you have a dead line and the computer crashes many times your off the hook, go to the store and the lady at the registrar says you need to go to the next line because the computer is down we accept it. I think the best example Postman gives is referring back to the Nazi Adolf Eichmann that we had read about earlier  "We cannot dismiss the possibility that if Adofl Eichmann had been able to say that it was not he but a battery of computers that directed the Jews to the appropriate crematoria, he might never have been asked to answer for his actions."WOW!! mean WOW!! Think about that! This really opened my eyes to how much we blame technology for our problems...."The computer made me do it!"

Ch. 8-To be honest this chapter was a little tougher and more confusing for me to read. Postman looks into invisible technologies such as the number 0, IQ, and statistics. One thing that stuck out to me was his section on statistics. We use them so frequently to prove points and show what we consider to be the beliefs of people and what is true. When the truth is in all actuality you can find statistics on almost find statistics on almost anything that you want to prove whatever you want. We also need to look at how the questions are being asked. Realizing that even asking a simple yes and no truly does not show what the majority believes.

Burning Question:

Ch. 8 pg. 131 Postman talks about IQ and says"The idea that intelligence can be quantitatively measured along a single  linear scale has caused untold harm to our society in general and to education in particular." Do you agree? and Explain why?