I’m not going to talk about one specific book or one specific topic, that we discussed in class, I am going to address the whole thought of us being cyborgs. A lot of the time that we spend in class was spent with us discussing if we where like machines or if machines are able to think for themselves or if machines will one day take over. I think that in a way we are just like machines I say this because machines are programmed and only know what they are programmed to know. Also when playing chess a machine learns from his opponent’s moves and is ready for that opponent the next time. Well we as humans are not programmed but we are also thought good and bad and right and wrong. Also like machines we learn from are mistakes and are ready for the next time. However I don’t think that they will take over one day because I think that we are smarter than they are simply for the fact that we created them. What I do think is that one day it will get to the point that we won’t know what to do without them, because they are becoming such an important part of our daily life. I think that machines are just like cell phones and are such an important part of our daily life that we can’t be without them. I think that at this time we would be lost without technology because that’s all we know. Is like when you get use to your cell phone but the day you don’t have it feels like you are missing a part from you. I also don’t think that machines are able to think for themselves although they are able to learn from their mistakes or from what others due they can’t have their own ideas or thought. They also don’t have feeling like we do but they can be program to want something like to win or beat the opponent. Overall I think that humans will always be dominant over anything else but in a way we are also machines and are thought right from wrong, good and bad and learn from our mistakes but have the advantage to think and feel.
11.30.06
Nicholas Marino | 03-Dec-06 at 10:55 pm | Permalink
Many people would agree and say that humans would always be more dominant over machines. Humans made machines and machines would need humans to come into existence. However, while humans don’t necessarily need machine to come into existence it’s coming to a point where humans need machines to make it through the day. Humans are becoming to dependent on technology that we need it as much as it needs us. I think the dependecy on technology makes humans a little less dominant over machines than people may actual realize.
Adam Warren | 04-Dec-06 at 7:39 pm | Permalink
I agree with Nicholas, and it’s hard to say in general whether men or machines will be dominant if you go far enough down the road. I’m not sure if we have reached such a point yet, but what happens when the current computers in numbers are smart enough to produce the next generation of processing, and then that generation produce the next? Then computers are evolving themselves, and are far less reliant on humans. Will it get out of hand? Will this mechanical self-reliance ever manifest? One can only speculate.
Ryan Dixon | 04-Dec-06 at 11:44 pm | Permalink
I have two things to relate to this post. First - I think people panic when their personal technology fails them or cannot be accessed. If a blackberry, personal PC, cell phone, or even an iPod quit working, many people may start to freak out, thus exemplifying the dependence on the technology. Secondly - movies like The Matrix and The Terminator have shown to the movie audience how dangerous it can eventually be to depend on technology too much. It’s possible that the future could see humans giving too much power to a computer program where control over the program could find itself difficult to maintain.
Cristina Del Real | 05-Dec-06 at 11:27 am | Permalink
I agree that we are becoming so dependent on technology to the point where we do not think we can go a day without a computer or a cell phone. While technology is growing extremely fast, I think we are overlooking that we live in a country where this is all taken for granted. What about the countries that are still considered third world and do not have any of the technological appliances that we believe would be impossible to live without? While technology may be a great part of the lives of many, I think it will still be a while before it becomes widespread throughout the world.
Danielle Bracken | 05-Dec-06 at 11:28 pm | Permalink
I agree with the everything in the beginning of this post about how similiar people and machines are, but I think that the one thing that seperates us is caring, and the reason the other things are similiar is because humans programmed them, so they program what they know, so the machines end up being similiar to how humans act and interact with others. As Heidegger says, the one thing that seperates us from technology is that we drive the technology.
Daniel Worst | 06-Dec-06 at 11:03 am | Permalink
I agree with most of what is said in the post. I just think that technology will become more and more influential on our society. I don’t know what this has to do with the topic but here it is. People have noticed that America’s youth are becoming more obese every year. Why is that? One may think it is because kids today just sit around and watch TV, play video games, and use the computer. Technology is in a way is making the kids larger. What ever happened to the good old days of going outside from breakfast until dinner only coming inside to eat lunch?
stephanie hernandez | 06-Dec-06 at 6:06 pm | Permalink
You bring up a good point when you mention that even if machines will not replace us, they will become vital for our survival. I’d have to say that that is our own fault becasue we make machines such an importrant part of our daily life. If we stop and think, we do so many basic things through machines, for example, instead of going to the bank (where we would be forced to interact with other people) we go to the ATM. I bring this up because even if machines are very helpful and handy, they slowly eliminate or cut off a large part of the interaction we once had with the outer social world. I believe that machines promote seclusion and a sense of indivisualism which for many could be a good thing but for me it is something bad. We have become so doubtful of those around us becasue we are so attached to machines and their functions, I believe one day that will counter-attack us and when that happens machines will not be able to help us.
Kristina Hughes | 07-Dec-06 at 11:55 am | Permalink
We did create machines, however technology has become more intelligent since its creation. I think machines are fully capable of becoming more intelligent than us; they alreayd have. I also think machines may be ‘raised’ to learn on their own. Turing’s point of raising a machine as if it were a child and allowing it to learn as a human would is a great basis for this conversation. The ultimate difference between machines and humans, however, is that machines do not care. I don’t believe machines have the capacity to care and they therefore will not ‘take over’ not because they are not smarter, but because they don’t care to.
Erin Hogan | 07-Dec-06 at 2:08 pm | Permalink
I think that Cristina made an interesting point in that we feel that technology is taking over our lives because we live in a country where technology is so abundant. I’m not technologically savvy or anything, but I do freak out a little when I can’t get to a computer with internet access. I think that this is a result of the society in which I live though. We are so obsessed with technology in America that we forget that for other people in other places, technology isn’t really an issue. I have a friend who joined the Peace Corps after graduation last year and now he lives in a rural village in South Africa. He doesn’t have a phone, a computer, or even basic things like electricity and plumbing. And interestingly enough, when I received a letter from him (yes- an actual handwritten letter
) he said that he after the first few weeks, he literally stopped missing all of those things. Without living in a society that is consumed with new technology, I think that most people would stop needing or missing it. Or at least some things like cell phones…no plumbing might be a little harder to get used to. For all of you people who said that you feel lost without your cell phone…do you think that you would still feel the same if you lived in a community where no one had cell phones?
William Lee | 07-Dec-06 at 4:19 pm | Permalink
I think that you can say we’re machines in some sense. I am also more and more beginning to side with the argument that we are very similar to computers. Our brain acts in a way to receive information and then act on what we know is the right or wrong decision. However, as the post said, we think and feel. That I think is the only difference. We can feel things and make decisions based on the feelings and I believe that computers don’t do that. They act on a set of rules.
Rickin Shah | 07-Dec-06 at 8:13 pm | Permalink
Machines are without a doubt apart of the way we live and our growing dependecy on technolgy is slithly disturbing. A question i have is if our society will just continue to more and more lazy because our lives are made easeier everyday by the creation of new gadgets. I guess movies like iRobot are a little bit over the top but simply serve to throw out an interesting idea. It’s comforting to think that the technology we create will never get the best of us or be able to take over, but i also think that its an idea we should pass over. I think the creation of technology is something that needs to watched and it is more so the use of the technology that is monitored. Thi sis the only way that i think humans will continue to be safe from certain types of dangerous technology.
Jeff Chwa | 07-Dec-06 at 8:46 pm | Permalink
I think this idea of dependency on technology has a lot of validity. Everywhere we look there is technology. I feel like it is almost impossible to get through the day without indulging myself in some television or using the internet. Many things require technology these days that it is almost hard to survive without it, like doing online homework. It would be hard, but it would be possible.