Reading Response #5

In Nicholas Carr's article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" he addresses America's dependence on search engines such as Google. He suggests that the machine is accelerating so much in intelligence and speed, that it may be slowly overtaking the purpose that human's have. People barely ever take the time to contemplate an idea or read an actaul book to gain the knowledge on a subject. The internet is such a consistant source within the everyday lives of people today.

Throughout Carr's article, he keeps reminding the reader of their own reliance on technology. Apparantly, people are less trustworthy than the machine now, as where in the past, people were skeptical of new inventions and their capabilities. Carr showed how far technology and the importance of speed of production has grown by telling the story of a man named Frederick Winslow Taylor and how he brought a stopwatch to the factory where he worked one day. With the stopwatch, Taylor began timing each job and step at the factory over and over, calculating what the approximate time should be to complete each job and the best way to do each job, bettering production. From there, more factories and jobs began paying more attention to speed and the rate of which they were producing each product and how they could become faster and make production accel. Taylor created a new era in the job field. He asserts, "In the past the man has been first, in the future the system must be first." Who knew that Taylor would acually be somewhat correct? Today, the internet and technology is what America thrives on. I aggree with the the fact that Taylor's statement is very true and almost current to what is occuring today, but I don't aggree with the system having to be first. Society makes it that way, but it doesn't have to be that way. I am seeing more frequently everyday that teenagers especially are always texting and updating their facebooks and myspaces. So much is occuring and yet is it possible that too much is going on? The more multitasking and the more information the better, right? The problem is that many people have become so consumed in technology, that they can no longer depend on themselves, but require technology for everyday living. It's grown from technology being an accessary to a neccesity and that is the downfall.

Carr also addresses the myth that "we'd all "be better off" if our brains were supplemented, or even replaced, by an artificial intelligence." Carr emphasized that this claim was obscure and "unsettling." The internet is basically working towards replacing us, the humans, in a way. I aggree with Carr because in this world, it weems like more and more that humans are no longer more or even as important as the machine, but society has made it that way. Every time the a person puts forth their time and energy into a computer and trusts that first, rather than themselves, the computer has won. It has just gained another step twards becoming dominant over the human race. I'm not saying that "THE COMPUTERS ARE GOING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!" or anything that extreme, but contemplation and the people's minds are being lost. The art of finding information without the aid of something other than a textbook and a person's brain is being lost.