“The human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive.” (www.theatlantic.com) My revelation came when the topic of evolution was brought up in class. With the little information that I was taught about in private school and public school I was not able to form an opinion of my own until this heated topic came up in the classroom this semester. “’Will you honestly tell me (and I should be really much obliged) whether you believe that the shape of my nose was ordained and ‘guided by an intelligent cause?’’” (Appleman 601) The idea of intelligent design was thought up by Michael Behe and this theory is just one of many that I have found intriguing and actually made me want to take a side on this continuous argument in science. “The ideas of ‘creation science’ derive from the conviction that God created the universe-including humans and other living things-all at once in the relatively recent past.” (Appleman 617) The thought that everything is pre planned and organized before we, as humans, could have any affect on the outcome is just mind boggling to me. As a student that is now in college and went through high school biology and chemistry classes, I was never really taught much about the theory of evolution and how it is contemplated over constantly. No one can really claim anything yet and it always turns out to be science versus religion in this never-ending argument. I found this conversation to be the most interesting one that I have had in a classroom because there are so many varying opinions and everyone has done their research to back it up, yet there is still that constant conflict of who is right and who is wrong. I do not believe in the idea of intelligent design because I am a strong believer in the process of natural evolution. This leads me to the article that was assigned to us previously. This article mentions, “ I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I’ve got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after”. (www.theatlantic.com) After many years of evolution, I believe that humans have become numb to the idea of researching beyond a website. Instead of someone being asked a question and researching it fully by talking to others and/or reading a piece of text, we can now type our question in via google.com and the answer will magically appear instantly in front of us. I believe that this has made humans lazy but not stupid. We are still gaining the knowledge that we learn from the internet but instead of retaining it or writing it down for later usage, we just keep it for the moment we need it and then discard of the “unnecessary information” when it is no longer needed. “The Internet, an immeasurably powerful computing system, is subsuming most of our other intellectual technologies. It’s becoming our map and our clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and TV.” (www.theatlantic.com) However, this article on theatlantic.com states that “ fill with quote”.
All of these thoughts to come mind when I think of the process of evolution now because without humans being able to grow and become more knowledgeable about the world we all live in we wouldn’t have gotten as far as we have. Even though I do not believe in the ideas of intelligent design, that could change in the future because all I need is hard proof and that is what the science side of this argument has given me. Even though humans have grown in intelligence levels, I think that technology will hurt us more in the end than to help us. I doubt that it will happen any time soon but I see it happening already. Machinery has been taking over jobs in the hospital and in the factories all around the United States and of course, all around the world. A person using Google.com to help answer their questions is just the beginning of how lazy humans may possibly become. I hope that I am wrong in expecting this for future generations but with all of the reading and research that I have done, I feel that this is in the future for humans.
The link above is a video that I found on YouTube.com and it shows how technology is being used i nthe classroom. It is interesting and gives a positive spin on the turnout of technology and its great uses. I chose to use this because it shows that technology is taking over hard text books in the classroom and in the world around us. The high school that I went to my freshman year was going completely digital the following year with smart boards and no more text books being brought into class. I think that this is a great eye opener for those who look down upon technology in the future but it also shows how much we, as students and as people, rely on it in the end.
Works Cited Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic. 2007. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907/google
Cascio, Jamais. “Get Smarter.” The Atlantic, July/August 2009 http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907/intelligence
Dorit, Robert. “Review of Behe” in Darwin. 3rd ed. Phillip Appleman, ed. New York: W.W.Norton, 2001.
National Academy of the Sciences. “Frequently Asked Questions about Evolution and the Nature of Science.” In Darwin. 3rd ed. Phillip Appleman, ed. New York: W.W.Norton, 2001
"YouTube - Technology In the Classroom." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Bennettlucky. Web. 27 Nov. 2009. .
Have you ever tried to think of what your core body cavity would look like if it were portrayed as food? If not, we will be giving you that chance on Monday, as our group will be presenting the ideas and concepts researched by Andreas Vesalius. Vesalius grew up to be a pharmacist but earned his medical degree in 1537. He was most interested in looking more into Galen’s theories and studies on the body, which lead to him write many books. One of them titled, De Humani Corporis Fabrica. This novel went into much more detailed description of human anatomy than any one before him. We will be going over diagrams such as click here. These types of diagrams will be explained in greater detail throughout our presentation. Another important concept that will be explained is the history of Vesalius and why he did his diagrams and researched the way he did. Here is a small video that will only begin to explain the great things this scientist was involved in, click here . Even though it may seem strange now, more details will be discussed, explained and shown on Monday.
I decided to explore the ideas that have to do with the evolution of communication with humans.Thinking that we started to communicate just by forming one uniform alphabet that transformed into variations and translations so that we, as a world, could communicate effectively.One of the main points that came up continuously throughout my research is that social media is the now and the future.Cell phones just don’t do communication justice anymore, when people can use Skype to video chat instead.It does make many people worry that face to face communication will lessen as technology continues to evolve, but I had to ask myself, is that really that bad?
I didn’t really hear about this topic anywhere except for a classroom last year in the fall semester with Jeff Rutenbeck.It was the most interesting class that I have taken here at Champlain College.The class was titled “Mass Media and Society”.Throughout the semester the class talked about media in the past, present and the future.We got to see how Jeff actually lives the life that he teaches about.He is constantly involved in the media and how it is always changing.Last year we talked about how Facebook was going to be the newest craze for many years and even though that has held true, Tweeting has come up very close behind it.The focus of the class however, was how we, as a society and a world, have evolved in our ways of communicating with one another.Humans look for the easiest and most quick approach.Snail mail is no longer efficient when technology allows for emails and paying bills on-line.This is how and where I got the starting point for me research.
When that class first started, I thought that it would be another repetitive course about how people in the world communicate efficiently.I was sorely wrong.When it comes to communication, I could talk about it for endless amounts of hours.I am constantly using AOL Instant Messenger to keep in touch with friends, I Skype with my Dad every day, I am texting furiously to my friends and of course I have to admit my love for Facebook.All of these great technologies allow for faster and more efficient communication.Even though I find the ideas fascinating about how we have progressed, I must also admit that I still write letters and use the deadly “snail mail”.The first source that I used for this research was a website that allowed me to see the progression of communication and technology starting in the 31st century.Even though this isn’t the most well known source, it still gave me great insight that I did not know before.I think that it is great knowledge to have about how humans found more and more effective ways to communicate over hundreds of years.The creators of this website knew that it would be strictly informational and set it up in a simple outline so that readers could get the information that they were looking for.
The second source that I used for my research was a better-known source, www.nytimes.com.I found an article that caught my attention because it focused on Facebook.com and how it is catering to what some of its users wanted.This is interesting to me because Facebook.com started off as a very simple forum for people to communicate and keep in touch with one another. Very soon after, the website was filled with thousands of different applications for users to download to make their page more unique and self-expressing.Well now Facebook’s creators have decided to put out a newer version titled “Facebook Lite”.This is a version of the social networking sight that only uses a smaller bandwidth to use because it is not as involved as the original Facebook is now.I found this to be important to my topic because as I mentioned earlier, communication started out very simple but if you wanted to converse with someone, you had to conform to whatever the “communication style” was.Now it seems that it has flipped around the other way.Now the communication is conforming to whatever the user wants and/or needs.By coming out with this new version of Facebook and allowing users who do not have the same bandwidth as many others may have, it opens up doors for the company and now they are available to a whole new audience.If other communication technologies catch on to this trend, which knows what will come out next.In order to keep up with AOL instant messenger and Skype, Facebook has already come out with Facebook Chat and it is planned in the future to have a Video Chat application on Facebook as well.Social networking is the future of communication, and I can say that with no doubt in my mind.I was taught in my Mass Media and Society Class that new media never replace old media, which is very true, but old media will fade to its lowest possible count.Newspapers will slowly go from paper to completely on-line, landlines for telephones will be on their way out and iPods already have cameras built into them.Using the New York Times website as a source for my research is very comforting because I know that it is a credible course and it is always full of interesting information.There isn’t really a specific audience that the newspaper is trying to reach.There are so many different sections that reach various types of readers and the technology section just happened to catch my eye for this project.
The news in communication evolution was presented efficiently in both sources but in two completely different ways.The first website which gave me a timeline plainly showed me the evolution of communication and technology in a timeline format while the New York Times article wrote about how Facebook as a technology has begun to cater to what its users want and need in order to maintain and grow its user base.Both sources are great and allowed me to further explore the past present and future of communication.When it comes to accuracy I cannot choose one over the other but when talking about credibility, of course www.nytimes.com comes out on top.Even though I fully stand behind the other source that I used, the New York Times is well known and has a fabulous reputation for honesty and reporting true facts.With both sources helping me to further believe in my ideas about this topic, the science does seem sound.This is because the ways that people communicate with one another has changed so fast over time and is continuing to change every day that we live.Something new is always coming out that is newer and better or better quality or in high definition.
This topic is important to me because I am a part of the generation that will start to use these techniques to communicate more efficiently in the work world and in every day life.Yes, businesses are starting to use Facebook and Twitter, but in the next two to three years, there will be a huge boom in the communication field.I’m sure that something better than twitter will come out to help scientists spread their information quicker.That is another interesting point about why this matters to me.Since we can correspond with one another in a much more direct manner now than ever, the way that information is spread will surely grow and expand to something even more than just tweeting about a discovery or the results of an experiment done by a scientist.Giving scientists the opportunity to communicate so rapidly has made a great change in science these days and I can only imagine how this growth in communication will help us, as a people, in the future.I do believe that this idea is revolutionary because it is making a change every day.Social Networking is the future of personal communication, and I can say that without a doubt in my mind.This matters the most to me because it affects my life on a daily basis.This topic may seem boring on the outside, but once you deep down a little bit deeper many will realize that this really is important and that it is in charge of what we do in the future.May it be with our jobs or our personal lives, communication is key in any society and who knows where this scientific revolution may lead us in the future.Where will we be on this evolution timeline?
Works Cited
"Communication cartoon -." Google Images. Web. 09 Oct. 2009. . This was a very helpful source for this image because it came up with something that I was looking for in the first search. I will continue to use google.com/images to look for images because it has not let me down yet. It is quick and effective.
Ensha, Azadeh. "Facebook Lite: Same Great Taste, Just Fewer Calories - Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com." Electronics and Gadgets - Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com. The New York Times, 11 Sept. 2009. Web. 09 Oct. 2009. . This article was a great second source for me to use for my research because I know that it is credible. I have used The New York Times website for previous research and have found no flaws. This article was short and to the point. It helps to strengthen my view on this topic of communication growth.
"Google Image Result for http://library.thinkquest.org/27887/images/pagers.jpg." Google Images. Web. 09 Oct. 2009. .
"Some Dates in the History of Communication Technologies." WorldHistorySite.com: World History in Five Epochs. THISTLEROSE PUBLICATIONS, 2005. Web. 09 Oct. 2009. . This source was incredibly helpful in giving me the necessary dates and names that I needed in order to have a full historical timeline. It was simple and straight to the point. Even though all of it was great information I did not use all of it because that would have been an overload of information for the audience to take in. I chose specifically which topics to put in my presentation because I only needed the ones that affected communication. I would use this source in the future because it was helpful, organized and informative.
Young, Robert. "The Future of Social Networks – Communication." GigaOM. 9 Oct. 2006. Web. 09 Oct. 2009. . This website was very interesting to me. I had never used it before, and reading what this man had to say was very interesting to me. I decided to use a blog post as one of my sources because I am talking about communication and how it has evolved, and using a blog for the first time was very new and interesting to me. I do wish that there were some more links to related articles for research purposes, but for the use that I needed it for, it was perfect.
"YouTube - 1971 - Touch Tone Phone Calling." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 09 Oct. 2009. .
"YouTube - AOL Commercial from 1995." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 09 Oct. 2009. .
"YouTube - Education Connection Commercial Jingle." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 09 Oct. 2009. .
"YouTube - Old windows commercial." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 09 Oct. 2009. .
"YouTube - Retro Commercial - Radio Shack Cell Phones - 1990." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 09 Oct. 2009. .
"YouTube - Wedding Reception eHarmony Commercial." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 09 Oct. 2009. .
Hey!! As I mentioned in Angel, I am a huge fan of the Transformers movie. I think that it is a great example of how we, as humans, look at technology. While I was watching this trailer for the movie, I noticed even more how much technology does affect every day living. I know that it is extreme, but in this movie, the robots are in charge of keeping Earth in one piece. This means that the humans need to compromise with them in order to save their planet. If the robots (technology) didn't exist, then everything would have gone completely down hill in the movie, but because the humans realized how much they needed technology in order to survive, the plot ensues the way it does and of course it has a happy ending. I think that these movies give great examples of technology in our culture and how much we depend on it. From simple things like a dishwasher or lights to hybrid cars, cell phones, and massive robots, technology is everywhere and we depend on it just like it depends on us to create newer and better things.
