Amusing Ourselves to Death Synthesis essay Essay

Synthesis Es set upIf a perplexity was asked, any question, todays automatic answer is to interpret the dissolver through applied science. Weve grown dependant on the ticking of clocks, the virtual human being of the internet, and the convenience of our phones. A difficult concept for us to grasp, however, is merely xxx years ago most of these did not existed. So how has this affected our minds? get hold of we turned our brains into a living computer, or argon we so open on outside answers that weve ceased thinking for ourselves? In todays cab aret weve entered a state of ignorant bliss about how little companionship and acquaintance we truly hold. Neil Postman (1984), the source of Amusing Ourselves to Death and an educator, tackled the instantaneously apparent f process that unlike George Orwells prediction that our rights to thinking would be ripped away, Aldous Huxleys prediction that we will gladly hand them away voluntarily has frame more and more neat. Both O rwell and Huxley are English authors. (Postman, 1984) We impart our information to be fed to us by the television which trivializes it, and the internet which blends opinion and fact together so intricately that it is intermixed beyond comprehension. insofar we process this information, we build our thoughts and opinions around what the other misinformed populous insists is fact. But we are aware of the lies and incomplete facts out there, so when the truth does come out, it is unrecognizable. Nicholas Carr (2008) wonders of our qualification to separate how we think and how a computer processes input in his clause Is Google make Us Stupid? He complains of a recent softness to pay attention to records for prospicient periods of duration. He blames this on receiving his information online in quick snippets, and establishing novels has incur a chore to him. Carr mentions Lewis Mumford, a cultural critic, who speaks of the invention of the clock. He degrades the clock, saying In deciding when to eat, to work, to sleep, to rise, we stopped sense of hearing to our senses and started obeying the clock. (Carr, 2008, p. 4) Is it true that weve handed over not only our minds, further our bodies to technology? We are becoming slaves to others to feed us the information we search, and to tell us how and when to do what instinct and Mother Nature had guided us to do for hundreds of thousands of years. And were paying the price. For thousands of years weve read and written books, which helped pass cut downward(a) wisdom to younger generations.Books created knowledge bases weve never seen, they questioned our philosophical purpose, and theyanswered it. From manuals to stories, books have been handed down as a collection of knowledge but for the first time in millennia were raising entire generations who have never read a novel, short story or regular a poem. David McCullough (2008), author of The Love of Learning defines for us the difference between facts an d wisdom. Data is impertinent until we have made the judgment to make it important and chance upon from it. We stacknot gyp facts and c all in all ourselves learned we must look a layer deeper and find what the facts mean to us. Learning is acquired mainly from books, and most readily from great books. (McCullough, 2008, p. 2) Without books we are only being fed selective information, numbers and words without any true meaning. (McCullough, 2008) Our ability to understand and think about problems creates an ability to understand beyond the ordinary and think complexly on a situation. When told the rate of a bowling oafs fall, and the opposing force of air contend against gravity, we can think about this and then ask something that never came up, why did we drop the bowling ball? Will a ten attach fall faster than an eight pound bowling ball? And what if the ball were square?Science is built on this foundation of thought, and with our technologies answering our questions raf t have stopped asking the questions all together. In the oblige O Americano, Outra Vez written by Richard P. Feynman, an American scientist and educator, the consequences of learning but never arrangement concepts was made clear. In Brazil they taught physics as young as elementary school, however not a single student taught by Feynman in Brazil seemed to be able to comprehend what the words meant beyond just data. (Feynman, 1985) This inability to have opinions and questions over facts we learn impedes our ability to really understand what we learn. Because of the convenience of information today weve stopped asking if this require verification.Weve become lazy in our advancement, and expect that sort of work and credential to be done by someone who we may say is smarter than I. What todays society doesnt seem to understand is that this positioning has stunted our growth as the human race, and we are reaching a stalemate of blissful ignorance, much as Huxley predicted. But thi s is not to say technology is the sole lineage of our decreasing intelligence. The blame lies namely in our attitude towards the world of information that lies in our gadgets. Rather than utilizing this sort of election as a layer of foundation to go beyond in go steadyy in a way thatwas impossible before, we let the immortal array of data sit there only to be apply at our discretion, which is not often. This state of unintelligence is not incurable, and perhaps turning to the root of knowledge and wisdom that has accumulated over our history, otherwise known as books, can turn around our ability to simply think. A book has the amazing capability to let us read in between the lines, and gives us the ability to absorb information much more expeditiously than this skimming we find ourselves doing when facing screens.We engage our minds when reading a book, and discover new ideas in every novel, short story and poem. And maybe all we need is to reawaken this amazing brain power we have long forgotten to use the information our technology hands us to the crush of our ability. Our brain retains a wonderful ability to maintain enormous nub of information, and however much knowledge we may lack we can unceasingly remedy this by settling down with a good book. maculation our computers, phones, and television and provide an almost endless stream of pure data to us, we must learn how to properly utilize this information to the best of our benefit. We can choose to think logically with the knowledge handed to us, and to continue our growth.The world can carry on its advancements to improve the lives of all that inhabit it, but only if the individual continues progressing. William J. Perry, Jr. (1970) said it best in his article Examsmanship and the Liberal Arts when he defined the words bull and cow. bulls eye is information that has relevancies but have minimal to no data to bet on it up, and cow has data but no relevancies. (Perry, 1970) Our technology is fu ll of cow, and our minds are full of bull. Once we can find a way to blend in these forces, we will never stop progressing. Perry (1970) summed the dangers of a chronic cow, These are delicate matters. As for cow, its complexities are not what need concern us. hostile good bull, it does not represent partial knowledge at all. It belongs to a different theory of knowledge entirely. In our theories of knowledge it represents total ignorance, or worse yet, a knowledge downright inimical to understanding. I even go so far as to propose that we award no more Cs for cow.To do so is rarely, I feel, the act of mercy it seems. Mercy lies in clarity. (p. 8) Perry is arguing we must first become aware of and recognizing cow, and to correct it upon sight. This requires we learn to learn, which means we should delve our minds into books and others personal wisdom and experience. In only thismethod can we expand our own minds and become aware of cow, or bull, and teach ourselves to think beyond what is given to us. We learn to analyze and experiment, and in this manner we can progress into a bust future not only for ourselves, but for future generations.WORK CITEDCarr, Nicholas. (2008). Is Google Making Us Stupid? PDF document. Retrieved from https//byui.brainhoney.com/ strain/ share/CoursePlayer?enrollmentid=1491373Feynman, Richard. (1985). O Americano, Outra Vez PDF document. Retrieved from https//byui.brainhoney.com/Frame/Component/CoursePlayer?enrollmentid=1491373McCullough, David. (2008). The Love of Learning PDF document. Retrieved from https//byui.brainhoney.com/Frame/Component/CoursePlayer?enrollmentid=1491373Perry, William. (1970). Examsmanship and the Liberal Arts PDF document. Retrieved from https//byui.brainhoney.com/Frame/Component/CoursePlayer?enrollmentid=1491373Postman, Neil. (1984). Amusing Ourselves to Death PDF document. Retrieved from https//byui.brainhoney.com/Frame/Component/CoursePlayer?enrollmentid=1491373