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Technology |
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We sometimes think we are an
"advanced" civilization because we have sophisticated tools, machinery and
techniques for doing things. We look backward in time and see that a hundred years ago,
for instance, there were no airplanes. Since today we think it no extraordinary thing to
look up and see an airplane carrying hundreds of people -- across a continent or over an
ocean -- we think we are "advanced" with respect to our forebears at the turn of
the last century. And there is a limited truth in this: The technology we are familiar
with is more advanced than theirs. But this has nothing to do with us or with any
intelligence, merit or superior ability belonging to us. It's just the way technology
makes progress. We've reached a certain point now, in 1999, because of what we have had to
build on. Technology, since God placed Adam and Eve in the garden, has been a matter of one generation building on the work of the one before, of one people building on the accomplishments of another, of one man taking up what another started to extend and improve it. No one who adds to what was started can legitimately hold in contempt the very work which makes his own work possible. We work on the upper courses of a great wall. We would never be building at the height we are if those who came before had not labored on the upper courses of the same wall as it stood in their day. The peculiar arrogance of the present (and this probably applies to all times, not just our own) is to regard technology of the past as "primitive" rather than as "foundational." The idea that we could have airplanes and cars and cell phones and all the rest without the accomplishments of the past is absurd. Truly, no one really entertains this idea consciously, because we all know that if our marvelous technology were stripped away from us, leaving us technologically with the first man and his wife, those few of us who could survive would spend a lifetime figuring out how to do technically sophisticated things like cut down trees and move them, or boil water. Indeed, because we tend to be utterly dependent on a great deal of technology we don't understand, we may be, on average, a little more backward and stupid than the average individual at the beginning of the 20th century. And we know it. ****** "Learn how things work" A friend of mine uses this as a guiding principle for education and for professional development. If you're curious about how things around you work, check out How Stuff Works. If you have children and you're taking steps to ensure that their education is educational, you'll probably find Marshall Brain's site is an excellent resource. Peter Barry 121/3/1999 Send someone a link to this page? |
