Has Modern Technology(electrical) slowed the Human Natural Evolution?

luciddream
reply to post by Krazysh0t

 

Quick, without using Google, who invented the compass?

Exactly! i do not know. If i were to manually study who did it i would remember it, but who cares about that since i can learn about the inventor of compass in quick button press, then forget about the person after 2 hrs.

I'm going to have to say BS on that one. How many things do you remember from high school that you "manually" studied? You may remember it for a day or two or maybe even a few weeks, but once the reasoning behind remembering the information fades away, you'll forget it. Then you'll be back to square one with looking up the information again when you need it.

Also what is the difference in studying information online versus looking it up in a book? The way I see it, the harder you study the concept, the longer you retain it. There are quite a few things that I've studied on the internet that I remember better than things I studied in high school or college. In fact I've learned more about the theory of evolution on the internet than I EVER learned in a classroom setting.

Has technology reduced physical social interaction? would that have no affect to us in the long run?

Well yes it has reduced it. We have developed many new forms of entertainment that have replaced socializing as a pass time. Whether this is detrimental in the long run or not, remains to be seen. I'd imagine that it wouldn't be too bad though. Humans get their socializing through online social networks and even barring that, there are plenty of animals in the animal kingdom that are loners and get by just fine. So humans becoming a loner species really wouldn't be the end of the world.

bigfatfurrytexan

luciddream
reply to post by Krazysh0t

 

Quick, without using Google, who invented the compass?

Exactly! i do not know. If i were to manually study who did it i would remember it, but who cares about that since i can learn about the inventor of compass in quick button press, then forget about the person after 2 hrs.

Has technology reduced physical social interaction? would that have no affect to us in the long run?

I Googled it and found, as i suspected, no single individual is really given credit. Until some clown created a manufacturing/sales apparatus, anyway.

It was invented, like many of the cooler things in our history, by some person in the deepest, darkest recesses of history. In this case, China.

Thing is, knowing who invented something is of absolutely no use unless one wishes to leverage it against nationalism. Knowing how the invention works is the knowledge worth having. It is tangible and can actually DO something.

History is the study of death. Sure, there may be something that can be gained via post mortem. But en vivo is a much better field of study.

I wasn't expecting an answer since the whole point of the question was to show how knowing who invented what is irrelevant to using the devices in question.

To be honest, I think both you and the OP's problem lies with our education system. Blaming our societal problems on technology is just another way of shifting the blame. I can forgive you for it since people have been doing that for centuries. Hence the reason the Amish exist. The problem with society is because our children aren't being taught how to critically think anymore. How to exercise their brains and think up solutions that are outside the established norms. Everything has to fit PERFECTLY into a defined box and any ideas outside of it are laughed at. THAT is the problem with society. Technology may be facilitating this mindset, but it certainly isn't the cause of it.

By promoting lazy thinking, you are promoting lazy ideas and innovations. Fix the education system and actually CHALLENGE the children again and maybe we can climb out of this rut our society has fallen in.

Maybe this explains why so many empires rise and fall over the years.

You create technology to make life more comfortable and safe. You create more, better, faster and complicated technology, life is good. Race sits back to bask in what its done and to enjoy "the good life" but now, it starts to break down, you need more technology but everyone's so relaxed and ignorant now, no one knows what to do about it, things break, catch fire, explode.

*reset race and start again*

Thats probably why Chavs dont know anything and act like apes.

I think when it comes to technology, a special balance must be enforced.Due to the fact that Nature the bitchest force of the universe, when it comes to natural selection.

Although I think we are far from the point of being biologically interactive with machines. Like using thoughts for commands.

For example, if a kid or an adult is about to go thru a cross walk, and didn't bother to look both ways, and ends up getting laid out by a bus due to him/her being so glued to the screen of a phone, while blasting the ear drums. Then that's natural selection, for not following the five senses that evolution gave us.

It no different then a superior race, thinking that they are so untouchable from the forces of nature, or other threats, that they ignore it. Then the natural selection(the bus) comes along, and splat.

In a mythological sense. Look both ways is divine protection, the Bus is the angel of death.

Historian J. M. Roberts wrote that human history begins when Man can decide for one thing over another.

Natural Darwinian evolution ended for Humans, and the animals we effect, at that point of mental ability.

The evolutionary influences to the human gene pool have more to do with society and psychology than with nature.

To me humanity looks like leaders, followers and possibly independents.

Independents need technology the most. More technological knowledge allows greater independence.

reply to post by Krazysh0t

'm going to have to say BS on that one. How many things do you remember from high school that you "manually" studied? You may remember it for a day or two or maybe even a few weeks, but once the reasoning behind remembering the information fades away, you'll forget it.

well not exactly.

When i practice in the lab, a technique for identifying a certain bacteria strain, i would learn from my instructor as well as the SoPs. But when you are looking up a recipe for butter chicken, chances are you would use it once and you would forget it, all because you know you can pull it up whenever you want(if the resources are available that is), unlike certain techniques in lab, which is barely available on the internet.

I still remember almost everything i studied, other wise i could not go on to get greater education.

If i forgot the basics, ill be sitting in integral calculus and asking basic calculus questions.

technology will give way to make us lazy and eventually incompetent in certain skills.

reply to post by luciddream


No, you remember the things that are relevant to your profession, which as a scientist, I'm sure is more than the average person, but still. Can you answer off the top of your head what year the Battle of Waterloo happened? How about the amount of money the US government paid for the Louisiana Purchase? Both of those questions would be topics you'd study in a high school history class, so you should know the answers, right? I could even make a claim that you forgot basic English writing skills since your post is full of grammatical errors. I'm not going to point them out because I could really care less about them, just want to make a point.

reply to post by Krazysh0t


I could use the grammar fail on my part to point at the fact that, in work force, everything is stream lined into a template, all you do is read, sign and date. No encouragement to use my grammar skill in writing.

lack of motivation to use my the grammar skill eventually made me not needing it often. English being my 4th language, does affect me but, i do okay.

reply to post by luciddream


Well my grammar improved immensely from posting on forum boards like this one. I wanted to make sure my point got across correctly and there was little possibility of misunderstanding it.

In any case, my point still stands, your gripe is with the American education system and not so much with technology. Give the children a desire to learn and better themselves and they will do it. Give them the bare minimum while forcefully making them comply with the rules without any bending what so ever creates thoughtless drones. It's really no more complicated than that.

Krazysh0t

bigfatfurrytexan

luciddream
reply to post by Krazysh0t

 

Quick, without using Google, who invented the compass?

Exactly! i do not know. If i were to manually study who did it i would remember it, but who cares about that since i can learn about the inventor of compass in quick button press, then forget about the person after 2 hrs.

Has technology reduced physical social interaction? would that have no affect to us in the long run?

I Googled it and found, as i suspected, no single individual is really given credit. Until some clown created a manufacturing/sales apparatus, anyway.

It was invented, like many of the cooler things in our history, by some person in the deepest, darkest recesses of history. In this case, China.

Thing is, knowing who invented something is of absolutely no use unless one wishes to leverage it against nationalism. Knowing how the invention works is the knowledge worth having. It is tangible and can actually DO something.

History is the study of death. Sure, there may be something that can be gained via post mortem. But en vivo is a much better field of study.

I wasn't expecting an answer since the whole point of the question was to show how knowing who invented what is irrelevant to using the devices in question.

To be honest, I think both you and the OP's problem lies with our education system. Blaming our societal problems on technology is just another way of shifting the blame. I can forgive you for it since people have been doing that for centuries. Hence the reason the Amish exist. The problem with society is because our children aren't being taught how to critically think anymore. How to exercise their brains and think up solutions that are outside the established norms. Everything has to fit PERFECTLY into a defined box and any ideas outside of it are laughed at. THAT is the problem with society. Technology may be facilitating this mindset, but it certainly isn't the cause of it.

By promoting lazy thinking, you are promoting lazy ideas and innovations. Fix the education system and actually CHALLENGE the children again and maybe we can climb out of this rut our society has fallen in.

edit on 10-3-2014 by Krazysh0t because: (no reason given)

You are dead on. Bullseye.

It is education. And I could write pages of what is wrong, and how to do it better. Engagement is ignored being the second most important. The most important is that we seem to be throwing the game on purpose. Charlotte Iserbyte claims to be a whistleblower from the early Reagan years, where a deal was made with the then USSR to dwindle the value of education. Given what I have seen in my lifetime, I would find it hard to not believe that what she says is true.

My biggest complaint from school, personally, was the memorization of things. Especially mathematical formulas. If i memorize the formula, i can do the math....if i can remember the formula. But if i know why the formula is what it is, i don't need to memorize the formula. And I may not have to actually be taught some of the future material as I will have a deeper understanding of the fundamentals from which future formulas memorizations derive.

I was not taught how to think. I was told what to think, and tested on my ability to graft these thoughts into my daily life. Learning how to think was something I had to do to myself, by myself, over the next 20 years.

I struggled in every math class i ever took. I never passed a single math class in college. The only reason i didn't fail Algebra II in high school was because I was an all state football player and powerlifter, and the teacher of that class was our athletic director. Which certainly didn't make it any easier for me to get where I am today.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


I know how you feel with the whole memorization thing. When I was in high school and we took Physics, the teacher adamantly refused to allow us to use Calculus despite her knowing and being aware that we were all either taking Calculus or had taken it (I was in a magnet program for math, science, and computer science). You may recognize Physics as that one science that Calculus was invented so as to apply its concepts. So she taught us algebra based Physics and forced us to memorize EVERY formula on the various formula sheets. Now anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Calculus can take one look at the formula for distance and realize that the two subsequent formulas (velocity and acceleration) are derivatives of the distance formula, giving us two less formulas to have to remember. Our teacher STILL refused to let us use Calculus despite this knowledge that literally every student (and I imagine even the teacher since she was teaching Physics to begin with) knew. This happened in 2002 before the "No Child Left Behind" law truly went into effect, but still what a circus... Thankfully, when I was in college, I rectified this problem and took Calculus based Physics (and was promptly knocked on my intellectual ass for most of the semester until it all actually clicked and I understood it just in time to pass the class).

I've always felt that swimming in a sea of electromagnetic radiation cant be a good long term thing.
In speculation I think it does hamper something. Or many things.
I get all Dune mind and think about a Butlerian Jihad but then I think of all the loss of life and it makes me sad.
But humanity in it's current state also makes me sad.

Whatcha gonna do? :\

reply to post by Krazysh0t


My teacher couldn't tell me what a radian was. Only that it was a value in a formula that needed to be memorized.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


...

I sure hope she wasn't your Trig teacher.

Krazysh0t
reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

 

...

I sure hope she wasn't your Trig teacher.

and now you know why i dropped trig in the 3rd week of my senior year in high school