Sean Osterman
Dr. Adam Johns
Seminar in Composition
8/29/08
Human Extinction
Imagine a world where there are no humans, instead the world is dominated by robots and nanotechnologies. To some this may sound like the next horrendous sci-fi to hit the box office, but, to others this sounds like the near future. This is in fact one of Bill Joy’s biggest fears as he clearly states in his article, “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us”. Joy, along with several colleagues, fears the worst in this age of technological advancement. Joy believes that if we keep advancing through technology we will rely on what we invent instead of ourselves, ultimatly reaching a stage where humans cannot simply turn the machines off (Joy, 2). As the controversy builds, many people are taking their sides in the argument. Personally, I am on the side of Joy in that technology must have goals that will benefit the human race in terms of needs not wants.
Many of these technologies appear outstanding for the short term, but, we don’t see the consequences in the long run. For example, nanomedicine seems great now and for the next several years. Another example is with the food we eat daily. The FDA has approved around 50 genetically modified foods for the public. More than half of our soy beans and about one third of the corn is genetically modified. This is all great but what happens when bacteria becomes immune either accidently or via terrorist actions? What happens if the corn and soybeans become diseased and are toxic to humans? What are we supposed to do then (Joy 4, 8)? With this in mind, the world should get involved to discuss what to further research and what to leave as is. The United Nations should form some sort of world organization to mandate what is researched. I believe that we should focus our attention mostly on energy, food and medicine. The research should go towards ways to rapidly grow foods naturally, ways to decrease our need for oil as well as ways to increase our use of solar, wind and thermal heat energy and methods of finding medicine that bacteria cannot adapt to.
In the article Joy says that if humans keep coming up with new technologies that we will gradually rely on our machines instead of our brains (Joy, 2). A great example of this is seen through the fancy new TI calculators. Don’t get me wrong I love my calculator, but, kids 50 years ago didn’t have these things. These kids knew how to do everything by hand and in some ways it made them smarter. The students of now rely on calculators to do almost everything math required. If the technology in calculators keeps evolving, then the student will rely solely on the calculator. Eventually there will be a point in our civilization wherewe as humans cannot make logical decisions without the help of machines. There needs to be some way where school systems force kids to do work by themselves. I suggest that every nation monitors its education by tests. These tests will be completely different from the tests of today. These tests will be more challenging and they will force students to be intelligent without the use of technology. This way, students will be able to make intelligent decisions without technology on their side.
My final point involves the media. The media will not report the dangers in technology because as Joy says “There is no profit in publicizing the dangers” (Joy, 10). The media is the most important aspect of keeping technology under control due to that fact that people all over the world watch and obtain information from the news regularly. Personally I believe that the media only cares about exploiting celebrities and creating gossip. There are only a select few tht actually run news worth showing. The media needs to take the initiative and start talking about the controvercy around technology advancement. People need to know what is happening inside their world and their own country. When this happens people will start to become more aware of this issue and how devastating the future can be.
With the help of world organizations, government, school systems and the media the technology problem can be neutralized and the human race can take a sign of relief. It is hard to believe now that machines can control us, but we must believe. We could have an almost perfect Utopian lifestyle or we could live in fear, fighting day after day for our survival. We need to take initiative and begin the transformation now.
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1 comment:
Your introduction is ok, albeit slightly wordy. Your thesis is weekly worded, and could have had more of you in it. In the second paragraph, after rehashing Joy (perhaps a little too much, really), you shift your attention to what the U.N. should do. This seems more like your real argument, but it’s still very vague. It’s clear enough that you want the general goals of humanity to change away from superfluities and toward necessities, but it’s totally unclear how that’s going to happen (other than that you connect it with the UN).
Do you really think of calculators as an intimidating, dangerous technology? I see your point, and I took math classes in college in which calculators were banned completely, but this doesn’t seem comparable at all to the technologies Joy focuses on - your argument is getting weaker, not stronger.
I was actually very interested in your shift to talking about the media - but this is only the start of an interesting argument. It is, in essence, a different paper than the one you’re writing. If you’d started with the premise that the media is the root of our technological problems, that could have gotten us somewhere - at the end, it’s mostly just jarring.
The conclusion reminds us mostly that you’ve been unfocused: you remind us that you’ve covered several huge topics, with your argument being extremely broad. There are several good beginnings here, but this isn’t anything close to being a coherent essay.
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