The Good Life (With or Without Technology) Improved Communication The continuous advances in technology have led to the appearance of numerous new methods of electronic communication, such as social networking websites, emails, voicemails, and video conferences. These advanced communication tech tools have helped us to eliminate time and distance as obstacles to effective communication. This is beneficial not only to our personal relationships, but also to education and business. Technology has improved cultural education by giving children the opportunity to communicate with other children from different countries and learn about different cultures. Improved Home Entertainment One of the biggest changes, for example, was the switch from videotapes to CDs/DVDs. This enabled manufacturers to put more data onto the medium. This meant that there were no risks of the tape coming out of the player and getting damaged that easily, and due to the small size of the DVDs, it also meant that a lot more could be stored in the same amount of space. Another huge technological advance was the introduction of LCD TV. Compared to today's LCD TVs, the previous television screens were inefficient, with lower definition and poor quality. Today we can not only enjoy improved home entertainment. Improved Housing and Lifestyle Housing and lifestyle have also been impacted by modern technology. The majority of the items that you have in your home today are automated, which makes your life much easier, organized and safer. Thanks in particular to the advanced technological solutions such automated door locks, security cameras and lighting control, our homes are now more secure than ever. Also, thanks to the Internet, we have an easy access to all sorts of information, news, and you're able to shop online any time of the day or night from the comfort of your own home. Changed Health Industry There's no doubt that technology is the driving force behind the huge improvements in healthcare. The majority of the hospitals today have implemented modern technology in hospitals and surgical rooms, which has significantly reduced the mistakes made by doctors. The increased accessibility of treatment is also one of the most amazing ways that technology has changed health care. Besides the technological advancements in hospitals, there are also many health phone and desktop apps that allow you to easily monitor your weight, heart rate, and other health properties at any time of the day. Needless to say, the Internet is our main source of medical information. Convenience in Education Technology has impacted every aspect of our lives today, and education is no exception. Technology has changed education in so many ways. First, technology has expanded the access to education and there are huge amounts of information (books, images, videos, audio) that are available through the Internet and that will enable you to empower Yourself with knowledge. In addition, online courses are on the rise and most of them are free. Modern technology has made it simple for students to learn from any place in the world through online education. Also, nowadays students use modern technology in classrooms in order to learn better. Convenience of Traveling Modern transportation technology has made it easier for individuals to travel long distances. Since transport is an important part of our lives, technology has been regularly working on making it more efficient and quicker. The first steamship was built in the 1770s, the first steam-powered train was built in 1798, and the modern car was created in 1886, while the first powered, controlled flight is believed to have taken place in 1903. Today, we just cannot imagine life without well-developed means of transport like cars, trains, buses, and airplanes which have become a basic need. The Good Life (Without Technology) - Mark Boyle (Moneyless Man) - Mark Boyle has lived without technology since December 2016. He is the author of books including The Moneyless Man and Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi “We can’t all go and live in the woods, of course. But if we resist debt, resist gadgets, and reconnect with nature, the world might just change” - According to Boyle, he has an interview in The Guardian and this is the information he said: Having once been an early adopter of tech, I was an unlikely early rejector. But it has now been over a year since I have phoned my family or friends, logged on to antisocial media, sent a text message, checked email, browsed online, took a photograph or listened to electronic music. Living and working on a smallholding without electricity, fossil fuels or running water, the last year has taught me much about the natural world, society, the state of our shared culture, and what it means to be human in a time when the boundaries between man and machine are blurring. My reasons for unplugging, during that time, haven’t so much changed as shifted in importance. My primary motives were – and still are – ecological. The logic was simple enough. Even if used minimally, a single smartphone (or toaster, internet server, solar panel, sex robot) relies on the entire industrial megamachine for its production, marketing and consumption. The consequences of this ever-intensifying industrialism are clear: - widespread surveillance in our pockets; - the standardisation of everything; - the colonisation of wilderness, indigenous lands and our mindscape; - cultural imperialism; - the mass extinction of species; - the fracturing of community; - mass urbanisation; - the toxification of everything necessary for a healthy life; - resource wars and land grabs; - 200 million climate refugees by 2050; The automation of millions of jobs, and the inevitable inequality, unemployment and purposelessness that will follow and provide fertile ground for demagogues to take control. I could go on, but you’ve heard it all before. Though “living without technology” sounds sacrificial and austere, I’ve found the gains outweigh the initial losses. When you’re connected to wifi you’re disconnected from life. It’s a choice between the machine world and the living, breathing world, and I feel physically and mentally healthier for choosing the latter. Life is an unceasing trade-off between comfort and feeling fully alive. My experiences have taught me that perhaps the law of diminishing returns might apply to comfort – and the technologies that promise it – too. I love the simple, complex life. While it is not a realistic solution for the mass of people now, unless we curb our addictions to more stuff, more growth, more dehumanising, distracting technologies – and more of the same – it may well be a solution for those who live through whatever comes next. The Good Life (Without Technology) The current world is characterized by technological advancement and digital migration. Technology plays an important role in making the society a better place; therefore, I cannot imagine myself living without technology. Technology takes various forms and 96% of people in the US use it daily. It has changed the way I visualize things globally since I have enhanced interaction with people from various parts of the world. However, I have realized that some regions are still lagging behind that it would be a dream to have a smartphone. I cannot imagine how awful life would be without any of these technological advances; the mere thought of spending an entire day without a mobile phone is more than enough to give me nervous breakdown. Due to the advent of technology, the everyday life of people has undergone a drastic change. Life, in the present times, has become so much more comfortable, easy, dynamic, and fast. However, at the same time, life has also become a lot more lethargic, anti-social and preposterous like the computers that we have in our houses. Our smartphones, laptops, and other such gadgets have become a part and parcel of our lives, things that we somehow cannot live without. On one hand, technology may have enriched and enlightened our minds, but on the other hand, in pursuit of its crazy comforts, it has forced us to become over reliant on it, so much so that we have literally become slaves of our own gadgets and technology. The utterly pointless and absolute obsession that technology has in our lives has left us weak and vulnerable, to be exact. In the age that we all are living, technology and knowledge are advancing at an increasingly speedy and explosive rate. However, it would be an utterly dumb decision if we thing of limiting our exposure to technology or absolutely abandoning it, because it will be the difference that we make towards a better tomorrow. The Good Life (With or Without Technology) In conclusion, for this report we have different answers about what it’s the good life is. We can attain a good life depending on people's characteristics and needs so there is no conclusion on what is the best life is either with technology or without technology. When the Future doesn't need us - Bill joy (1954) An American computer scientist who co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 and served as chief scientist at the company until 2003. His now famous Wired magazine essay, “Why the future doesn’t need us,” (2000) sets forth his deep concerns over the development of modern technologies. Joy traces his concern to a discussion he had with Ray Kurzweil at a conference in 1998. He had read an early draft of Kurzweil’s The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence and found it deeply disturbing. Subsequently, he encountered arguments by the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Kaczynski argued that if machines do all of society’s work, as they inevitably will, then we can make (a) let the machines make all the decisions; or (b) maintain human control over the machines. In April 2000, Bill Joy (co-founder of Sun Microsystems) published an article in Wired magazine entitled “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us.” In it, he argues that "Our most powerful 21st-century technologies—robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech—are threatening to make humans an endangered species." At the time, his thesis and accompanying forecast were alarming, coming from such a credible source. The underlying message in his article was clear: the rate and direction of technological innovation over time will lead to a world where humans are unnecessary and machines will be able to do without us. Instead of interacting with them in the way we historically have—programming them to execute the tasks we instruct them to perform—we will cross a threshold where we unwittingly relinquish the responsibility of making important decisions that we as a society need to make. They will do our thinking for us. We are now twenty years since the publication of his article, and we have indeed experienced tremendous technological advancement. It is well-deserved that we marvel, celebrate, and appreciate how these advancements are adding or contributing to our experience of life as human beings. With artificial intelligence and machine learning in particular, however, one could argue it is vital that we take a moment to pause and look at what is happening through the lenses of Joy’s article. "Our most powerful 21st-century technologies—robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech—are threatening to make humans an endangered species." - Bill Joy, Wired, April 2000 - Ray Kurzweil American inventor and futurist. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments. He has written books on health, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism. Kurzweil is a public advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements, and gives public talks to share his optimistic outlook on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology. Concern for Humanity Bill Joy, the author of the article “Why the future doesn’t need us”, brings no joy to readers when discussing how the advancement of technology will affect the human race. His views on the progression of technology in the world embody a skeptical outlook on peaceful relations with machines when robots become “intelligent” (a) let the machines make all the decision - Then we are at the mercy of our machines. It is not that we would give them control or that they would take control, rather, we might become so dependent on them that we would have to accept their commands. Needless to say, Joy doesn’t like this scenario (b) maintain human control over the machines. - Then control would be in the hands of an elite, and the masses would be unnecessary. In that case, the tiny elite: 1) would exterminate the masses. 2) reduce their birth rate so they slowly became extinct. 3) become benevolent shepherds to the masses. Joy’s worries focus on the transforming technologies of the 21st century—genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR). What is particularly problematic about them is their potential to self-replicate. This makes them inherently more dangerous than 20th-century technologies—nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons—which are expensive to build and require rare raw materials. By contrast, 21st-century technologies allow for small groups or individuals to bring about massive destruction Possible outcome (a) let the machines make all the decisions - Intelligent robots do all and make their own decisions - Though we are not making assumption that the machine would willfully seize power, - it is evident that the faith human race would be in their hand because they are all doing labor. - - If machines decide to act in a threatening way towards the human race, there will be no defense against the attack thus making certain the doom of the human race. To take an isolated example, when it comes to security and industrial surveillance relative to job displacement impact, we know that the advent of drones is going to lead to a reduction in the number of humans needed to perform these functions. At the same time, it is also giving rise to the need for drone operators, mechanics, and interpreters. Some jobs will be eliminated, and others representing new opportunities are emerging. Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. The term may also be applied to any machine that exhibits traits associated with a human mind such as learning and problem-solving. (b) maintain human control over the machines. - The human race retains power over the machine. - The few who are considered the elite take control over the large system of machines while the average man has his private machines like cars. - Because the machine is doing all the work, humans will become a useless burden on the system thus leaving the elite with a few choices on what to do with humanity. 1. If the elite are ruthless, which many of them are, they can choose to exterminate humanity with the intelligent robots . 2. If the elite are humane they can lower reproduction rate until the mass of humanity goes extinct 3. If the elite are soft-hearted liberals they can take care of the masses, but only in the order to domesticate them. Discussing the outcome - Kaczynski argues that machines will either: a.) make decisions thus rendering humans obsolete; or b.) humans will retain control. If b then only the elite will rule in which case they will: 1.) quickly exterminate the masses; 2.) slowly exterminate the masses; or 3.) take care of the masses. However if 3 then the masses will be happy but not free and life would have no meaning. - Does Kaczynski really think the only way for humans to be happy is in an agricultural paradise? A hunter gatherer life? Are we really less free when we have loosened the chains of our evolutionary heritage, or are we freer? - Kaczynski’s vision of a world where one doesn’t work, pursues their own interests while being very happy sounds good to us. In conclusion, artificial intelligence can make humans lose their jobs and be replaced easily. Every group member that discussed this report has their own reaction about it and you also have your own reaction. But overall when we continue doing what we have to in the end we humans will not even need to be on our own planet.
