The Benefits of Technology are Diminishing is a pretty self-explanatory title. In David Cox’s article, he aims
to belittle modern technological advancements based on the fact no recent
inventions matches up to past marvels like the wheel or fire. Rather, Cox sees
all modern inventions as slight improvements over preexisting ones. The author
also relies on statistics to illustrate his point that the peak of mankind’s
creativeness has past and that we are currently heading for another “Dark Ages.”
He attributes this downfall due to the fact our modern society is very wasteful
in terms of resources. Two specific examples of wasted resources the author talks
about are fossil fuels and the creativity of youth.
I find the author’s argument and
support to be a little ridiculous. Claiming that our modern advancements haven’t
been notable improvements upon the preexisting inventions from our grandparents’
era is outlandish. Hybrid vehicle technology is a great example of a necessary modern
advancement that will allow the human civilization to better utilize our
limited amount of fossil fuels. Despite the fact Cox criticizes our modern society
for not conserving our resource we have had inventions that aim to do just that
and the author does not acknowledge these as noteworthy. His extreme exaggeration
can also be seen in the fact that he refers to the year 2024 as the next “Dark
Ages.” In a society with Ipads and the Internet, where we are surrounded by
information; how would another Dark Age even be possible, which was the result
of a lack of information transfer.
Since our last writing assignment
involved thinking about the future I was wondering what you thought the future
would be like. Is Cox right, in that human creativity has reached its peak and
that from here on out everything is going to be a slight improvement over
something we already have? If you think we are following the path described by
Cox, what has caused this downfall in human ingenuity? Or do you think Cox is
wrong and that the future will hold technical marvels that no one can currently
comprehend?
