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066 As people rely more and more on technology to solve prob


Erin

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  • 4 weeks later...

66. "As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate."

 

With the development of science and technology, human society experiences a fundamental innovation, which is unimaginable by our ancients. Washing machine enables people to wash 5kg dirty clothes within 45minutes what people need to do is just pushing a button; microwave oven prepare a nutrient dinner for people only 10 minutes as long as people put the frozen food into it and switch the power; computer ease people to calculate complex accounting. As technology make people live more and more comfortable and easy, people are more and more rely on technology to solve problems. Then a question rises: will the ability of humans to think for themselves deteriorate in view of people depending more on technology to workout problems? As for me, the answer is not positive.

 

It is true that modern technology help people to solve problems more quickly and conveniently, which result in large usage of technology by people in solving different problems. When we in an emergence, we will use the cell phone to ask for a help; when calculate a complicated mathematic question, we use calculator to solve it; when we meet too many labor tasks to do, we resort to robot; when we explore the outer space, we send the rocket and man-made satellite to the universe. Nearly everyone use various kinds of technology to solve their problems.

 

Do these activities imply that humans no longer solve the problem by themselves and leave all the problems to the technology, so that their ability of thinking will surely deteriorate? Of course not. The author who makes such notion omits one important thing that it is human being who invents the new technology not the technology itself. Without humans thinking for themselves, there won’t be so diverse technologies available nowadays. For instance, considering that the letter communication is too slow, people develop the telecommunication technology from telegraphy, telephone, to now widely used network.

 

Moreover, technology is a thing without thinking; it will not know how to be used by itself. It is we, human being who determine how to use it. A case in point is that in order to exam the disease more accurate and concrete, people apply the radioactivity technology to the medicine fields, which push the advance of modern medicine and expand the utilization of the technology itself.

 

In addition, not all the problem that humans confront can be solved by technology such as the ethnic problems, moral issues. People have to deal with these problems by themselves through using other means rather than technology, say, education.

 

As what I have mentioned, my position is that as people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves surely will not deteriorate and may be stimulated to think independently more than ever before to develop more advanced technology for the welfare of human society.

 

 

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No doubt technology is increasingly being used to solve problems.A washing machine will wash 5kgs of clothes in less then 30 minutes.A microwave oven will cook food in 10 minutes and warm it in less then a minute.All these technologies are trying to make life simple as one doesnt have to give that much attention to these jobs as was earlier required.

But assuming that ability of humans tot think for themselves because of this will decrease, is not valid.Firstly because of the technology more free time is available from daily chores.Once can cook,wash and clean the house simultaneously.Thus,saving a lot of precious time.This time can be put to other uses including thinking.

Consider another case of a electonics engeniier.With the use of simulation tools like SPICE etc., he no more has to spend his time trying to assemble the circuit and then testing it using unwirldy tools like CRO .

He can simulate the design and if it is not to his requirement , he can modify it quickly.Thus he gets more time to spend on designing which is his core or central job.

Also asumming technology solves so many problems that there is nothing left to think upon is also untrue.As the technology develops , problems and answers reuired to be answered also increase.Consider the field of word processing and desktop publishing.Fifteen yeasr back there was no concept of fonts , bulletting etc.One simple used to have a plain text.But now even a page requires so much of thinking about its format,fonts etc.So problems exist and they need to be solved.

And then no machine can help you solve problems pertainingg to morality can it ?U have to think about that in your own mind only.

Point is technology isnt deteriorating our thinking capability.It is changing our thinking pattern.So a design engineer no more has to put a lot of effort in testing bcause of which his deigining time may increase.A house-wife no more has to think and worry that much about washing cloths and cleaning cloths.She gets time for her self and her likings if she used the technology available.

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  • 1 month later...

 

Several questions arise regarding this issue. Is it true that we ¡°rely¡± on technology? Instead, do we not ¡°manage¡± or ¡°manipulate¡± technology? The same phenomenon can be expressed in different ways. Depicting the situation as ¡°reliance¡± is not necessarily a right viewpoint. In the following sentences, I would like to examine the relations between technology and intelligence, focusing on the questions whether we are actually ¡°relying¡± on technology, and the reliance deteriorates our abilitity to think for ourselves.

 

There are many things that distinguish human from other species. One is the use of tools. We humans established civilizations with the use of tools, and it¡¯s difficult to imagine a human society without them. History articulates that all civilizations are established and developed based on technology, though it is not the only factor. However, does the fact prove the assertion that reliance on technology causes deterioration of our ability to think? Have we become less intelligent than those in ancient times? Today, we are required to think more than ever. The modern society urges us to think more intensively and creatively even though we rely more on technology than before. The historical fact seems to show that reliance on technology does not deteriorate our ability to think.

 

Quite contrarily, technology seems to enhance our ability to think. The ability to develop and manage technology precedes our reliance on technology. We continuously develop, repair, ameliorate the machines invented in the past. Demands for new inventions are increasing. In order to invent, develop, repair, and operate them, we have to think intensively, often in creative ways. This interrelation between intelligence and technology reveals that the use of technology does not deteriorate our ability to think. Rather, it drives us to think. In order to handle complex technology, we need complex thinking as well.

 

In addition, technological development enabled us to have more time for thinking. As a result of the development, we are to a large extent liberated from physical labors. Though many people still have the burden, the burden is significantly lessened by the support of technology. Liberated from physical labors, now modern society highly values intelligence. Intelligence and information are considered as valuable assets today. For this reason, we invest our time and money for education. Though each country has different situations, generally more people are opened to educational opportunities than in the past. Extended time for education, which is made possible by technological development, expanded our ability to think.

 

On the surface, it seems that we are relying more on technology since many of us are ignorant of the mechanism of machines and tools. We don¡¯t know exactly how computer works. But there are people who are specialized in computer science and we can ask them for a help when needed. Society is sustained by specialists of various fields who manage technology with their intelligence.

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  • 2 years later...

I am myself a novice in AWA with just one essay old ;) , I would beg your pardon to comment on cheery-ting's well decorated essay. I must appreciate the language used. At the same time, I feel the same point is repeated again and again. It would have been great if para 2 and 3 would be consolidated into one. Also, para 3 is repitition of same point expressed previously. Instead, an additional example would do wonders.

 

Please correct me if I am wrong. thanks

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Please disparage :)

 

66. "As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate."

 

Technology has great advantages and disadvantages on us. Its cons origanate from that it makes our lives much easier. We depend on tehnology for the solution of more and more problems in our lives as it develops quite effectively. This dependence makes us the slaves of techology and atteanuates our ability to produce our own solutions.

 

The most essential role of technology is to ease our lives. It helps us to go to distant places in a short time comfortably, to communicate with each other very easily, to prepare a document without a need for papers, erasers and to alter anything in the document in much more easily, etc. The advent of technological solutions to our lives prevents many of us to live a more comfortable life with less difficult problems to be solved. This makes us lose our capability to solve our own problems. As the technology produces more and more solutions, we become less interested in our problems and heavily dependent on technology. It is impossible for our ability to think for ourselves not to deteriorate as long as we depend on technology.

 

For example, if we think of a student who has been given an assignment that needs a comprehensive search of resources and to gather information from them, the development of internet made this work much easier compared to past. If there were no internet technology, this student would have to make plans for finding libraries, other possible places to find resources. He would need to learn how to use a library. He would also try to find some ways to reduce the number of books or other resources to save his time and focusing only the most important ones. However, with the help of internet, many sources are available in our computers that we face no difficulty to find and can even easily use.

 

Technology is a result of high level intelligent thinking of humans trying to solve the problems, however, its solutions made people lose their ability to think simply for themselves.

 

 

Cherry-thing here are my comments :

 

I think you should be careful about the organization

 

66. "As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate."

 

With the development of science and technology, human society experiences a fundamental innovation, which is unimaginable by our ancients. Washing machine enables people to wash 5kg dirty clothes within 45minutes what people need to do is just pushing a button; microwave oven prepare a nutrient dinner for people only 10 minutes as long as people put the frozen food into it and switch the power; computer ease people to calculate complex accounting. As technology make people live more and more comfortable and easy, people are more and more rely on technology to solve problems. Then a question rises: will the ability of humans to think for themselves deteriorate in view of people depending more on technology to workout problems? As for me, the answer is not positive.

 

I think it s not a good idea to give examples in the introduction. And if I were you I wouldn't ask a question and answer like this.

 

It is true that modern technology help people to solve problems more quickly and conveniently, which result in large usage of technology by people in solving different problems. When we in an emergence, we will use the cell phone to ask for a help; when calculate a complicated mathematic question, we use calculator to solve it; when we meet too many labor tasks to do, we resort to robot; when we explore the outer space, we send the rocket and man-made satellite to the universe. Nearly everyone use various kinds of technology to solve their problems.

 

Yes nice examples but again if I were you I wouldn't write a paragraph just to mention that technology make our lives easy. I think this is the place to support your idea.

 

Do these activities imply that humans no longer solve the problem by themselves and leave all the problems to the technology, so that their ability of thinking will surely deteriorate? Of course not. The author who makes such notion omits one important thing that it is human being who invents the new technology not the technology itself. Without humans thinking for themselves, there won’t be so diverse technologies available nowadays. For instance, considering that the letter communication is too slow, people develop the telecommunication technology from telegraphy, telephone, to now widely used network.

 

Moreover, technology is a thing without thinking; it will not know how to be used by itself. ????It is we, human being who determine how to use it. A case in point is that in order to exam the disease more accurate and concrete, people apply the radioactivity technology to the medicine fields, which push the advance of modern medicine and expand the utilization of the technology itself.

 

Again, weak paragraph, vague statement

 

In addition, not all the problem that humans confront can be solved by technology such as the ethnic problems, moral issues. People have to deal with these problems by themselves through using other means rather than technology, say, education.

 

I liked this rationale.

 

As what I have mentioned, my position is that as people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves surely will not deteriorate and may be stimulated to think independently more than ever before to develop more advanced technology for the welfare of human society.

 

Anmolsethy, here are my comments:

 

I think you should study for organization where to tell what there are very important problems in your essay.

 

No doubt technology is increasingly being used to solve problems.A washing machine will wash 5kgs of clothes in less then 30 minutes.A microwave oven will cook food in 10 minutes and warm it in less then a minute.All these technologies are trying to make life simple as one doesnt have to give that much attention to these jobs as was earlier required.

 

Examples in the introduction is not a good idea. And more importantly where is your position on the issue ???

 

But assuming that ability of humans tot think for themselves because of this will decrease, is not valid.Firstly because of the technology more free time is available from daily chores.Once can cook,wash and clean the house simultaneously.Thus,saving a lot of precious time.This time can be put to other uses including thinking.

 

Please support more, develop more

 

Consider another case of a electonics engeniier.With the use of simulation tools like SPICE etc., he no more has to spend his time trying to assemble the circuit and then testing it using unwirldy tools like CRO .

He can simulate the design and if it is not to his requirement , he can modify it quickly.Thus he gets more time to spend on designing which is his core or central job.

 

Don t think this is an appropriate example to give

 

Also asumming technology solves so many problems that there is nothing left to think upon is also untrue.As the technology develops , problems and answers reuired to be answered also increase.Consider the field of word processing and desktop publishing.Fifteen yeasr back there was no concept of fonts , bulletting etc.One simple used to have a plain text.But now even a page requires so much of thinking about its format,fonts etc.So problems exist and they need to be solved.

 

At last a good point but why not ending with stg like "therefore we will always have to think about some problems"

 

And then no machine can help you solve problems pertainingg to morality can it ?U have to think about that in your own mind only. ??????

Point is technology isnt deteriorating our thinking capability.It is changing our thinking pattern.So a design engineer no more has to put a lot of effort in testing bcause of which his deigining time may increase.A house-wife no more has to think and worry that much about washing cloths and cleaning cloths.She gets time for her self and her likings if she used the technology available.

 

This is not the way to conclude !!!!!

 

 

Levinas, my comments on yours :

 

I think, you should be careful about the organization, and you should really pay attention to understand what the given sentence means

 

Several questions arise regarding this issue. Is it true that we ¡°rely¡± on technology? Instead, do we not ¡°manage¡± or ¡°manipulate¡± technology? The same phenomenon can be expressed in different ways. Depicting the situation as ¡°reliance¡± is not necessarily a right viewpoint. In the following sentences, I would like to examine the relations between technology and intelligence, focusing on the questions whether we are actually ¡°relying¡± on technology, and the reliance deteriorates our abilitity to think for ourselves.

 

You should present a sentence about your perspective on this issue in the introduction.

 

There are many things that distinguish human from other species. One is the use of tools. We humans established civilizations with the use of tools, and it¡¯s difficult to imagine a human society without them. History articulates that all civilizations are established and developed based on technology, though it is not the only factor. However, does the fact prove the assertion that reliance on technology causes deterioration of our ability to think? Have we become less intelligent than those in ancient times? Today, we are required to think more than ever. The modern society urges us to think more intensively and creatively even though we rely more on technology than before. The historical fact seems to show that reliance on technology does not deteriorate our ability to think.

 

A lot of sentences at the begining proves unneccessary and at last an idea comes but not the right place

 

Quite contrarily, technology seems to enhance our ability to think. The ability to develop and manage technology precedes our reliance on technology. We continuously develop, repair, ameliorate the machines invented in the past. Demands for new inventions are increasing. In order to invent, develop, repair, and operate them, we have to think intensively, often in creative ways. This interrelation between intelligence and technology reveals that the use of technology does not deteriorate our ability to think. Rather, it drives us to think. In order to handle complex technology, we need complex thinking as well.

 

Please read the issue once more it does not say we ll lose our ability to think but to think for ourselves, these are different things!

 

In addition, technological development enabled us to have more time for thinking. As a result of the development, we are to a large extent liberated from physical labors. Though many people still have the burden, the burden is significantly lessened by the support of technology. Liberated from physical labors, now modern society highly values intelligence. Intelligence and information are considered as valuable assets today. For this reason, we invest our time and money for education. Though each country has different situations, generally more people are opened to educational opportunities than in the past. Extended time for education, which is made possible by technological development, expanded our ability to think.

 

Goes out of the topic !

 

On the surface, it seems that we are relying more on technology since many of us are ignorant of the mechanism of machines and tools. We don¡¯t know exactly how computer works. But there are people who are specialized in computer science and we can ask them for a help when needed. Society is sustained by specialists of various fields who manage technology with their intelligence.

 

Conclusion can t be like this when I was expecting summarizing words of your argument, there comes an explanation about the opposite view !!

 

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Here comes mine.... pls dissect it and assay it. Thanks a lot :)

 

Technology, a boon or a bane has always been a topic of dilemma and confusion amongst all of us.It is more akin to a juxtaposition of the view which one imagines when he is presented a glass half filled with water.

Some may see the glass half filled with water, on the contrary, others

may see it half-empty. But thinking rationally, both are correct in their

own positions. One who sees the glass half empty cannot be epitheted as

a pessimistic and the other as an optimistic.Both of them logical in their own

views.

 

Modern science and technology has bestowed upon up many elixirs of life that has made our life comfortable beyond our expectations. Today's technology

has a firm grasp in every sector of our life, whether it be the arena of medicine, entertainment, ease of life or even its longivitity.The same scions of those who used to cogitate about the flatness of Earth today have been able to set foot on moon and have been the seer of most of the natural impending catastrophes.Is it not amazing to ponder about some astrounauts encircling around the Earth and sending the visual images from high above welkin ?

 

 

Television, cell phones, wireless networks, internet have made our life too easy and to spend a day without these "Basic" accoutres is completely hard to even imagine.One can know the activities going around in the other corner of the world in an iota of minute. GPS system; the revolution in the tracking system assists one to find his/her lost pet in few days. Discovery of penicillin, x-ray, surgery by the help of laser beams have made human life much more comfortable. One doesn't need to undergo painful surgery these days.Impaired and mangled limbs can be replaced with artificial ones. But if we spare some of our moment to flip the coin and peekaboo its other side,latest technologies also have left upon us some of the deficiencies. But if we scrutinize and cogitate a bit more,it is not the technology that has left upon us these things, but it is human being itself who have much more been inured and adhered to the latest developments and have recoiled from using their brain gifted by nature. Human being have been so much accostomed to the use of calculators and computers that they find it too abstruse even the simple mathematical calculations.As machines are replacing many of the human jobs, hardly do people think in more depth and use their brain.To verbatim the words of Einstein; he had said that genioushuman beings use only 10% of their brains. If it were the scenario at his epoch, the percentage of usage ; needless to say, hasdeclined much more than that.

 

But saying so doesn't mean that technology has been the source of deterioration of human being.In fact,it is the technology that has obliged us to think more and discover more new things.There are people who still have penchant for manual calculation rather than the use of those silicon chips.So it is upon the person itself,in making prudent acts, in having preference ; wheter to use the gifts of nature or that of technology.So one cannot draw a line of decision purporting that technology has weakened the thinking capacity of human beings.

 

 

66. "As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate."
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Ertda, Thanks a lot for dissection :)

well i lack the power of judgement...so hardly can evaluate

essays written.. poor me...

ok,

i will try to explain you my first para.

the quote says, that technology deteriorates human thinking...

but here i contradict it saying that, to think it deteriorates seems a bit illogical - it

is the view and thinking with which you look at.

some may see the bright side of technology, and others see its dark side. So here I juxtapose

it with an event, in which a person is shown a glass half-full of water..

It may be he sees it half full ( the bright side of something ) or half empty (the dark side)

But here also, we cannot say that the one who sees half empty is pessimistic in nature. He also

is right from his own viewpoint to the same extent as the one who sees it half full :)

 

Sangfroid, I didn't understand your introduction, second paragraph is a bit irrelevant but the rest is great ! :tup:
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Please disparage :)

 

66. "As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate."

 

Technology has great advantages and disadvantages on us. Its cons origanate from that it makes our lives much easier. We depend on tehnology for the solution of more and more problems in our lives as it develops quite effectively. This dependence makes us the slaves of techology and atteanuates our ability to produce our own solutions.

-The introduction is good but doesnt flow smoothly without those transition words. and of course, beware of typos

 

The most essential role of technology is to ease our lives. It helps us to go to distant places in a short time comfortably, to communicate with each other very easily, to prepare a document without a need for papers, erasers and to alter anything in the document in much more easily, etc. The advent of technological solutions to our lives prevents ('prevents' or 'helps'? 'prevents' doesnt go well with the stand that you have developed in this paragraph) many of us to live (if you are sure about 'prevents', than here it should be 'from living' or 'from leading' is more better) a more comfortable life with less difficult problems to be solved. This makes us lose our capability to solve our own problems. As the technology produces more and more solutions, we become less interested in our problems and heavily dependent on technology. It is impossible for our ability to think for ourselves not to deteriorate as long as we depend on technology. (a confusing statement - you might have probably wanted to say that 'As long as we depend on technology, our ability think for ourselves will definitely deteriorate' or you can make your statement more clear by using relevent punctuation marks.)

 

- the points are good, but you should try avoiding complex sentence structures to make them less confusing or alternatively do punctuation carefully.

For example, if we think of a student who has been given an assignment that needs a comprehensive search of resources and to gather information from them, the development of internet made this work much easier compared to past. If there were no internet technology, this student would have to make plans for finding libraries, (the comma doest give a continuity) other possible places to find resources. He would need to learn how to use a library. He would also try to find some ways to reduce the number of books or other resources to save his time and focusing only the most important ones. However, with the help of internet, many sources are available in our computers that we face no difficulty to find and can even easily use.

- nice example.. but the way you have expressed this is rather verbose. try to make it more precise.

Technology is a result of high level intelligent thinking of humans trying to solve the problems, however, its solutions made people lose their ability to think simply for themselves.

 

 

Hope my comments help...

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Hey Sangfroid. Having read a few of your posts and this previous essay, I would like to point out that you sometimes use words incorrectly.

 

Here comes mine.... pls dissect it and assay it. Thanks a lot :)

 

Technology, a boon or a bane has always been a topic of dilemma and confusion amongst all of us.It is more akin to a juxtaposition of the view which one imagines when he is presented a glass half filled with water.

Some may see the glass half filled with water, on the contrary, others

may see it half-empty. But thinking rationally, both are correct in their

own positions. One who sees the glass half empty cannot be epitheted[no such word - epithet is a word, epitheted is not - use "labelled instead"] as

a pessimistic and the other as an optimistic.Both of them logical in their own

views.

 

Modern science and technology has bestowed upon up many elixirs of life that has made our life comfortable beyond our expectations. Today's technology

has a firm grasp in every sector of our life, whether it be the arena of medicine, entertainment, ease of life or even its longivitity.The same scions[wrong usage - "the same doesn't make sense here - it would have been "We, the scions"] of those who used to cogitate about the flatness of Earth today have been able to set foot on moon and have been the seer of most of the natural impending catastrophes.Is it not amazing to ponder about some astrounauts encircling around the Earth and sending the visual images from high above welkin[check usage, Im not sure about this but it should have been - from the welkin or of the welkin, not above the welkin] ?

 

 

Television, cell phones, wireless networks, internet have made our life too easy and to spend a day without these "Basic" accoutres[accoutre is a verb, accoutrement is the noun form] is completely hard to even imagine.One can know the activities going around in the other corner of the world in an iota of minute. GPS system; the revolution in the tracking system assists one to find his/her lost pet in few days. Discovery of penicillin, x-ray, surgery by the help of laser beams have made human life much more comfortable. One doesn't need to undergo painful surgery these days.Impaired and mangled limbs can be replaced with artificial ones. But if we spare some of our moment to flip the coin and peekaboo its other side,latest technologies also have left upon us some of the deficiencies. But if we scrutinize and cogitate a bit more,it is not the technology that has left upon us these things, but it is human being itself[themselves] who have much more been inured and adhered to the latest developments and have recoiled from using their brain gifted by nature. Human being have been so much accostomed to the use of calculators and computers that they find it too abstruse even the simple mathematical calculations.As machines are replacing many of the human jobs, hardly do people think in more depth and use their brain.To verbatim the words of Einstein; he had said that genioushuman beings use only 10% of their brains. If it were the scenario at his epoch, the percentage of usage ;[should have used a comma here - i guess just a typo] needless to say, hasdeclined much more than that.

 

But saying so doesn't mean that technology has been the source of deterioration of human being.In fact,it is the technology that has obliged us to think more and discover more new things.There are people who still have penchant for manual calculation rather than the use of those silicon chips.So it is upon the person itself,in making prudent acts, in having preference ; wheter to use the gifts of nature or that of technology.So one cannot draw a line of decision purporting that technology has weakened the thinking capacity of human beings.

 

That said, you have good points to make and i liked your essay overall, although my views are contrary :-P.

 

Just be careful about usage and you should do well I guess.

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Will machines spawned by human’s technological advances leave our cognitive faculties obsolete? The author, in asserting that the increased reliance on technological innovations will irrevocably diminish human race’s self-thinking capacity, fails to consider that the machines are not yet capable of solving all problems that face our human race.

 

 

 

Modern age’s technological advances and its consequences are nothing more than a natural progression of human evolution – man overcoming the obstacles in the environs by his brain and brawn. For the invention of a washing machine or a computer to do our day-to-day jobs faster is not much different from the invention of tools or wheel to make our ancestors’ life easier. The comforts and the time gained from such advances, in turn, have been paramount in making important scientific discoveries that helped us eradicate epidemics, increase life expectancy. In a way, technology in helping us to solve our not-so-simulating problems, have fostered our capability in solving more important issues.

 

 

 

While it is true that today modern technological innovations free us from menial jobs, the machines are no where near replacing our brains. Even the most automatic machines are not ‘mind readers’ – they require you to make numerous choices as to how to do the job. For instance, even a 10-cycle washing machine needs you to tell the cloth types and other washing settings before it can do the tiresome job for you. And ‘all knowing, all thinking’ computers are still a myth. Computers like Deep Blue can beat a man at chess, by virtue of its ‘number-crunching’ ability and to plan huge number move of moves ahead, but not by virtue of its ‘intuitive capability’. Moreover, as any programmer would know, the computers cannot program themselves, they need humans to do these.

 

 

 

Furthermore, technology can take us only so far. While it can help us fight physical diseases, it cannot give us a solution to our social issues. Machines cannot help us overcome our prejudices or reconcile our religious beliefs. Neither can they tell us the best way to govern a nation or implement policies. They can predict natural disasters but not the human suffering or the empathy that follows it. And, definitely, it cannot make up my mind for me in deciding whether or not machines make my thinking obsolete. Surely, all the social, cultural and humane issues abound would definitely keep our brains on toes?

 

 

 

Although, today’s machines make our life much easier, the technological advances, even in this modern age, are limited in their problem-solving capabilities and are not a threat to our thinking capacity.

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Will machines spawned by human’s technological advances leave our cognitive faculties obsolete? The author, in asserting that the increased reliance on technological innovations will irrevocably diminish human race’s self-thinking capacity, fails to consider that the machines are not yet capable of solving all problems that face our human race.

Nirmala,

 

In issue essays, one is expected to support a particular stance on a given topic and articulate it. Your intro here gives the impression of an argument where we dispute the claim of the writer/speaker. So make the intro a generalised one and then state condensingly what u support and why.

 

Modern age’s technological advances and its consequences are nothing more than a natural progression of human evolution – man overcoming the obstacles in the environs by his brain .

You can replace brain and brawn with mental faculty and physical strength.

 

 

For the invention of a washing machine or a computer to do our day-to-day jobs faster is not much different from the invention of tools or wheel to make our ancestors’ life easier. The comforts and the time gained from such advances, in turn, have been paramount in making important scientific discoveries that helped us eradicate epidemics, increase life expectancy. In a way, technology in helping us to solve our not-so-simulating problems, have fostered our capability in solving more important issues.

 

You have nice ideas but they seem to lack connectivity and co-relation. You can start with the invention of the wheel and then end with the washing machine to present your view clearly.

 

 

While it is true that today modern technological innovations free us from menial jobs, the machines are no where near replacing our brains. Even the most automatic machines are not ‘mind readers’ – they require you to make numerous choices as to how to do the job. For instance, even a 10-cycle washing machine needs you to tell the cloth types and other washing settings before it can do the tiresome job for you. And ‘all knowing, all thinking’ computers are still a myth. Computers like Deep Blue can beat a man at chess, by virtue of its ‘number-crunching’ ability and to plan huge number move of moves ahead, but not by virtue of its ‘intuitive capability’. Moreover, as any programmer would know, the computers cannot program themselves, they need humans to do these.

Good examples.

 

Furthermore, technology can take us only so far. (remove this)

One one hand, while it has helped us in combating physical diseases, it has no clear solution to our social issues. Machines cannot help us overcome our prejudices or reconcile our religious beliefs. Neither can they tell us the best way to govern a nation or implement policies.

 

I don't think comparision with social or religious beliefs or convictions is pertinent with the topic.

However, to explain your above mentioned point meaningfully you could say that only when machines succeed in explaining such complex issues, can they fully substitute the thinking of the human mind.

 

 

They can predict natural disasters but not the human suffering or the empathy that follows it.

Good reasoning.

 

And, definitely, it cannot make up my mind for me in deciding whether or not machines make my thinking obsolete. Surely, all the social, cultural and humane issues abound would definitely keep our brains on toes?

You could use some finer language here.

 

Although, today’s machines make our life much easier, the technological advances, even in this modern age, are limited in their problem-solving capabilities and are not a threat to our thinking capacity.

You have stated your view clearly. Summarizing some of your main points once again would make the conclusion emphatic.

 

Good luck!

Manasi

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Thanks manasi for the comments.

 

This was my first draft and I didn't bother to go through it once more and reorganize it.

 

About the mention of social issues - I guess I was not clear enough in expressing my ideas: I was arguing that while machines can imitate some of our physical skills and mathematical or calculating capability, they can not replace our cognitive skills that help us be part of a society or community - taking a side in an issue, to be more tolerant of other beliefs/religions.

 

-Nirmala.

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  • 5 years later...

As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to

think for themselves will surely deteriorate.

 

In today’s shrinking world and in the economy expanding far and across, the most important

part that anything plays in progress is technology. The increasing dependence of human

brains on microchips poses a serious threat to the human beings themselves. So in this

topic of argument I shall put forward the ideas that strengthen the issue that the increasing

dependence on technology will definitely lead to the deterioration of people’s thought

process.

 

With the evolution of science where being more and more sophisticated and so-called

‘Smart’ gadgets are being invented each and every day, with an intend to decrease the

manual labor, the area harshly impacted is the human thought process. The aftermath of

over dependence on the technology and its blessings is decrease in the human capability to

think more informatively. The markets are flooding with novel devices that promise to reduce

the load on the human brain by making the work more simpler and faster. But, the darker

side is little known of.

 

More the human gray matter increase its dependence on the silicon chips and wires, more it

becomes vulnerable to destruction, by its own self. For instance , a simple calculator, one of

the magnificent technological gifts to humans makes the calculations, rather complex ones ,

shorter. But the soaring effect is the exponential decrease which reflects in the thinking

capacity of the users. The recent studies in the united states have shown that the majority

of the people who often used calculators for simpler tasks, were not as quick in retention of

things and ideas as were the non-users. The facts make it clear that technology no doubt is

con than a pro.

 

Take another example for instance- computer. This peerless invention undoubtedly is the

core of today’s running business and market. But the over dependence on these machines

deteriorates the mental and intellectual power of human brains. Time taken to do a work

might have reduced from 3 seconds to 1 second; increasing the overall profit to unit in

millions of dollars, but the reduction in the thinking speed and accuracy of humans that too

for simple as well as complex calculations has increased more the less to plus 3 seconds.

 

On the ending note I would say that the import of the situation is to understand the positives

and negatives of the technology and try to decrease the habitual dependence it at least

for the jobs suitable for human potential. The step might be small but will definitely prove a

significant one to halt the attrition of potential of human brain or else it will be we who are to

be blamed.

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MY SECOND ATTEMPT:

 

Human Society has progressed from gamut of ancient discoveries to colossal of recent technological creations, machineries and facilitators. This is imputed to the constant urge of human mind to ameliorate. But the technology has still long way to engender before it could tantamount the capabilities of the Human Brain. At no point of time in history did the machine created itself or implemented changes in itself. So the reverance of gargantum of technological advancement goes solely to human mind. So I believe that the abilities of humans to ponder will not be deteriorated by habituation of technology.

 

Discovering or Inventing a solution to a problem may have taken centuries to evolve like in case of fire but once known to the human society it has enabled man to think of its implications. As once fire was discovered a man could think of cooking and settling at one place rather than hunting and itinerancy. The problem humankind faced however simple or difficult demanded easy and fast solution or a general solution which could be used by all. Once this was implemented it was easy for man to think of further deductions. It saved slew of time and dint of efforts through the use of technology for our question than to repete the same trite steps to find the result of a question which was already deciphered by our antecedents. Exemplary to this is the invention of Calculator. This is frequently used to solve the mathematical problems. If a student is able to solve his/her maths faster and accurately through calculator he/she can better concentrate on the other aspects of the problem, may be the analytical analysis which may enlighen his/her ken.

 

Human Mind is largess bestowed by GOD/Nature to us. It has unfathomable capabilities which can't be met by Best Supercomputers of World even today. It has

astounding ability to analyze, associate, communicate, adapt etc. in iota of time. Human Mind has a basic nature of Improvising the system. At each invention we have thought of exploring it to fullest. For example the Wheel was invented in around 3500 BC. Its invention is conceived to be for the transporting of heavy objects, but after that we has used wheel in possibly thousands of way to make our lives better and smarter. Also this hiatus between human mind potential and its achievement in terms of technological advancement it made will bolster him to keep finding better answers.

 

Although depending excessively on a technology for our quotidian tasks may mar our intelligence in a similar manner as the old metal may be rusted due to negligence. But brain can be burnished by indulgence in brain improvement exercises. A critical rejoinder to this may object that the humans want the development and discoveries to be assuaged and once an answer is found he may alleviate his ability of exploring further. I have three couters for this fallacy. First, the man is malcontent by nature, he can never be assuaged for long and thus require better technological results after each platitudinal result. Second, the inventor of the technology may be complacent for his achievement but for the next generation of scientists that invention was older and he/she demands better answers again. Third, this seems unlikely because humans won't quit their nature of Improvising any time sooner as we have evolved through eon retaining this quality.

 

So humans must consider exploiting the technology to its fullest with a thought that he must at least know the longer manual solution to his problem. And at the time when technology can't be used he can easily use his mental faculty to solve the problem at hand.

 

Please retort/assay the essay...

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  • 2 months later...

Search for shorcut is a human nature. Alwarys, people used to prepare easier way. I agree that, as people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, their thinking ability for themselves will surely deteriorate.

Adavancement of technology give ways to dull and irresponsive to mental calculations. There were times, when people relied on their mental abilities to perform calculation. This kept menatally active and alert. However, as calculators came into existence, people started performs even simple calculation on the calculator. This indicate that we started depending on calculation, which made our brains dull and irresponsive to mental calculations. As computer came into the world, it reduced our mental work even futher.

Human should be encouraged to develop a problem solving attitude by giving them tasks related to finding solutions. If we depend more and more upon technology and avoid mental exercise, it would definetly deteriorate our thinking abilities. Therefore along with taking the benefits of technology, we should develop a habit of thinking and solving problems at our own. Similarly, we must calculate our monthly budget without any help.

As technology is the creation of human mind. This development is possible only because of the achivement of human thinking abilities. However, we must make it a point that we do not become a slave to the advancement of technology and retain our thinking ablities, which would keep the development going.

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  • 11 months later...

With the advent of technology, our life has become way easier than it was a few decades back. Technology has helped people throughout the whole world connect at much faster and easier ways. However, technology, like any other debatable topic, has pros and cons.

 

We don't have to toil hard or wait long in the queue for a work to be done. Booking a ticket, calculating, sending letters, sending money, ordering for food, etc. have all become our next door neighbors. But that doesn't merely conclude that technology has affected the human gray matter. On the contrary, these technologies have been invented and are still being worked upon by human only. If we compare our growth in technology during the past fifty years, it will be clear to us that even if the technology has eased our life, the same technology has scaled our intelligence to a higher level. We keep pace with the technology; we don't study how a black and white television works, but we study how the new LED television works and continue our research for further growth in technology. Technology is some cases have just changed the way of thinking, not reduced the ability to think. Readers now may not like to read books, but an electronic version of it. However, that doesn't decrease the reader's ability to think.

 

It's completely relative to a person of how he accepts the growth of technology. A malingerer will always find ways to not work and find excuses, whatever the age in technology may be; a hard worker will always use and sharpen their brains to develop themselves.

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  • 3 months later...

TOPIC: ISSUE159 - "The human mind will always be superior to machines because machines are only tools of human minds."

WORDS: 730 TIME: 00:30:00 DATE: 11/8/2012 7:16:11 PM

 

 

In our adolescences, we are used to read science fictions that the humanity has designed the network of machines so sophisticated that it overwhelm human being and control our way of thinking, in a sense that it is not subdued to human authority but instead enslaving the humanity for the benefit of its own self-proliferation. The story usually ends with the end of world and the awakening of a critical mass of human being striving to breakthrough the predomination and using rudimentary ammunitions such as stones and sticks to strike and smite the central processors in order to free the human race.

 

 

 

 

Would it be too fictional to ponder over, it comes to our imminent concern whether our mankind has been so dependent on machines that we are trammeled to them, not only our productivity but our ways of life. Without doubt, the past century seen the immense development in the scale and scope of machines. Were it electricity that proliferated throughout the 20th century, it would be the plethora of computing machines that predominates the 21st century.

 

 

Human mind has never encountered an era in which the exchange of information, deployment of strategies and computation of optimal controls have been vastly empowered by the development of machines, or put it more specifically, computers, if not even more focused on handheld computing devices. Without doubt, the preponderance of machines has empowered human minds to explore new realms previously rendered invincible, from space rockets to high-speed train, and from electronic mail to Whatsapp. Each and every development in machines in a broad sense has made our lives more powerful and our works more efficaciously, and it goes without saying that human minds have been augmented to create even more powerful machines that further empower the generations to come. In a sense that the humanity at large, with the aid of machines, come together through the interweaving network connecting the dispora of human minds to create even more competent machines, we are comfortable to live with them and relish in the proliferation of machines, treating them as our loyal dogs to guard our house of stuffs and gnats and whatsoever in our daily lives.

 

 

For all the parodies and fictions, isn't it the high time to rethink the supernal superiority of human minds over machines? Yes, we human minds are grateful to machines, without which we would not live the life we used to be. Then, our superiority becomes necessarily built upon the inferiority of machines. This sounds nice though, a collorary that follows is that machines are bounded by the potential and capacity of human minds. Depending on the perspectives to take, this postulation may come into question. From a utilitarian perspective, machines are better than humans in doing the mundane, if not redundant tasks, of calculations: just think how much time we save by replacing abascus with calculators, you will figure out the superiority. It suffice to say that on the basis of 'machines being only tools of human minds' that human hands are less efficient than machines, but not the human minds per-se, because it's human mind that configure the alogrithm at the outset! So, while some critics appraises the flawless, timeless computation of machines and the seamless execution or orders as to nullify the above stance, it is quintessential to recall that executors themselves are at most a steward, but not the owner of the execution orders! We human beings place orders to the machines for them to act out for our own sake, but never should a servant take over the master! In a sense that we human beings delegate the jobs to machines, it is crystal clear that the one who create the job from null is humanity, but not the machines! For this reason, I suppose that human minds will always be superior to machines, which is a necessary result from the above. Yet, we should recall that machines are not only tools of human minds, but also a substitution to human hands. For this reason, we should think of our superiority not only in a narrow sense of creation of jobs, but also in a broader sense of execution of tasks. If so, would human beings be reduced to a form of limbless creature only consisting of heads, akin to what we see in the UFO documentaries? It all remains to be seen.

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It's a delineation of examples, however, relatively infirm in connecting the examples as to smite the crux: preponderance of humanity against proliferation of machines.

 

For all the advancement in technology that pretty much augments our livelihood, are we ubiquitously superior to machines? Is there at least one circumstances that we are overwhelmed by machines? For machines being merely tools of mankind, it suffices to say so. However, what about artificial intelligence? Will machine one day proliferates itself, like what we see in fictions?

 

The example of malingerer only relates to the differential use of technology by different persons. However, the central question is not the tactfulness in the use of machines by people with varying competencies or demographics, but the humanity at large! Though different persons may have varying degree of receptiveness to machines, we should take an overarching view on how machines will replace human in some way (such as the repeated execution of orders or transportation of bits of data) but not the others (say the importation of commiseration).

 

Put it simply. Yes, there are robots that embrace you, but they can never replace the arms of your parents and the countenances of your friends. After all, a dog cannot speak human language, neither does a machine share its emotion with you!

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  • 2 years later...

1. As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.

 

These days, we have encounter many cases that technology makes changing of our life style a lot. Recently, I have read the book, 'Alone together' which discusses our changing relationship with technology. It says that technology may offer the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. Similarly, technology can change ability of thought. The more people rely on technology to solve problems, the more vulnerable the ability of humans to think for themselves will be.

 

Let me present a representative case. That is a navigation. Wherever I drive to, I have to use the navigation. Wherever I walk to, I have to use the navigation too. Without a navigation, I get nervous.

I used the navigation first when I was in strange place where I had never been. Increasingly, I have use the navigation on my smart phone when I go to the place where I have already known to take a shortcut and avoid a traffic jam. As time goes by, I get to rely more and more on navigation unconsciously. One day, I had to drive from Seoul to Busan by Kyung boo express high way for attending friend's wedding ceremony, but my navigation didn't work near the ramp. So, I was tossed on an ocean of doubts more than one hour. After calling my mother to ask where the expressway ramp is, I could start. Once I went on a expressway ramp, I could notice the sign explaining the ramp kindly. Actually, I never thought that I had better find the sign or ask near by someone instead trying to work the navigation wasting time on the road. I didn't end up there in time.

 

Basically, people don’t want to spend time and energy thinking of naïve things such as finding a way, finding a shop, a weather forecast, friend's phone number. So, they easily rely on technology without seriously thinking about them. Though they may believe that saving time and energy with relying on technology lets us have more time and energy to think about others, I believe that it causes to increase dependence high and to deteriorate the ability of thought.

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