David Nye Reading Response
In Technology Matters: Questions to Live With, David Nye attempts to define technology and how it has progressed with humans throughout the course of evolution. He begins by saying that the earliest humans to use tools were Homo Sapiens, and they created tools out of necessity in order to improve their lives and develop more straightforward methods to carry out their day to day needs. These first tools mainly came into existence for hunting, building, creating shelters, and the like. For centuries, people saw these early humans as the primary developers of tools and explained mankind’s dominance over other species for this reason. However, when Jane Goodall studied chimpanzees, she watched as one made a tool out of a stick in order to eat ants. This simple observation made people question the actual origin of tools. Since then, the seemingly simple idea of tools has been a complex topic. According to Nye, “humanity fashioned itself with tools.” He speaks of necessity and human’s desire to keep developing new technologies, even if the need for them has not yet arisen. His argument made me really think about whether or not tools have become extraneous in our lives. I agree with Nye when he suggests that often times we make tools before we are ever put in the situation to use them. I think that if we were to just create new technologies at the same pace as our necessity for them, we would be able to conserve a lot more resources and technology might not hold such a huge role in our lives. Nye goes on to compare tools to a story; a story that needs a forethought, action, and a final conclusion. I never thought about tools this way, and it made me think of evolution and how human’s evolved so quickly because we were able to put thought into action and create technologies that simplified our lives. At the end of the first chapter, Nye brings up the example of Thomas Newcomen, the man who created the first steam engine in Britain. Although he was relatively uneducated in matters of math and science, he was able to create such an invention because of necessity. He used theory and logic to create the steam engine. This story makes me reevaluate the idea of technology. When I think of technology I usually immediately think of modern high-tech gadgets that require a lot of knowledge of math and engineering to create. However, the instance with Newcomen has shown me that any technology, any tool, is ultimately whatever object you create to facilitate some necessary action. I think this chapter has taught me to look at the technology we have today in a simpler sense and compare it to the same spears and sticks that our early Homo Sapien ancestors used 400,000 years ago.
In the second chapter, Nye renders a more philosophical tone as he addresses the idea of determinism. Determinism by definition is the theory that every event is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. He questions whether or not technology controls us in this day and age and uses examples of the early Japanese and modern Amish to prove his point. Japan once used and manufactured guns, but were able to stop using them out of personal choice to return back to traditional weapons, like the sword. Likewise, Amish people have resisted technology their whole lives, and instead live in self-sufficient communities with simplicity as the main goal. He then turns on western society, and the juxtaposition between us and the early Japanese and Amish further proves his point that we rely very heavily on technology. Nye contines on with a more political overtone as he looks at different time periods and societies where industrialization and technology played a big part. He questions the role determinism played in the development of these ideas. He speaks of Marx, McLuhan, and Toffler and their ideas of industrialization at the time. Marx spoke mostly of a utopia that would emerge from the rapid industrialization, whereas McLuhan and Toffler merely suggested a transformed society to come out of new technological developments.
In the sixth chapter of the reading, Nye speaks of the sustainability of nature. He gives many examples of landscapes that we recognize as valid today, but were really formed out of destruction of something else. The biggest thing that stuck out to me in this chapter is his ongoing comparison to Robinson Crusoe. When Crusoe was on the island, he fashioned tools out of whatever he could salvage and he hunted enough for himself to survive. However, as time passed, he began to hunt more and more and create too many things that he would never even use. He learned that it would be better to just use as much as he needed in order to protect the island’s resources. I think this was a very wise move and we could all learn from it. The Earth isn’t going to keep producing more resources for us to use; eventually things will begin to run out and we are going to have to find other ways to facilitate our needs. Like Nye says at the end, it is our choice whether or not we want to use up what the Earth has to offer without thinking about it first. I think everyone should give it some forethought and really try to imagine the consequences of acting outside of their necessity.
Questions:
1. How would the earth be like today if everyone only consumed resources out of necessity?
2. Can our heavy reliance really be caused by determinism?
3. Do we really use technology as a way to accomplish our goals or are many things created before we have use for them?