Technopolies
I understand "Technopolies" as a piece of technology, being electronic or by some other means, that is immediately praised and obsorbed throughout the general public, then at some later date, is picked apart by a group of critics or scholars and has all of its downfalls exposed. My favorite example of a "technopoly" is the invention of the hand-held calculator.
This invention may have prevented future generations of math students, especially in most high school where the use of calculators is not prohibited, from learning basic mathematical concepts longhand and caused them to become dependent on the machine. Students today often ask the question, "How did people do these problems without calculators?" This statement seems to prove the fact that todays math students are dependent on the machine to solve problems.
In my opinion, the hand-held calculator is one of the most important inventions of all time. It promotes mathematical perfection. Engineering, Architecture, Algebra, Geometry, Physics, and Calc have all become exact sciences because of this invention. The human mind was doing just fine before the calculator, but some things were still unclear. Now we have computers that assist the human mind in highly technical tasks such as engineering and design. It is still necessary to teach and to learn how to use algebraic functions and equations.
I see technology like the claculator as a natural process of evolution. The human evolved over time, and so has our mathematical and technological abilities. It was only a matter of time before an invention like the calculator came along. Our minds are always evolving. Maybe one day we will out think ourselves and have classes on how to use calculators instead of enrolling in an actual math course, washing away mathmatics and calculation as we see it today.
