Write:
In a topic-driven, well-organized, and
well-substantiated paragraph, SUMMARIZE Carr’s argument—his “they say”—in
chapter “Three: Tools of the Mind.”
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Carr once again shows how technology doesn’t just influence our lives, but how it shapes how we think, how it has improved since the past, and the turning points it’s made in history. People invented the clock which turned into a watch which became an invention everybody uses a thousand times a day. Nicholas Carr says that, “Every technology is an expression of human will.” We decide what we use and how we use it. He quotes Plato, Socrates, Karl Marx, and many other great philosophers in this chapter. The author also decides that there are two groups: determinists and instrumentalists. The one thing that they agree on is that technology marks points in history. He ends the chapter by reminding readers that thinking isn’t what it used to be and technology has changed that.
ReplyDeleteIn Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows, Carr states that the intellectual technologies can come with many benefits like expanding the brain’s memory, but they can also lead to downfalls like lacking a long attention span. Nicholas Carr shows that intellectual technologies, like maps and clocks, make the brain evolve and adapt to the advances of those technologies. When those technologies advance, the brain shifts it’s focus to increasing the part in which it needs to strengthen. Talking about the discoveries of Neuroplasticiy, “They tell us that the tools man used to support or extend his nervous system,” Carr goes on to state, “have shaped the physical structure and workings of the human mind.” (48). According to Carr, the brain is reshaping itself to adapt to the technological advancements. Although many people are oblivious to the way advancements are shaping the brain, Carr claims that it is rewiring the way the brain comprehends and thinks.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 3 of The Shallows, Carr discusses how our minds mature and develop over time with the help of intellectual and technological advances. Using the examples of the map and clock, Carr discusses how these two technological breakthroughs changed and molded the way humans brains worked so drastically that now we, humans, are practically fully dependent on them. As our brains adapted to these new methods of thinking, we slowly began to abandon the ways of old. When humans once could tell the time of day based on the amount of sunlight or position of the shadows, they now look at a tiny machine on their wrist to tell the time, something that impacted the world as we know it so drastically, yet we don’t even think twice about the concept of time. Carr states that “it is our intellectual technologies that have the greatest and most lasting power over what and how we think.” (45). While we may be unaware of the changes taking place in our brain, we are constantly maturing and growing, adapting to the world around us and leaving the old behind.
ReplyDeleteIn Nicolas Carr’s The Shallows he discusses how to the intellectual technologies are forever advancing causing our minds to adapt to every change. He uses the Map as an example of how our minds have to adapt. As Carr says, “we seek to expand our power and control over our circumstances”. As human life begins to get more complicated we find new technologies to compensate for our needs. Another example Carr uses is the clock, and how it evolved from nothing to a small clock on a wrist. They use the evolution of writing and literature as a big point, and how it started with clay shapes and has changed into what we have now. In summary, all of these technologies have had an effect on what we have now as our language and writing.
ReplyDeleteIn the chapter “tools of the mind”, Carr explores the morality of technological advances throughout history, as well as its impact on society and the individual mind. He begins with maps and clocks, delving into the way they changed our view on the world around us and how they caused us to mange our lives with a newfound urgency. Carr begins his journey into the deeper meaning of this by stating that “every technology is an expression of human will. Through our tools, we seek to expand our power and control over our circumstances-- over nature, over time and distance, over one another.” Technologies, he says, fit into categories based on whether they are designed to refine our physical capacities, senses, environment (to better suit our needs), or mental faculties. The internet, along with clocks and maps, is an intellectual technology - a group whose byproducts have an intense impact on society as well as an intellectual ethic. Essentially. “the intellectual ethic is the message that a medium or other tool transmits into the minds and culture of its users.” Although most technologies are designed to solve problems, it is unforseen circumstances of its use that shapes its influence on people as a whole. Determinists, in agreement with this concept, believe that technologies are beyond human control and entirely sculpt human progression. Instrumentalists hold the more comfortable view that technology is nothing more than a tool at the dispense of the conscious whim of its users. However, considering the points made in chapter two concerning neuroplasticity and how technology forms our patterns of thought, this comfortable view seems to lose validity.
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ReplyDeleteCarr is setting the stage of how technology began to change the human brain and the influence of it when some of the first inventions such as the clock and maps came to be. Providing examples such as maps, written languages, alphabets, and so on changed cultures, the nature of people, and their minds. Such as the circuits in our brains today we use for reading and writing were first created back in Egyptian times when they first created the hieroglyphics, branching out from oral communication. He goes on to talk about “every technology is an expression of human will” (Carr 44) and “it’s an invention’s intellectual ethic that has the most profound effect on us” (Carr 45). Marking this chapter to be like an act one of a play to how the Internet and current day technologies have influenced and changed our minds.
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ReplyDeleteIn chapter 3, Carr describes the process of intellectual maturation of the human mind through changes of technology over the years. He states, “The map and clock changed language indirectly, by suggesting new metaphors to describe natural phenomena.” (50). Maps are tools that help people comprehend spacing, and perception. Another example he used, was clocks, which made people view time as a valuable concept, for time would be nothing without clocks measuring it. Carr explains, “Language itself is not a technology. It’s native to our species. Our brains and bodies have evolved to speak and to hear words.” (51). Unlike language, our brains have to adapt to all of the new technological advancements. These advancements reshape the way our brains think.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter three of Nicholas Carr's "The Shallows", he discusses how the human mind matures intellectually through technology. He begins his argument by describing a young girl beginning with her crayon sketches, to "...a precise plot of the land, which is then made into a blueprint for others to use" (39). This statement is a metaphor for how our mind progresses, we start out simple, and slowly yet steadily advance further. It is the same concept for technology. We started out with even the simplest of things, such as a clock, Carr tells us. Now, does anyone really even think of a clock as technology? For the vast majority, no. We have moved on to having a miniature computer at our fingertips for all hours of the day, and it shows on our concentration and intelligence levels, which are dropping due to these "advancements". As our technology improves, we become so addicted, attached, and inseparable from these devices that we can not even focus on what is right in front of us.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter three Carr basically explains the human evolution and how we used technology. He also explains how we evolved and how technology evolved with us. A lot of different inventions came from different places and they have been passed down generation to generation. They also have been taken and shared amongst different people and carried out as works of art. We use to use papered maps to help us navigate but now we have these high tech gps systems that can tell us how to get there. This is a good thing and bad thing. It is good because it is easier for us to do simple tasks, but bad because we don’t use our brain as much anymore. Technology is becoming a thing where it will control us before we control it.
ReplyDeleteChapter three touches on the idea, that all tools of technology have huge impacts on history and also expresses an argument of whether or not technology controls us or we control it. It says, “.. they’ve argued that technological progress, which they see as an autonomous force outside man’s control, has been the primary factor influencing the course of human history.” This quote represents the idea that technology is like a natural force that just gradually will happen without our control, whether we want it or not. I believe that without new technology and tools history would be completely different. Technology is what switched this world from all its many different eras, like the book says, “The clock played a crucial role in propelling us out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance and then into the Enlightenment.” The simplest tool, the clock, allowed us to develop and progress into a better, more efficient era. There are two different groups of people, with two different theories of the effects of tools. The determinists, who believe our tools controls us, and the instrumentalists who believe that we have our tools completely under control. In my opinion, both groups are correct in some way, but like Carr says, “Sometimes our tools do what we tell them to do. Other times we adapt ourselves to our tools’ requirements.” Our minds will change and adapt to any tools thrown our way.
ReplyDeleteChapter three touches on the idea, that all tools of technology have huge impacts on history and also expresses an argument of whether or not technology controls us or we control it. It says, “.. they’ve argued that technological progress, which they see as an autonomous force outside man’s control, has been the primary factor influencing the course of human history.” This quote represents the idea that technology is like a natural force that just gradually will happen without our control, whether we want it or not. I believe that without new technology and tools history would be completely different. Technology is what switched this world from all its many different eras, like the book says, “The clock played a crucial role in propelling us out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance and then into the Enlightenment.” The simplest tool, the clock, allowed us to develop and progress into a better, more efficient era. There are two different groups of people, with two different theories of the effects of tools. The determinists, who believe our tools controls us, and the instrumentalists who believe that we have our tools completely under control. In my opinion, both groups are correct in some way, but like Carr says, “Sometimes our tools do what we tell them to do. Other times we adapt ourselves to our tools’ requirements.” Our minds will change and adapt to any tools thrown our way.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 3 of Nicholas Carr's, The Shallows, the advancement of technology is discussed both in how it was developed and how it affected(?) society as a whole. Starting with basic examples such as clocks, and moving to today's more advanced breakthroughs. Carr divides technology into 4 categories, focusing on those that affect the way we think. This discussion leads into modern technology and the byproducts of technology in general. We make things to solve problems, and the side effects of new technology is seldom noticed because the overall effect is for the greater good.
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