This article is a direct response to Nick Carr’s argument. Maria Bustillos points out the flaws in his argument while supporting the fact that the Internet is indeed making us smarter and has been for years now. She believes that our brains are adapting to this new technology making it easier to obtain new knowledge. She states that the Internet is actually training our brains and making them stronger. By this she means allowing us to learn more in a shorter time frame.
Overall, I have learnt about the rhetorical description strategies, such as connotation, angle of vision, and others. These techniques allow to reveal those aspects that appear relevant to the framework of the negative or positive narration and, at the same time, to leave those details that are irrelevant out of the focus of
In what ways does a comparative study accentuate the distinctive contexts of Frankenstein and Blade Runner? The values and morals of society have dramatically changed throughout the course of history, so too has the knowledge of science, its teachings and influences on the world. As new technologies have been under further experimentation into the production of man-made life forms, the debate between science and religion has continued. It is these issues within an author’s context that influences them and the texts they create. Mary Shelley’s gothic promethean novel, Frankenstein (1818), was released during the industrial revolution as romanticism was thriving, while Ridley Scott’s futuristic sci-fi Blade runner (1992) grew with the dawning of a capitalistic increasingly globalised and technologically driven society.
Bradbury’s The Sound of Thunder and Skurzynski’s Nethergrave are both good science fiction stories. Both of these stories are about scientific technology changing the life of an individual; however, certain underlying themes are different. In the former story, the main character, Eckels, faces harsh consequences due to a dire fear-driven mistake that he makes when using a new technological advancement to go back in time. In the latter, a boy name Jeremy chooses a virtual world over the real world where he feels embarrassed, awkward, and abandoned. However, both characters’ temperament is rather similar in some ways both being somewhat craven without being hardly virile.
Though the Internet is the main subject of his argument, Carr provides insight on other developments as well. By touching on the inventions of such inventions as the map and the clock, he explains that both “changed the way we saw ourselves and the way we thought” (55) and provides example of his idea that the modernization of technology changes our thought process. He illustrates through historical references, the progression of how we read and write. Such examples include: writing on stones and wood, upgraded to papyrus, to tablets, to paper, to typewriters, to computers. Growing up in a time that was predominately print rather than computer, Carr is quick to favor print reading.
The exponentially rapid growth of internet technology brings into our lives a connection with literature like never before, yet in many ways it has shifted the way in which we view the world. In an article titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” Nicholas Carr argues that the development of internet technology as our primary source of knowledge is depleting us of the “quiet spaces” that stimulate contemplation and deep interaction with the written language and replacing them with distractions and deviations. Though he exposes the intriguing relationship this powerful medium has to our society, Carr fails to consider other aspects that cause a shift in our behavior towards written material. What we are losing, perhaps, deals less with our minds and more with our heart, the poetic center for what we value. We’ve become lazy in our efforts to contextualize our lives with the information that is so readily available to us and no longer prize knowledge as we once
Both Shelley’s novel and Scott’s feature film are examples of texts that transcend the age they are created in – they serve as warnings to humanity about the dangers of scientific alteration of the natural cycle Shelley’s Frankenstein was composed during an era of rampant social and scientific change; although this change was not necessarily progress. Shelley’s novel examines the moral responsibility of the scientist, and offers the consequences of annihilation of nature. During the 19th Century, the environment stopped being a source of beauty and inspiration and largely became another commodity; a casualty of the Industrial Revolution. Shelley continues the Romantic theme of emphasis on nature with her repeated
The Ford Model T, and all of its effects created a turning point in the history of man and science. The evolution of science and technology is a good vantage point to view how humanity has evolved. Over the course of history, Technology and Humanity advanced at an extremely similar rate. The invention of a great new technology generally results in a period of success. This concept is best exemplified by the causes and effects of Henry Ford’s Model T. Undoubtedly, The Model T was a great advancement in Technology, but it also marked a major turning point in the advancement of the middle class in the United States.
Although sharing little in setting or premise, the texts Frankenstein and Blade Runner share many of the same concerns as they both challenge the values and morals of the societies in which they were set, most notably the notion of what it means to be human, as well as articulating the composers' critique of the advancement in science and technology. Both texts also exhibit the consequences of imprudent creation and the hubris of an individual to rise above and disrupt the natural order. Written in the eighteen hundreds by aggrieved writer Mary Shelley, the novel Frankenstein presents readers with a Romanticist perspective of technology ‘dehumanizing’ mankind as society was not made clear of their indistinct boundaries. Through Victor’s regression, “I, the true murderer, felt the never dying worm alive in my bosom”, the symbols of the ‘worm’ explore the downfall in
He reveals how new digital technology is unleashing a gush of creative production that will revolutionize our world. Cognitive Surplus explores what's possible when people unite to use their intellect, energy, and time for the greater good. The author argues that instead of internet taking away the ability read it, it’s giving an opportunity to learn more and express more. Although the author does not talk particularly about the effect of brain in his book but he does indirectly convey the message that use of technology will help the world transform in to a better one. Since this is a book and it’s written by a well- known professor at NYU, this source is credible and it serves as a counter argument to my thesis.