Is Technology Good or Bad?

The discussion of whether technology is good or bad in society is still very controversial. Some people believe it is a benefit in society because it makes our daily lives easier. On the other hand, some people may believe that technology can do more harm than good. It could change our social approach to society, or damage how our brain functions all together. The two readings “Hal and Me” by Nicholas Carr, and “The Rise of the Centaurs” by Clive Thompson, both give different perspectives about how technology has affected them in interesting ways.

Nicholas Carr begins his story by telling the readers how the development of computers has changed his daily life at work and at home. Ever since the first HAL computer came out, it has become a huge part of his life. He would use microsoft word for anything he had to type or read, and he would print them out to edit them. When the internet was introduced to him, it opened up a whole new world of opportunity. He found himself searching the web for hours at time and getting very distracted. The computer and internet became so essential to his daily routine that he could no longer be without it. However, he began to see the negative effect it had. Carr saw it as a bad habit that affected his patience and reading skills. He could not read long books or articles anymore. He also couldn’t edit on paper anymore because he needed the delete and paste features that the computer had. Carr notice that people cannot live without computers and he stated, “The net has become essential to their work, school, or social lives, and often all three” (Carr, page 9). The computers changed his way of thinking and how he processes information, and he referred to himself as “the human HAL” (Carr, page 16). At the end of this chapter he expresses his dislike of how technology has affected him and how he “misses his old brain”(Carr, page 16). His outlook poses a negative effect that technology had on him and the rest of society because people have become to reliant on computers and it has changed their way of living.

Clive Thompson gives a different perspective about technology in his book “The Rise of the Centaurs”. He discusses the game of chess being played by both humans and computers. Thompson asks the question, “Who’s better at chess- humans or computers?”(Thompson, page 1). And his answer to that question is neither of them. The best way to play chess is with humans and computers working together. This allows the computers to analyze the information quickly, and then the humans can choose the best option. In the story, a man by the name of Kasparov was beaten in the championship match against a super computer named Deep Blue. Deep Blue won the match because it was able to analyze all the possible moves in matter of seconds. There are thousands of possibilities and the computer generates the best option with the least likely outcome of losing pieces. There is no way that humans can ever think of that many possibilities in the time given, so they decided to combine the human players with the analytical ability of the computers. The computers served as advice givers. Thompson also talks about how there was not many top performing chess players before computers were invented because the computers allow people to study and gain more knowledge about the game. He encourages the use of technology because it makes people smarter and gives people better opportunities to achieve their goals.