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| coberst |
 Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 3:15 am Post subject: Technology: The Modern Pied Piper |
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Technology: The Modern Pied Piper
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a story by Robert Browning detailing a legend regarding the abduction of children from the village of Hamelin in 1284.
The town of Hamelin was rat infested and the citizens hired a man, who described himself as a rat catcher, to rid them of their rats. The man accepted their offer and used a musical pipe to lure the rats into following him. He led them into the river where they drowned. Despite his success the town reneged and refused to pay him.
The man later returned to town one Sunday morning; while the citizens were in church he used the musical pipe to lure the town’s children into following him out of town. The children were never seen again.
Technology is our modern day version of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Technology has enchanted the Global village, especially the young, with hand-held gadgets and various kinds of digital technology to the extent that reading and intellectual growth has become seriously hindered.
Sapiens seek titillation and seem to find it foremost in trivial pursuits; technology facilitates those pursuits while simultaneously facilitating a more comfortable standard of living.
Our lives are filled with clusters of goals to be achieved and means devised to reach those goals. We have proximate goals and ultimate goals that we try to make coherent throughout our lives.
When we focus our mental prowess on goals and the means for achieving those goals we come face to face with the fact that we spend great quantities of our intellectual energy on means and very little intellectual energy on long range ultimate goals.
Economics dominates our thought processes in matters of defining goals. We give insufficient intellectual energy toward moral values that will help us set useful long range goals.
When we examine the matter of means and ends we discover that we have become enchanted with technology as our Idol, it becomes the means to achieve whatever goals we might decide in the future. Technology, however, provides little help in establishing goals that can alleviate our most stressful problems. |
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| Selene |
| Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:45 am Post subject: |
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Interesting analogy Coberst
I'm always interested in myth and fairy stories, especially different interpretations of.
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| coberst |
| Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 1:24 pm Post subject: |
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There is a level of technology that becomes very dangerous for the species. It is that level when we humans have the power to easily destroy our self without the intellectual sophistication to prevent that from happening. We have long ago passed that point.
We do not allow children to drive because they lack the intellectual sophistication to handle such a dangerous situation. We are adolescents with far too much power for our level of sophistication. |
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| Selene |
| Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 3:56 pm Post subject: |
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| coberst wrote: |
There is a level of technology that becomes very dangerous for the species. It is that level when we humans have the power to easily destroy our self without the intellectual sophistication to prevent that from happening. We have long ago passed that point.
We do not allow children to drive because they lack the intellectual sophistication to handle such a dangerous situation. We are adolescents with far too much power for our level of sophistication. |
Well yeah
I kind of agree with that
I think mankind has neglected other elements to his nature in the pursuit for technology
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A spoon does not know the taste of soup, nor a learned fool the taste of wisdom. (Welsh Proverb)
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| Cold Fusion |
| Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 11:15 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Bachelors Degree
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The analogy does not completely work unless the first part of the story is fulfilled. How would you account for the original deceit of the superiors? Just the luring of the children part is not enough to declare a post based off of this analogy. Nevertheless, this is true. The idiots I see day today are too entangled with their "IPods" to actually think. Modern technology is a means to mental laziness. A philosopher once said that one can only achieve great thoughts whilst no one but yourself. Many years ago, people with great minds had nothing to do but think and think, until works like Moby Dick appeared. Now, those with great potential end up being nothing but another human due to all of these distractions; this to me is the reason why there seems to have been a great decline in great writers over the past few centuries.
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Last edited by Cold Fusion on Fri May 02, 2008 3:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| coberst |
| Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 11:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Selene wrote: |
| coberst wrote: |
There is a level of technology that becomes very dangerous for the species. It is that level when we humans have the power to easily destroy our self without the intellectual sophistication to prevent that from happening. We have long ago passed that point.
We do not allow children to drive because they lack the intellectual sophistication to handle such a dangerous situation. We are adolescents with far too much power for our level of sophistication. |
Well yeah
I kind of agree with that
I think mankind has neglected other elements to his nature in the pursuit for technology |
In the natural sciences new ideas are given quick evaluation by many because there is often money-in-it. In the human sciences new ideas must wait generations before many evaluate them because there is little money in it. Therein lay the reason that or technology far out paces our ability in the human sciences. |
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| coberst |
| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 12:00 am Post subject: |
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| Cold Fusion wrote: |
| The analogy does not completely work unless the first part of the story is fulfilled. How would you account for the original deceit of the superiors? Just the luring of the children part is not enough to declare a post based off of this analogy. Nevertheless, this is true. The idiots I see day to day are too entangled with their "IPods" to actually think. Modern technology is a means to mental laziness. A philosopher once said that one can only achieve great thoughts whilst no one but yourself. Many years ago, people with great minds had nothing to do but think and think, until works like Moby Dick appeared. Now, those with great potential end up being nothing but another human due to all of these distractions; this to me is the reason why there seems to have been a great decline in great writers over the past few centuries. |
There is a solution however. I suggest that adults become self-actualizing self-learners. We can no longer afford the luxury of storing our intellects in the attic with our year-book when our school daze are over. |
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| Cold Fusion |
| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 3:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| We can no longer afford the luxury of storing our intellects in the attic with our year-book when our school daze are over. |
Definitely true. People only initially study hard in school so that they can go to their prestigious schools, hence allowing them to acquire a large amount of money in the future. Once they graduate from college, they go into their job and specialize in it, only using what they learned previously in the form of a diploma to get the job they want. This specialization tends to neglect everything in life that is actually important; really, how many professional philosophers are there? The only intellectual field that you can go into that can make you some money is physics. I have a friend who used to work as a coordinator for physicist "think tanks", where a council would choose the most brilliant and appropriate people for the job, and give them a large space on a compound to work for a couple of months to a couple of years on a problem. Apparently, if you are hired as one of these people you receive a salary of over $150,000 a year, just to think. Now this, would be a great job of sorts, but I am no where near intelligent enough in physics to do this. I think my theoretical skills are very high, but without insane math abilities no one seems to take you seriously.
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| coberst |
| Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 12:38 am Post subject: |
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I think that our very serious problem is one of morality. In my view morality is about the relationship between humans. We have in the last century spent very little intellectual energy toward moral problems; at least it is minor compared to the energy expended in pursuing technology.
Because we have not learned to live together and because we have developed the technical means to easily destroy both our species and perhaps even our planet we cannot any longer enjoy the luxury of apathy regarding morality.
The only solution I see is that we must develop a much greater degree of intellectual sophistication so that we can comprehend our problem and perhaps also find solutions.
This requires that adults quickly become learners. We have little time to waste. We adults must become self-actualizing self-learners. We must develop a hobby that might be called ‘getting an intellectual life’. Adults can no longer store their intellects, with their year book, in the attic when their formal education ends. |
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| Pong |
| Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 2:15 am Post subject: |
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| coberst wrote: |
| The only solution I see is that we must develop a much greater degree of intellectual sophistication so that we can comprehend our problem and perhaps also find solutions. |
We could do better, I agree. But I don't believe "living together" can ever be perfected. This is one of life's laws. Rats riot, ants wage war, sticklebacks speciate. And your programme Coberst cultivates differences, which I think contradicts "living together" if it doesn't legitimize militancy! So the ultimate solution is to get each other out of range. The New World did it for a while... thanks to technology. Next step, is off the planet and out of interests, which I guess will take a few centuries... again that's technology buying time, if we can make the leap.
Personally, I don't mind suspending what I believe true, for the greater cause of harmony (e.g. conformity). I wouldn't kill or die for mere personal beliefs, least of all the "intellectually sophisticated" ones. But I'll bet even those arguing we must co-operate to survive, cannot "stoop" to sheepdom. They may kill and die. |
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| Cold Fusion |
| Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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We will never gain a higher level of intellectual sophistication until religion is eliminated, which will never happen. Theists usually tend to think in a way that neglects the need to achieve greatness "in this world". Most think that greatness will come to them after being admitted to this heaven of theirs. They seem to think that they need to do nothing but submit to stupidity in order to get to a higher level; they believe that they will be enlightened upon reaching heaven and must do nothing else. While, atheists know that only you are capable of allowing yourself to reach enlightenment and understanding. Because of this, people like me have a great will to get as far as we can before we die, because if we do nothing, nothing will even happen; you only have 90 (or so....depends on how much fish you eat) years, you should use it well before time runs out.
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| Harold14370 |
| Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 3:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Cold Fusion wrote: |
| We will never gain a higher level of intellectual sophistication until religion is eliminated, which will never happen. Theists usually tend to think in a way that neglects the need to achieve greatness "in this world". |
Where is your evidence for this statement? Keep in mind that most of the great scientist throughout history were theists. |
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| organic god |
| Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Where is your evidence for this statement? Keep in mind that most of the great scientist throughout history were theists. |
throughout history is the key point, back in the day the idea of god held some power. but it is has often been a hindrance to science.
for example investigating the vacuum was forbidden as the existence of nothing was impossible.
or on the discovery of the light spectrum an imaginary colour indigo was added to make seven colours even though it has never been detected.
modern scientists have theories that mean god is no longer necessary. throughout history there have been great scientists but there ideas are often now disproved
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| Harold14370 |
| Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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| organic god wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Where is your evidence for this statement? Keep in mind that most of the great scientist throughout history were theists. |
throughout history is the key point, back in the day the idea of god held some power. but it is has often been a hindrance to science.
for example investigating the vacuum was forbidden as the existence of nothing was impossible. |
And yet somehow the vacuum got investigated.
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or on the discovery of the light spectrum an imaginary colour indigo was added to make seven colours even though it has never been detected. |
What does that have to do with theists? You can split the spectrum up into as many colors as you want. It's continuous.
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modern scientists have theories that mean god is no longer necessary. throughout history there have been great scientists but there ideas are often now disproved |
And you believe that atheist scientists will discover theories that will never be disproven? |
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| JaneBennet |
| Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 6:46 pm Post subject: |
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Religion is not all bad. It can tell us e.g. how to behave morally towards each other. Ethics is not within the scope of science. Science can enable us to build atomic and nuclear weapons, but it cannot tell us how to use them responsibly – that is the job of religion.
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