After
reviewing what we have touched on thus far within the course I found Leah
Lievrouw’s piece entitled, Materiality
and Media in Communication and Technology Studies: An Unfinished Project, to
be of great interest. Specifically, her discussion of autonomous technology
grabbed my attention as I believe this is something being paralleled within
society today.
Interestingly
enough, the concept of autonomous technology coined by Langdon Winner is one of
the most disputed concepts in technological studies. This sparked my interest
as I immediately was interested in uncovering why the concept is so heavily debated
across communication scholars. His notion is centered around the belief that
technology has grown so big and complex that it is no longer amenable to social
control. The idea that the artifacts we have invented to satisfy our material
wants have developed to the point of determining our own conception of wants is
especially present within the technology that we use today.
An example of this is the iPhone program known as ‘Siri’. This popular aspect of the smartphone acts as the user’s personal assistant providing knowledge and information on the questions being raised. The program embodies Winner’s argument as the technology, in this case the case cellphone, that was created to satisfy our needs now has the ability to control and determine our desires.
An example of this is the iPhone program known as ‘Siri’. This popular aspect of the smartphone acts as the user’s personal assistant providing knowledge and information on the questions being raised. The program embodies Winner’s argument as the technology, in this case the case cellphone, that was created to satisfy our needs now has the ability to control and determine our desires.
Here is an
article written in 2015 that predicted the autonomous technology that was going
to thrive in 2016.
http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/12/autonomous-tech-will-surge-in-2016-keep-an-eye-on-these-8-players/
While examining
this article, take a look at the sixth technology known as “Edge3 Technologies”
as it poses an interesting connection to our previous readings on technology as
an extension of the body. This company develops software for the future of
self-driving vehicles by monitoring and tracking passenger’s awareness and
heartrate. This can be seen as a way in which technology is extending both our physical
and mental capabilities.
What are
your thoughts on this idea? Do you think that these autonomous technologies hinder
our ability to use the tools as they remove our control? On the other hand, are
technologies such as Edge3 beneficial in that they provide a safer driving
experience for users?
I think that some forms of autonomous technologies are good ideas that aid in the control that humans have. For example, after reading the article, I thought that the Edge3 technology is a good form of an extension of humans to ensure a safer driving experience. But on the other hand, I think there reaches a point where autonomous technologies are taken a bit too far and takes away too much control. In my opinion, as technology becomes more and more advanced, they will just continue to minimize more control over what we have, rather than just being complementary extensions of our capabilities. I thought about Tesla's autopilot system, which, in the Youtube video linked below, requires very little human control over the vehicle in order to perform. I think this can be dangerous, and some technologies are being taken too far such that humans barely need to do anything on their own anymore. Instead of acting as extensions of our bodies, I feel as though some of these autonomous technologies will start to become replacements for our capabilities instead. Though technology has a lot of benefits in enhancing human abilities, it has also resulted in people becoming lazy as they rely on technology for almost all aspects of daily encounters and routines.
ReplyDeleteHere is the video on the Tesla autopilot system being tested for any of you who are interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP7VdxVY6UQ
Great post Megan. I believe that autonomous technologies are a beneficial aid for humans to have. For the most part, I believe the benefits out weight the negatives. As Holly mentioned above, there is a point however where technology can get to a point where it can over power the human ability to control something. At times, I think this type of technology can hinder aspects of control in other areas. For instance, if a vehicle can "self drive", the driver may feel safer and have more "control" as the vehicle can detect any dangerous threats on the road. However, a common issue with driving has been texting and driving. I wonder if this concept were to be put in place, would the driver feel safer and more obligated to reply to a text message? Then again, this could prevent the costs of impaired driving as well.
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