Research Exploratory Blog II: Research Prospectus (How Technology Has Made Us Smarter)

Scientists and Engineers have worked together for centuries to advance mankind’s understanding of the physical world, and create objects and technology to make people’s lives easier. Advances in technology have allowed people to live comfortably in virtually any environment, work less to reap greater results, and travel to almost any point in the world and even outside Earth’s atmosphere. There is no doubt that technological advances have changed the way people live and interact with their environment, but how has it affected us? People can live longer than ever before, communicate more quickly, and have access to entire reservoirs of information. Have these advances in the way mankind is able to interact with the world improved our race as a whole? People have certainly become more efficient in producing necessities of life as well as comfort, but because our lives have become easier as a result of technological help, some consider today’s society lazy and ignorant. It is true that people no longer have to learn some information for themselves, we have inventions such as calculators and the internet to help us access information we cannot readily provide ourselves, and the devices we use to entertain ourselves can potentially provide very little mental stimulation. So technology has made people better in some ways, but has technology made us smarter?

What is “smarter”? Smart is a word that can describe the way a person thinks or how much they know. Based on intelligence, a person who is highly logical and able to learn quickly would be considered smart; based on knowledge, people who retain large amounts of information would be considered “smart”. So the adjective “smart” can be defined as possessing a large amount of information and also being able to logically interoperate and learn from the data. Intelligence is largely based on heredity and for the purposes of this article, can be discounted for the most part because environmental stimulation has less effect on the intelligence of people than heredity according to Linda Gottfredson. This leaves the idea that if technology is to affect how smart people are, it must affect the amount of knowledge the average person possesses. There are several ways technology can impact the amount of knowledge human beings possess. 1) Technology has allowed us to create methods of travel such as space shuttles that have allowed people to learn about places that we knew nothing about before our ability to travel to them. 2) Nano-technology and other inventions have made it possible for scientists to test and prove/ disprove theories about physics and our universe. 3) Advances in communication have allowed people from all around the world to collaborate when collecting data, and then provide the information with anyone willing to learn about it through media such as the internet and educational television.

I can address the research aboard the International Space Station:

Harland, David M., and John Catchpole. Creating the International Space Station. London: Springer, 2002. Print.

Effects of nanotechnology:

Darby, Michael R., and Lynne E. Zucker. Grilichesian Breakthroughs: Inventions of Methods of Inventing and Firm Entry in Nanotechnology. Tech. no. 9825. NBER Program(s), 2003. Print.

How communication affects knowledge:

HOLLINGSHEAD, A. B. (1996), Information Suppression and Status Persistence in Group Decision Making The Effects of Communication Media. Human Communication Research, 23: 193–219. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.1996.tb00392.x

Technology has made people smarter. I can prove the variety of ways that technology has increased the amount of knowledge people have by showing the information we have gained through transportation, technology, and communication. These things not only increase the amount of things people know, but increase the amount of knowledge that is available to all people.