Davis: Ch. 9 (Lauren)

Recently developed technologies are changing all aspects of life. Technology in general has altered human nature. The human race was essentially destined to be the superior to the rest of nature, however technology has gone against nature in many ways. Davis mentions how reproductive technologies and genetic engineering might end up influencing the future much more than just computers. Machines of information and communication persistently present many of todays exhilarating fantasies. I thought it was interesting how Davis says that society fundamentally keeps a firm belief that the digital age is an evolutionary step forward for humanity that will “help empower the individual, restore community, aid the infirm, overcome prejudice, turbocharge democracy, make us smarter and richer, and maybe even spark world peace”. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, because we really don’t know what we are really doing but we are so far deep in it we have to think positively. Also, I liked how Davis makes the point the bugs and viruses prevent us from being enchanted by technology and reminds us that “utopia does not lie beyond the magic mirror but in the virtual images we carry inside our potential and increasingly collective selves”. We must not get too caught up in technology, or we must find a balance, because the deeper we throw ourselves in the harder it will be to come out. We have already gone too far, because as Davis says, books and material memory are both disappearing behind the ease that technology provides. We don’t even have to think anymore, because our phones or computers will do it for us. 


This is my cut-up sentence: 

Recently developed technologies are changing all aspects of the digital age as an evolutionary step forward for what might end up influencing the future.