Technopoly Part 2

The second half of Neil Postman's Technopoly starts out talking about medical advances. It talks about how we now rely on machines rather than doctors word to diagnose us. How, we are not satisfied if a doctor does not do all he can do with technology to figure out what is wrong. I can see where he is coming from but I think the advances in medicine have done more to help than they have to harm. He talks about C-sections being more dangerous that regular births, but at the same time, that has saved so many lives of children. I was actually a C-section baby because otherwise I would have died. These technological advance, do have pros and cons, but we are able to do so much more with the medical advances.
He talks about computer technology which I talked a lot about in my previous posts. There is a lot of talk between the metaphor of computers being human and visa versa. When talking about viruses on a computer, we use human terms such as virus, infected, contagious, and vaccine. "It reflects a profound shift in perception about the relationship of computers to humans." pg114 Computers have become a part of our life now, and it is as if they are deemed higher powers than we are. Postman talks about how people don't deny statements that start with things like, "Well the Computer shows.." because it is comparable to "It is God's will.." centuries ago. I can't say I fully agree with this, because I think most of us are aware that it is possible for a computer to miscalculate something, but I do see where he is coming from.
Postman talks a lot about language, questions and poll technologies that are known more as invisible technologies. Defining people as statistics in poll questions is not the most accurate thing, because there are limited choices available. I found this argument to be very interesting, especially on page 135 where he talks about a poll that asks if we should take away economic aid from Nicaragua. Out of the 72 percent that say yes, 28 percent believe that Nicaragua is in central Asia, 18 percent near New Zealand and 27.4 in Africa. This does go to show that that information was not given when the poll was ask which then construes the results leading people to believe something that is false.
The idea of Scientism is comprised of three sections; methods of natural sciences can  be applied to study human behavior, social science creates principles which organize society, and faith in science serves as a belief system. He goes on in this chapter about how these three things tie in with our Technopoly and how our society has changed because of the focus of social science studies. Trivialization is another thing that has become prominent in our society and changed the way we look at things.
I think the most interesting thing to me in this book came in the last chapter with the statement, "You must try to be a loving resistance fighter. I mean that, in spite of the confusion errors, and stupidities you see around you, you must always keep close your heart the narratives and symbols that once made the Inited states the hope of the world." He is saying here how we need to keep a distance from technology and be able to think that it is somewhat strange. I think Postman is afraid that culture and history will be lost with the development of Technopoly, because the entire last chapter talks about how we should educate the future and not forget about the history. I personally think technology has HELPED teach history and our culture. It is so much easier now than ever to research anything you ever wanted to know about the past, and considering we learn from the past, we know more than we ever have. I disagree with a lot of points Postman makes, because technology is a huge part of our lives now, and our generation especially has embraced it. We still can see where there are flukes, but I don't think we have to distance ourselves too much from this new world. Life must go on, and if we do not succumb to the new advances we will just get lost in the crowd. It was a very interesting read, and gave a lot of insights that I had not thought about before.