Essay #3 (Complete): Technology and the ability to think for ourselves

As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.

Humans certainly depend on technology.  We designed it to help us do things faster, more easily, and more accurately.  If it were to suddenly disappear we would be at a great loss and we would need to learn or re-learn certain skills, however, this does not mean that our use of technology has made us less able to learn, to think, to reason, or to innovate.  We can imagine future scenarios in which “intelligent,” autonomous technology makes our decisions for us, but evolutionary history has shown that our success is due to the human brain’s capacity to think independently.

Early humans had very basic problems: food, shelter and clothing. Gradually, as humans formed communities and began to farm, these basic problems were less time-consuming and humans had more time to work on other tasks or for leisure.  By relying on technology to accomplish time-consuming tasks we are becoming more efficient. Our skills are changing, but our capacity to learn is not.  In the next few decades we will have self-driving cars.  Losing our ability to drive is not the same as losing our ability to think.  It simply means that all the drivers who become passengers will be free to do other activities during the time they would have been driving.

Science fiction books and films depict numerous scenarios in which technology gains control of human will.  These fictional scenarios are not positive, even when humans give up their freedom of choice willingly.  This is because humans are innately curious, inventive, and in varying degrees, independent thinkers.  If technology existed that could do all the thinking, decisionmaking, and problem solving for humans, and this gave some people an evolutionary advantage over the independent thinkers, then there truly would be a loss or deterioration of the human ability to think for oneself. 

Humans presently depend on technology to do our tasks more easily, accurately, and efficiently. The skills of an individual who uses technology will differ from those of someone who does not. However, the two share the same capacity learn and to think independently. Until we create a technology that makes it evolutionarily advantageous to do no thinking for ourselves, we will all continue to be creative, able, and intelligent individuals.