Are Computers Ruining or Improving Society?
 

More convenience, more availablilty of information, breaking down of international borders, things happen faster, more surveillance, less direct human interaction, Bill Gates, on-line stores turning shopping areas into ghost towns. Is the computer improving our society, or ruining it?

Both.

Nothing good comes without bad and vice-versa. A tool in the hands of an evil man can commit evil; in the hands of a good man it can commit good. Computers.. whatever. It's equally improving and destroying.

Cell phones, however, are just bad. I can see the benefits of communication, but.... well... people who LIVE ON THEIR PHONE.. are crazy...

What does it matter? Society is a hole!

ha! if you're not thinking computers are the shit, try living for a year without the internet and suffer.

it's like saying "did running water ruine or improve society"? fuck yeah! more showers = less fights. you know you wanna punch stinky people.

I'm not saying either, just wondering. Obviously it's a bit of both right now but I'm thinking more about the future. What are we gaining? What are we losing? Does one justify the other? Is there a human cost? If so what is it and can we afford it? My work continually revolves around the computer. I'd be totally lost without it. Can that really be a good thing? Like I said, I don't know. I'm just wondering.


A 'Homebrew Computer Club' session in 1975.
The club (of which Apple founder Steve Jobs
was a member) was a forum for ideas that led
directly to the birth of the home computer.

The club's motto was, 'Give to help others'.

well ok but then the question is not "good or bad", but "what are the trade-offs?". i'm one who thinks the question is often more important than the answers.

ok, the trade-offs:



ha ha ha.

i want the internet wired to my brain so i can send quasi-telepathic insults all over the planet. and can you imagine the porn downloads??

i don't know what's lost. computers are fucking great. i still write with a fountain pen though, just because it's delicious.

Nah, we are substituting the internet as a social interaction, with less talk. Eventually, we will not need to learn how to talk.

internet telepathy is the new voicebox.

did you hear the thought i just sent?

Initially my reaction was the same as astonicpark's "both". But when I think about it, "neither" is more how I feel. Society is changing radically, but it is neither going away (which I guess is what "ruining" would have to mean) nor becoming any sort of Utopia. The printing press brought us the Reformation, but it also brought us Harlequin romances. The internet seems to be doing pretty similar things. In the end we just keep on.