Young Science Hobbyist
I thought we were dangerous in high school with our make-shift pipe bombs. Never thought about going nuclear. Didn’t think you could DO that.
“It’s simply presumed that the average person wouldn’t have the technology or materials required to experiment in these areas.”
“I’ve still got time. I don’t believe I took more than five years off of my life.”
I have picked up Neil Postman’s Technopoly this summer and find many of his insights quite interesting. I am in a strange position as the gatekeeper of technology in a Christian institution. How beneficial is the Internet to education, and do the benefits out weigh the virulence? How important is it to teach the use of technology? Can we assume that it will be learned anyway? How do we teach students be be their own gate-keepers, to question the premise that technology is benign, and to value wisdom over knowledge? What is the purpose of education, to prepare young adults for the marketplace, or to use history, science, and literature to instill character and wisdom?
I find that I am not truly a technologist, as I do not embrace technology just because it is technology. I enjoy working with computers, and find that I have a knack for it, but on my time off, I do not spend a nano-gram of thought on them. I am by no means a Luddite, well actually, maybe that is exactly what I am. I think that I do oppose any technology that threatens commonality and community. I will have to think about that one. Like my brother, I would like to live underground, live off the land, but still be close enough to be in community with others of my ilk. Computers can go do what they want without me. But they are my livelihood. Ah, the catch-22 of technology.
“These Engines of mischief were sentenced to die
By unanimous vote of the Trade
And Ludd who can all opposition defy
Was the grand Executioner made”
General Ludd’s Triumph, 1812
Retorts