by Thaxton Lewis

Created on: March 25, 2008

It is quite obvious that society has become controlled by technology.
And from the onset, people must be aware of how we define technology.

The Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary defines knowledge as:
1 a: the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area : engineering
2 b: a capability given by the practical application of knowledge
2: a manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or knowledge

3: the specialized aspects of a particular field of endeavor.

When examining the first definition of technology, one can go all the way back to hunting tools and rocks, to the invention of the wheel, to writing systems, to pens and sandwiches, to spears and skinning animals to make huts and tents, to the advent of farming and the slowing down of nomadic behavior and the settling of areas by specific people at specific times.

Society has always been controlled by technology. When the Egyptian Pharaohs and their scribes dominated their nation's history with writing, when other nations had their kings and noblemen and their priests, who controlled the written word and therefore history, technology has always been in the hands of the rich and powerful first.

Following this idea to its obvious conclusion, of the rich and those who control the dissemination of information, have control of technology, and control society, then does it not follow that society has always been controlled by technology.

Whoever had access to reading and to land, to farming tools and techniques, whoever had the spears and the good aim, to these victors came the spoils.

I do realize that whoever may have posited this question was speaking more about computers and the like, but computers and things related to computers are just the logical outcome of humanity's quest to create a version of itself technologically.

We have sought the holy grail of artificial intelligence since human beings began, though not consciously. Ancient art,Pyramids, the architecture of the Mayan and Incas temples, there are many amazing technologies that we cannot reproduce today. But their creation came out of the resources of the wealthy. The Taj Mahal, all of these amazing things, human beings have done, they have done in the pursuit of a greater, more far reaching society, one where every human is affected, every human is connected.

This is where computers come in. Society is now deeply dependent on computers. All sorts of information and lifestyles, all types of things are dependent

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