“If media technology develops and changes overtime, does that mean we as human beings are also a form of technology as we change and develop overtime?”
Admittedly, this question puzzled me; we have now spent a number of weeks discussing a variety of subject areas in our Digital Cultures module. On a number of occasions our lecturer, Dr Gavin Stewart, has advised us to be weary of using words such as “Media” and “Technology” – the very title of the module was chosen to avoid any confusion!
I looked at the dictionary definition of these two words as a starting block:
Media Technology: A generic term that refers to various topics because the term "media" is generic. (!)
Technology: the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment
Media: a method or way of expressing something
We had already spent time discussing “what is technology?” – investigating it’s routes, I looked at the dictionary definition and started to explore this idea.
Isaac Asimov, author and biochemistry professor, wrote in an essay (available in “The March of Millennia” 1991) that he: “,,,related the evolution of civilization to the development of technology, beginning with the discovery of fire by early hominids. His premise was that it was this crucial technological breakthrough that first distinguished our ancestors from other primates and gave them their evolutionary advantage. As with all subsequent technology, fire made greater demands on primitive communication skills as well as expanding opportunities for their practice. It also increased the food supply of the upright animals who mastered it and made it possible for their range and numbers to increase. As Asimov explained it, from then on natural selection would have ensured that humans developed the intelligence to become master tool designers and this, in turn, led inevitably to a new and faster kind of change: the evolution of culture.”
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+legacy+of+Isaac+Asimov.+(science+fiction+author)+(Cover+Story)-a013566105
Technological advancements have helped the human race evolve over thousands of years – but have we “changed and developed”? Changed? Yes! Developed? This, to me, is the interesting part of the question.
Devolution?
http://jwest.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/devolutionofman.jpg
Has technology actually allowed the human race to stop developing: “… those who look at things in an evolutionary context say modern technological changes are not likely to affect significantly the human species because while technology might change human behaviour -- the way we think or other aspects of our humanity - it also can supply solutions that prevent our genes from dealing with our problems.
“John Hawks, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, explained evolution is all about natural selection and genes, and humans have evolved because superior genes led to the procreation and survival of those with the most robust genetic makeup.”
http://blog.nj.com/digitallife/2008/04/technology_revolution_or_evolu.html
So we as a species have advanced to such a level that we can stop the development of our race?
In a paper entitled: Evolution, Diet and Health, the writers identify some fascinating links between technological advancements and human “devolution”:
“…food procurement is inextricably linked to energy expenditure, a relationship which establishes a range of body composition appropriate for any given species. The ratio of fat to muscle generally varies with season, but typically within fairly narrow limits; hyperadiposity, as it exists for many contemporary humans, is rare or nonexistent for other primates. The necessity for physical exertion, unavoidable for most humans until the industrial era and, especially, the 20th Century, ensured substantial muscularity, in the proportionate range existing for current free-living nonhuman primates. In the present, however, obtaining food energy is no longer dependent on muscular exertion: from childhood on, calories are available at the lowest cost in human experience without reciprocal energy expenditure.”
Evolution, Diet and Health S. Boyd Eaton, MD and Stanley B. Eaton III Departments of Anthropology and Radiology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia USA
http://www.cast.uark.edu/local/icaes/conferences/wburg/posters/sboydeaton/eaton.htm
Advances in travel and food production have changed our eating habits, leading to new issues linked to diet and exercise(diabetes, obesity etc), but have we changed? The body probably hasn’t developed or changed, but the results of how we “use and abuse” possibly have!
Could technological developments also directly affect the reproduction of our species?
“Dr. Alverne and colleague Dr. Virpi Lumma reviewed and discussed new research supporting the conclusion that use of the pill by women disrupted their variation in mate preferences across their menstrual cycle. The authors also speculate that the use of oral contraceptives may influence a woman's ability to attract a mate by reducing attractiveness to men, thereby disrupting her ability to compete with normally cycling women for access to mate”
http://www.physorg.com/news174140457.html
The pill inextricably changed womens’ lives; could it be possible that it could also potentially stop the development of the human race? Not something I believe, but indeed an interesting point relating to the set question.
In an article for LiveScience, Charles Choi states that recent research shows that brains have actually shrunk by 10% over the last 5000 years!
Far from seeing that the human race has stopped evolving, he discusses how the human body has adapted to contend with disease. He gives the example of sickle cell anaemia, a mutation against malaria, where the red blood cells change shape, impairing blood flow, damaging tissues but also preventing the malaria parasite from “infesting blood cells”
http://www.livescience.com/history/091113-origins-evolving.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Livesciencecom+%28LiveScience.com+Science+Headline+Feed%29
Medical technology and research can only be a good thing in directly battling the negatives of evolution.
So, diet, transport, medical technologies have changed human beings? Possibly….! Have these advancement positively changed human beings? I will leave that answer to you!
On a lighter note, the below blog link indicates that younger people now use their thumbs to press doorbells due to natural adaptation through texting and social networking!
http://www.searchsecurityasia.com/content/opposable-thumbs-texting-and-promiscuous-willingness-interact-and-connect-21st-century-secur
The opposable thumb, that which separates us from much of the animal kingdom, is also developing and changing over time?!
Lessons I have learnt this week: answering questions set by others’ in the group is very hard!
Perhaps I am the one who needs to change and develop overtime?!
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