Human Beings and the Future of Technology Essay

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Digital Knowledge and the Human Art of Thinking

Digital Knowledge, New Horizons for the Human Art of Thinking, and Creating Knowledge

Digital technology has introduced people to new paradigms of thinking and creativity necessary to make use of this elaborate technology. In the past, the limited technology environment reinforced a linear approach to education and thinking dictated by the use of books and expected to work in digital settings in much the same way they read in books. The current digital era offer people with a high level of autonomy in navigating across knowledge domains to construct knowledge from separate shreds of data. Such multidimensional thinking skills have enabled individuals to construct meaningful understandings of complex phenomena. This hyper-digital technology has revolutionized the digital thinking skills into digital skills. These skills serve students the ability to remain oriented and avoid getting lost in the hyper-digital space as they navigate across complex information domains.

Recently, studies have shown that the digital literate era has an excellent thinking and creativity skills that have helped them overcome problems of disorientation in digital settings. The proliferation of platforms for knowledge sharing and digital communication has paved way for new paradigms and learning opportunities. However, these new opportunities have come with a set of challenges for the users, which demand them to apply emotional and sociological skills in order to survive the hurdles in digital technologies. Such challenges include not only cyber bullying, but also deception on social sites such as Facebook. The world has changed radically. Tomorrow's generation will no longer be the people that the current education system was designed to teach. They will not just change incrementally from the past generations, nor simply change their styles, language and clothes as has been witnessed in the previous generations. A discontinuity is forthcoming.

Experts have branded it "singularity": an event that will change things in a fundamental manner such that there will be no going back. This singularity will be the arrival and domination of digital technology in the coming decades. This paper reveals that the art of human thinking and creating knowledge is on the verge of an irreversible change much like the evolution of man's life on Earth.

Introduction

The dawn of the Twenty-first century marked the beginning of the digital era -- a time of unrivalled growth in technological innovation and its ensuing information blast. Never before have the devices for information access and management made such an effect on the way humans live, play, shop, and work. Modern technological innovation and resources increase daily, and the new technologies of today are obsolete almost as soon as they reach the market. Numerous reports and studies have appeared over the past several years that aim to recognize the life, career, and learning skills that determine the skills required for success in the Twenty-first century world. Digital knowledge is regularly helping the quality of our lifestyles and economic success as well as providing us, with better ways of living. The computer and the Internet have modified society much quicker than phones, electricity, and television (Partridge & Wilks, 2010). Digital technology has both good and bad things about it.

Discussion

In the next three decades, we will have the technical approaches for creating superhuman intelligence. Soon after, it will be the end of the human era. The speeding of technical improvement has been the main characteristic of this century. This paper argues that humanity is on the verge of change much like the evolution of man's life on Earth. The accurate cause of this reform is the upcoming growth of technologies, more powerful than human intelligence. Science will achieve this breakthrough through various ways:

The growth of "awake" and superhumanly intelligent computer systems

Large computer systems might "awaken" as a superhumanly intelligent enterprise.

Computer/human connections could be so intimate that customers may reasonably be regarded superhumanly intelligent

Biological technology may find ways to enhance upon the natural intelligence in human beings.

Advancement in computer hardware has taken an incredibly stable route in the last few years. Centered mostly on this pattern, the development of greater than human intellect will happen in the next few years. When greater-than-human intellect pushes progress, that development will be much faster. There is no reason progress, solely would not include the foundation of more intelligent entities. The transformative past can be cited as the best example: animals can adjust to challenges and make innovation, but often no quicker than natural selection -- the globe functions as its own simulation in the case of natural selection.

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Human beings have the capability to internalize the surrounding and perform "what if's" in the human minds; hence fixing many issues, many times quicker compared to natural selection. Therefore, by developing a method for applying those simulations at much greater rates of speed, humanity is entering a regime as drastically different from the human past. From the perspective of humanity, this reform will be a discarding of all the past rules, instantly, beyond control. Advancements that before were believed might occur in "a million years" are expected to occur in the next century (Kurzweil, 2006).

The Internet symbolizes a significant phase in human evolution and is a precursor of things yet to come. Billions of people empower it every day because it is expected to wise up significantly. This will open up into a worldwide of super-organisms that could one-day offer solutions to many problems facing human beings. Some futurists believe it will create emotions and accomplish awareness. Positive forward thinkers believe the global brain will become completely self-aware and conscious as it guides the humankind into what guarantees to become a most captivated time ahead (Honavar, 2004).

Mobile phones have totally changed the way in which people connect with friends and family, and have improved the amount of protections when traveling. Individuals can choose the many mobile phones and applications: thus, they have diverse choices, unlike the landline phones. People can now connect with everyone regardless of the distance (Rabinow & Dan-Cohen, 2005). Consider those that take long-distance journeys while driving. Families and friends can have follow ups to ensure that everything is okay. Moreover, if something were to occur, the individual can simply contact a tow truck rather than awaiting the next car to stop and provide some support. In this regard, mobile phones have made traveling more secure since the individual does no longer have to find a landline phone to use, which led to going up to random homes and asking to use their phone. The GPS models set up within each mobile phone is essential when individuals need of help or have to be tracked because cops (NSA) can tap into the system and monitor them. This technological innovation has assisted many people who have got lost to be found before they succumb.

Infotainment is created through surfing the web combining entertainment and learning. According to Hertz, a vast infotainment network design for studying already prevails, video games, especially online multi-player role-playing games. Members not only contend in these games, but also form groups to work together and create new content. Online games present a valuable design for education both as a means for building a networked learning atmosphere and the leveraging of the technical skills of Twenty-first century learners. Their Key attribute is that they accomplish actions such as the connections that occur through, and around games as players exchange discoveries and techniques among themselves, and add, new constructs to the game and more learn from each other. Similar, education institutions could shape online activities into culturally contextualized studying the surroundings in which learners contribute to the construction of their learning experience and instantly use the course context. This system could form the basis of a liberal education based in practice. Hetz's perspective expands studying from the classroom to the on-going 24/7 world of the next generation of learners (Minsky, 2007). This generation of students will take advantage of their digital culture via a learning atmosphere based on interactive and creative screen language in contrast to textbooks and lectures.

According to a study by Patricia Greenfield, digital technology has assumed a bigger part in our lives; people's skills in critical thinking and research have dropped while people's visual skills have enhanced. Students have modified because of their subjection to digital technologies. Reading for pleasure, which has dropped among youths in recent years, increases thinking and engages creativity in a way that digital media such as television and video games do not. No one method is good for everything. If we want to create diverse skills, we need a balanced media recipe. Each method has costs and benefits in terms of what skills each produces.

Schools must increase their efforts of testing learners using digital media like requesting them to prepare PowerPoint demonstrations. As learners spend more time with digital media and shorter time with print, assessment methods that include digital media will give a better picture of what they know. With the increased digital media, learners will process….....

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