One idea I came up with to show how technology relates to progress and relates to human history is if Plato or Aristotle had a blog. This would agree then to what Roland Barthes informs us "that the narratives of the world are infinite and never restricted by medium, whether it be textual, visual, or audio information on the Internet or drawings on the walls of a cave....these narratives are transhistorical." He seems to propose that it is the story we want to remember and that technology just aids that story.
If, let's say, Aristotle had a blog back in 322 BCE we would not be so limited as to what we know about his philosophical ideas today. What we have today from Aristotle comes from memory of his works, not the actual words of the author himself. What if there were more to be known about his works? Let's say that technology such as blogs were available at that time, our beings now would be richer in intelligence. Technology does not hinder the intellectual but rather aids in the intellectual's ability to spread their knowledge. Books written with a typewriter, scrolls written with quills are all means of technology used for expression.
In some instances, these intellectuals build things as mean of expression. According to David E. Nye's article, "Can We Define 'Technology'", says that "technology" was not even a used word when Abraham Lincoln was president. Technology was referred to a form of art. Sculptors such as Michaelangelo's "David", are admired as a form of art displaying beauty. People such as Alexander Graham Bell who created the first telephone should also be regarded as creating a work of art. The only difference is that Bell's design has function or purpose rather than just beauty. Both individuals each created an object from thought alone they just served different purposes.
Another idea that came us in the Nye article was that you cannot "unlearn" the technology that we already know. We cannot go back into time and prevent the invention of electricity and cars. First of all, it would completely change the way we live today. We would have no car to drive to work, no cell phone to call our relatives; our lives would be topsy-turvied because of our reliance on technology. If we were to "unlearn" technology of today, are we posing to just forget about it completely and just keep all technologies the way they are now? It's preposterous and absurd. We need constant care or in a sense technology to keep up with what technologies we have now. If we were to abandon these technologies buildings would crumble, more trees would be cut down, and everything that we are so used to would eventually disintegrate. Once again we would use pen and paper to write; horses and carriage as means of transportation. It seems as we would be going against all of our intelligence as humans going back to these prehistoric methods. What intelligence would we as humans be able to demonstrate if there was no one to push the boundaries. Eventually, after a long period of time, history would repeat itself. Somebody would have the idea to fly or invent a car. Disregarding all of this technology we have today would be as they say a way of "reinventing the wheel".
