Tuesday, December 9, 2008

I was reading a fellow student's blog on the intellectual revolution and she posed a question about how intelligent it would be to compare our own technological explosion to the renaissance.  It's sort of interesting to think about.  To many of us now to live without computers and television and all of our little convinces would seem overly simplistic and in some cases barbaric.  I'm sure it was feelings like that that spawned the great awakening in the minds of early philosophers.  It's interesting to see that at some point, the human mind started to grasp exactly what it was we could accomplish, and look how much we've done!  Form morals, to politics and religion, to the way society interacts, we've completely overhauled our lives in the last 600 years.  

I thought it was neat how the author used the words "new human identity" to describe the thought process that went into the shifting of mass thought.  The idea of replacing the old line of thinking with a new, updated, better way of thinking truly pleases me, i feel like our own society has undergone it's own sort of shift in the human identity with the election of an african american president, and with approving the rights to gay marriage.  (i understand that the right to gay marriage was taken away, but i feel like at this point, it is a matter of months before prop 8 is overturned and homosexuals are given back their rights, i'm optimistic.  it is almost ridiculous to think that at this point in our society people are just going to lay back and accept being denied their basic rights. this is why i compare the two.)   

ANYWAY, i thoroughly enjoyed reading about the intellectual change that took place in society, i hope that human beings at as a whole wont stop evolving in this manner.  

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I too was fascinated by the Scientific revolution - I can imagine what it would have been like if you could have gotten several of the rapid thinkers in science together and had a brain storming party - wild for the times! Would they have gotten along and even advance the others faster. What if they had the same level of communication power then that we have today - big WOW!

Nate Potter said...

I hadn't previously thought about the impact of our as you put it, "technological explosion." The advancement of computers and technology in such a short period of time is truly remarkable. Like you said it is crazy to see the capability of the human mind, and the impact on the world that 1 or 2 people can have when they push the boundaries of ordinary thinking. Although we have not seen a major influx of new ideas technologically speaking recently, we have seen a drastic change in the way people see the world. This is of course evident by Obama’s election as you stated.

Tony said...

im not so sure there is as big of a technological explosion as you think. in most of computing we have learned to make the same thing we did 10 years ago, only smaller. we're still using all the same ideas/principles we did 50 years ago. WTB new discoveries! c'mon flying cars!

I think somebody should come up with a way to breed a very large shrimp. That way, you could ride him, then after you camped at night, you could eat him. How about it, science? — Jack Handey Deep Thoughts

Jenifer Sanford said...

I never thought of the technology revloution in regards to the scientific revolution before, but you are right in this comparison. I to hope that we can continue to evolve in or ideas as well. I think it is that people fear that which they don't understand.