As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoni

The wonders of technology continue to advance at a staggering rate every year. Sixty years ago, the thought of the Internet may have seemed alien to even the most advanced scientists. While technology continues to augment our lives and generally improve it for the better, our over-reliance in technology has made us dependent and will cause the ability to think for ourselves to deteriorate.

Years ago it would have been a crazy concept to even mention a device that includes a phone, camera, watch, voice recorder, and Internet browser. Now, smartphones like the iPhone are almost ubiquitous among Americans. The capabilities encountered in these smart phones now dwarf even the million dollar systems that were used to send a man to the moon. It is interesting to think about how something that could have the computing power to put us on the moon will reduce our ability to think for ourselves. Take for example the use of Global Positioning Satellites and navigation software. Years ago traveling required purchasing a paper map and navigating the streets using a compass and a decent sense of direction. Now, the elimination of using basic navigation has turned smartphone users into people who only need to input an address and press “Go”. The need to memorize multiplication tables and learn how to divide can be easily defeated by quickly pulling out a phone. One simple device has created a generation of people that are almost intrinsically tied to a small piece of technology, and far removed from autonomously completing what used to be everyday tasks.

Technology has allowed for information to be placed at our fingertips. The millions of gigabytes that are accessible almost instantly via a computer can be overwhelming. This information has lead to a smarter and better-informed generation that the previous ones. Students can access droves of information to create projects and write papers. Doctors can look up any disease and have entire lists of symptoms, treatments, and warnings within seconds. With so much information available, it is inevitable that humans will want it quicker and condensed. Before the internet and electronic books, students spent hours at the library referencing books and written articles to find sources of information. These critical think and research methods will ultimately diminish as a person can now talk to their digital assistants on the phone and receive instant answers.

Today most of our infrastructure is linked together by technology. Fail safes are placed in the event of a power outage or a deliberate attack. Much of our information floats around somewhere in space or stored on an electronic device somewhere. When the year 2000 came around, the public was in panic that “Y2K” would cause a worldwide shutdown of all infrastructure due to a programming error in the clocks of computers. This chaos never occurred, but what if they power doesn’t return after that one outage? Humans are so reliant on technology that they may not be able to function themselves. Though not everyone will perish, a sizeable amount may. Examples like these can be seen when nurses in a hospital in New Orleans after the flood tried to take care of their patients in a powerless facility. Being reliant on automatic pumps that push medications for them, they were unable to figure out simple drug calculations. As a result, many people died from incorrect drug dosages. This can also be seen when a person’s phone dies and they are hours from their phone stuck without GPS navigation.

Ultimately, technology will reduce the capacity of humans to think for themselves. The convenience of technology causes a reliance that permeates through almost every aspect of life. We can see examples of technology by looking all around us and it will only become more integrated as the field continues to increase. As humans, we must always keep the possibility of not having the technology in the back of our heads to ensure that we prepare for contingencies that can occur.