Just wondering what you guys would think...

Are we too dependent on computers?

I believe The Singularity is a very serious and real problem. For those who do not know, The Singularity is when our computers will have more processing power than our brains. Though it may seem that they do now, they, in fact, do not. A lot of our brain power is used to run all of our body systems and other things like maintaining balance on two feet (which is why most creatures have 4 or more). I made a similar thread a while back, but it didn't get many comments .

I think we are too dependent... not just on "computers" but on electronics in general. Many people wouldn't last a week without their facebook, or iphones, etc etc.

And even fewer would survive if we lost electricity for an extended period of time. This is probably the first generation (or maybe 2nd) that is so dependant on electricity that we have lost the ability to function without it.

Yes, I do believe that we are too dependant on technology. My friend, after not being able to go on a measly iPhone for a week, was pretty much crying over it. As Geeogree said, we would pretty much die if electricity was lost. I guess the revolution of technology is taking over us.

I think we are a little to dependent on computers, and yeah I agree with Geeogree about electronics in general. I think it could lead to our downfall. And no, I don't think just like out of a terminator movie. But if we were ever under an attack and they were to us an EMP than our infrastructure could go out. That is just how I see it.

well, I've heard that we're going to experience a solar maximum soon (when the sun is really active) which from what I've heard will really mess with our communications and satellites and stuff. I've heard some particular storms could get bad enough to actually damage electronics. No idea if it's true or not but I'm not looking forward to it if it's true. We depend on technology too much for it to fail on us.

I agree with geeo on this one. It's not just computers, it really is most electronics. There are way too many people who wouldn't even know how to do the most basic things without some sort of electronic device. I mean, how many people do you think use their microwave to boil water instead of the stove? I think that about a quarter of the population would be totally lost if electricity were to completely disappear. Ironically, the places that would probably be better off are the third-world countries, where there is very little in the way of technology as it is.

Personally, I feel that I, along with many of the people I hang out with, would be pretty well off, because most of my friends like spending time outdoors, like camping in the woods. If more people would take a break from daily technology once in a while, and just go out and spend a few days outside their electronically regulated lives, they would probably be much less dependent on technology to do every little thing.

I believe with todays technology we are. Computers have become a way of life for many things to operate and function properly. Computers are every we practically look, they are used through-out almost every industry, and are used by people of all ages so yeah I guess we have become dependent on computers.

Not even just computers and electronics. I know most people couldn't even make food for themselves without a microwave or stove. If the whole world suddenly lost power only a few people would survive. Myself not included. I was banned from my phone for a day and I felt weird.

Originally posted by dramabethie

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Not even just computers and electronics. I know most people couldn't even make food for themselves without a microwave or stove. If the whole world suddenly lost power only a few people would survive. Myself not included. I was banned from my phone for a day and I felt weird.

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Tch. You got that right! Haha. You even stole your grandma's phone from time to time to text who you needed to text, and she's the one who took yours in the first place!!! Haha

However, I fall out of this "wouldnt survive without electricity" category. I'm not braindead and I know how to make a fire and preserve food from the fridge and stuff. Survival is my family's specialty. All you need is a typical camping bag with all those essentials, plus a lighter of some kind and plastic bags. Thats all you need to remember, the rest can be found under your own house's roof real quickly.

And the fact that some really can't live without electricity just proves that we're all losing our instinct to survive, like we don't really want to cuz of those that are too ignorant to learn how to live without. No survival instinct whatsoever.

Time for another Saw movie!!! Lol

I think that we are dependent on not just computers but also technology and we are too dependent on them.

The majority of the north American population would be completely lost without all their electricity. Businesses are so dependent on electric records, we all use refrigeration, we're all on the computer right now! Without computers, especially electronics, we'd barely know what to do with ourselves. We'd end up killing each other out of boredom!

I just watched an episode of pure pwnage last night, and the theme was that they had to go 24 hours without gaming. They had no idea what to do with themselves, and ended up just vandalizing everything, because it was the most like a video game to them, with no responsibility or sense of reality. Sure, the show is fictional, but I think that without games that's what a lot of people would be doing.

You guys might want to look at it in a different way, too. Before we had all we do now, people who lived in more ancient civilizations had only the basic things to survive. Killed their own food, medicine wasn't as great, the only things kids really had to look forward to as adults were to fight in an army or sell stuff at the market, in nut shell. Before that, it was gather food and supplies every day or die in a month. Not really that fun. Over time humans used their knowledge and grew prosperous. Food processing and storage methods were invented, medicine was refined and became better. Life was more and more easier. People started living longer. Technology is how people survived. Comfortably. Computers were the pinnacle of human invention. With them, we grew exponentially prosperous and were endowed with a sudden blast of new knowledge, ideas and material things. We've grown more advanced in less than 100 years than we have in the the previous 10,000.

Are we dependent on them? You could say that. However, look at it this way- are we dependent on clothing? No? Well, we do use them to cover ourselves and too keep warm so we don't freeze to death. Wouldn't you say that we "need" them to survive, not just with individuals but for the entire race? It's something we live with everyday. Something we have to have. Computer/electronics, or technology for that matter is the same way. They are a part of us, just like our own limbs. If suddenly taken away of course it would feel weird and strange- we lost a part of ourselves. Being dependent usually means that you can survive in some way if suddenly without it. Take away computers from man and civilizations will fall in just months. It may not be that we're dependent, but that we need them to continue the way we are.

If we're talking about electronics as a source of entertainment then that's a different story. A lot of people spend quite a bit of time with them. If we get to a point in the future where that stuff can never go away and will forever be with us then we will have gone into a different era where "basic skills" are no longer need and will be a thing of the past.

Yes human kind is to dependent on computers and electronics, like now for example we are using a computer to socialize.

WAY WAY too dependent. If something happened and we lost the ability to take records and store information electronically, we would lose the majority of our information for the last 5 years.

Oh yes. When a hurricane knocked out the electricity in my town a couple of years back, we were so bored. Its was almost funny, and I would have taken a picture if I had a working camera, but there was absolutely nothing I wanted to do that was interesting. Just imagine, for a moment, that the internet is down, a dinosaur smashed your computer, and all of the cell phone towers in the world just stopped working. Oh, and your Air Conditioning/ Heater stopped working. Fun, isn't it? It really is interesting how we are debating our reliance on technology, over the internet.

septembern : I think that everything world wide will eventually be computerized… I think to an extent we are dependent on computers but I don’t see it as a negative as long as it doesn’t result in a Die Hard 4 type of scenario where some sadistic moron decides to hack into government sensitive information and mess with the country. Great movie but it is the scenario of the storyline that I see as a very real possibility if our dependence isn’t managed carefully.

I am dependent on a computer to do my work and to pay my bills and such. I also use the computer to shop as I rarely leave my home.

Wow, this thread wasn't posted in for 4 months until bvd1022 came along. I even posted in it back when I was first active on vizzed. Using a computer only once a week for about two months, I realized how much of an addiction the internet is. I go on the computer without thinking about it, even if I don't really feel like it, just because it's what I do. It was hard to be without a computer at first, but after a week or so I mellowed out a lot and comfortably eased into a lack of contact with the outside world. I say that we're dependent on computers, but if we lost all our computer technology for some reason, everyone would eventually adjust, and just end up being a lot smarter and more productive by having to do math themselves, and actually spell properly for once.

I've had a little more insight since my last post so, I don't just think we're a little to dependable. I think we're way to dependable on computers! Like I said earlier, If an attack disabled all our electronics, it would be utter anarchy. The US would be virtually defenseless. Not only that but look at the problems these social networking sites cause. Take Facebook for example. a report by the telegragh.co.uk says that it is fueling divorce.

The primary problem is people are using technology as an excuse to do less work themselves. It is this, more than anything else, that can make us irrelevant next to our technology in the near future.