Discussion Post:
As I cover in the PowerPoint and you can see from the videos, “technology” means WAY more than just iPhones and computers. Flutes, stone tools, even fire count as forms of technology.
1. For this week’s discussion, think of a prehistoric technology, and imagine what life today might be like if it had never been invented (tip: look at the end of the PowerPoint for the week for a list of ancient tech.) Write your reflection in the comments. Is this a new way of thinking about technology for you?
As usual, reply to the comments of some of your peers.
Reply to Classmate 1:
I think it is really interesting to see how technology plays such a vital roll in the universe. Everything in a sense is technology. I think one of the coolest thing to me was seeing how language was considered technology. Throughout time, different regions and areas had completely opposing languages and barriers. Where did these begin? How did people just seem to inherently know the language? If this had never been invented it makes me wonder if we would be able to communicate as easily as we do now or would we have found different ways to adapt to our world. I knew that technology was more than just the things we see in front of us but also the tools and different things past civilizations used – but i never really considered language to be a technology so for me this part was definitely a new way of thinking about technology. Very interesting.
Reply to Classmate 2:
I think the technology of fish hooks is a big thing for humans because it made hunting for food much easier and our lives today would be different because we might have not developed as fast as we did with fishing and undertaking how to bait a fish to come to you instead of the fish being chased with a sparrow and getting lucky. Another thing the hook added was the tradition of trying to catch a fish to be more connected with nature. This might of never had happened and we would just use nets or some other type of “rig” to gather fish. I really like this question because I didn’t know what to think about something so simple to me and it was hard trying to come up with an answer I was satisfied with. This for sure changed the way I see technology because before this unit I was creating technology to silicon valley.