The Fruits of Civilization (8) Computers

Computers

We are looking at a society increasingly dependent on machines, yet decreasingly capable of making or even using them effectively. ~ American technologist Douglas Rushkoff

Computing consists of inputting, processing, storing, and outputting data (information). A computer is a machine for computing.

Abetted by the miniaturization of components, the generality of data processing shows why computers have become so significant in modern societies. Mental life is, after all, a ceaseless process of consuming information.

Computers today process everything that can be digitized: from numbers to sounds to images to every imaginable data. Any wave of energy that can be captured by a sensing device is subject to computing.

Computers represent the technological fruition of human abstraction. Today, no society is considered “advanced” without ubiquitous computer usage. Addictive handheld devices which plug one into the networked world have become a norm.

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. ~ Spanish painter Pablo Picasso