First Essay Rough Draft

Imagine a world without electricity, cars, and computers. Today’s world would be violently different from what it would be like if there was not something called technology that existed. Technological advancements have helped us humans work more efficiently and get to our destinations much faster. Without technology we would still be walking or riding a horse just to get to our workplace. Without technology we would be blind at night, we would not be able to explore the depths of the ocean, without technology we would be lost. According to Kurt Vonnegut and Kim Vicente technology and humans should not and do not get along very well at all. Vicente stated that technology is to be blamed for the deaths caused by the human factor every year. While Vonnegut argues that the human minds of the Hoenikker children are unable to maintain and keep something so simple and catastrophic as ice-nine under wraps. Thus their stupidity and carelessness means the end of the world.
From the grocery store cash register to the microchip imbedded in your cars computer system, technology is all around us. Along with it we evolve into more efficient and capable society, but there are flaws that come with along. Along with technology comes uncertainty and problems and that is what Kim Vicente and Kurt Vonnegut set out to argue. Kim Vicente’s The Human Factor talks about the issues that plague today’s world. From the problem that caused the power plant in Chernobyl to explode. This technology mixed with “the human factor” can cause a devastating outcome. The reason for the faulty reactor was that the people in charge were human rather than not being adequately trained. The reason, as said by Vicente, is that technology is moving at such a rapid pace that humans can’t keep up with it, thus “the human factor”. Kurt Vonnegut says something along the same lines as Kim Vicente too because of his book, Cat’s Cradle. Vonnegut essentially has people who are in charge of a potentially devastating weapon, and these people are rather not qualified to do this job. The Hoenikkers, the ones in charge of ice-nine, are rather dull and incapable. They may be smart and all but when it comes to responsibilities and decision making they are not the brightest. You can say that the similarities between Vonnegut and Vicente is that they both talk about “the human factor” because they both use aspects of it that cause trouble and demise in one way or another. Initially Vicente and Vonnegut are saying that technology is moving at too fast a pace for humans to keep up with and being able to adapt with thus causing all these problems that we have today.
Vonnegut and Vicente are bringing up questions that attack the reliability and integrity of our technology and those who are operating it. From nurses who mix medicines that are not suppose to be mixed to the pilot who crashed his plane because he didn’t get enough sleep. Some questions that they could potentially be raising are, is technology moving too fast for man to handle? This is a suitable question because it is true; the rate in which technology is moving at is far greater than that in which the average person can comprehend. Technology is moving at such an incredible rate that anyone who is going to even think about operating anything advanced is forced to go through extensive training that qualifies them for that particular job. Another question that is deemed to be asked is, is technology that we have today is really necessary? This question is also deemed true because of the simple fact that some of the technology created isn’t even needed for the advancement of mankind. For example, a calculator that can calculate formulas a few seconds faster than its competitors is not required because a regular calculator is just fine how it is. There is no need to create something that extreme that will just make life more difficult for us with no improvements in the quality of life.
Initially, the way in which I would respond to these authors is that they need to stop thinking so critically of technology. The reason why I say this is that everything has its mishaps because nothing is perfect. It is bound to have a defect with it and even if it doesn’t, there will still be the human factor because humans cannot quickly adapt to such technology and succeed in fully understanding everything. The authors need to keep their opinions more open minded because from what I’ve read, they are mostly saying negative things about technology. I believe they can still be technology dependant and still batter it left and right, but they just need to be more open minded. Of course there are going to be some plane crashes every here and now, but it is not oblivious to think that the people who engineered the machinery are not working day and night to make the airplane a much safer way for Americans to travel. I’m not going to say that there aren’t any careless people out there that not doing their jobs properly and in effect losing a life, but rather the authors shouldn’t bash technology. It’s mostly the people who are working at the power plants and the guy who accidentally gave too much medicine to a patient. They are the ones to blame, not necessarily the technology.
All in all, technology is a part of our lives, and with technology we can either further advancement or quickly disappear with it without the adequate training. The authors bashed technology and “the human factor” in their books, and most likely ask questions that are well suited for the situation, but the real problem is not technology moving too quick rather that people are not doing this without thinking about what they are doing. Technology can be our friend with the proper handling or our enemy in the wrong hand.