The Serfdom of Crowds by Jaron Lanier presents the claim that computers are taking over the world and people are becoming obsolete. Lanier presents this claim as a negative change. He claims that technology continues to evolve and soon computers will "understand people better than people understand themselves." He uses the new technology incorporated into search engines like Google and Wikipedia to explain his claim of how technology is becoming super human. Now when one types a search into Google, the search engine will anticipate what one wants to petition for. As one types a new character or uses the search engine more often, the engine will become better able to predict what one wants to find. Lanier also claims that social media like Facebook is destroying real friendships. People have thousands of friends online now days. But the question is how many of these thousands of people are one's true friends? Socialized media is creating more loose friendships and starting to limit the amount of real friendships one has. As people spend more and more time online they continue to develop many more loose friendships.
Lanier is saying that computers are taking over the world. People are making the mistake of over using computers to the point that it takes away from one's own critical thinking. I agree with Lanier that people should not let computers replace their own minds and do all the task's that we use to do without computers. Computers should be used as a tool for one to use to do certain tasks and not as a means to replace human aspects. I believe that Facebook should be used as a tool to keep in contact with one's friends and acquaintances but one should not over use Facebook to the point that it takes away from one's natural sociability. For example, I will use Facebook to contact friends and set up a plan to meet as opposed to just talking to them on Facebook and never seeing them in reality. I love the direction where technology is going but I do agree with Lanier that overusing technology could be detrimental to society. I think we all need to have a balance is the case with anything else in life.
Even though computers are taking over people's natural thinking, this can be useful in some instances. In advertising, using the serfdom of crowds can be a good advertising tool. Instead of high paid markets taking random guests and making forecasts on what people want, computers can predict what everyone is into based on what people are looking at on their computers. I purchase many items from Amazon and Amazon always predicts things that it thinks I would like. Amazon is right most of the time. It shows me items that I would like to purchase or that I already own. I feel computers can do an excellent job in predicting people's trends and tastes. As good of a job as a human at least. I feel that he computers data is based on facts and people's predictions are more based on inferences.
This article was an interesting read and I would rate it an 8/10. Is the expansion of technology a good or a bad thing?
