From Tools 2 Technocracy 2 Technopoly pg 92-199

In the second half of Neil Postman’s “Technopoly”, Postman introduces the innovation of medical technology in American society. Of the first inventions of medical equipment, the stethoscope was the most significant. The tool is used to listen to internal problems of sick patients and indicate to the doctor what could be causing illness. After the stethoscope, the same technology concepts were innovated into other areas medicine. Other instruments would include “ophthalmoscope, which allowed doctors to see into the eye; the laryngoscope, which allowed doctors to inspect the larynx and other parts of the throat, as well as the nose; and, of course, the X-ray, which could penetrate most substances but not bones” (pg. 100). After all of this new technology was created and implemented into regular medical procedures, training for doctors had to be changed as well. This all leads to patient’s expectations of medical treatment being high when they are paying hospitals for surgery: closely related to Postman’s argument that American society has become so dependent on technology to the point where without it the society would be lost. Again to reiterate from my last post, Technolopy describes how society, mainly America, has become dependent on the ins and outs of technology and the beliefs people have on science/technology playing a larger role on decision making than humans do. Postman believes people should not fall into the trap of technology. He strongly urges people to spread the word about Technolopy and don’t let technology take us over. I personally think that Postman is over exaggerates a little; technology in American’s society today is necessary is some ways. Like medical technology, for instance, without medical technology there would be a significantly higher amount of people who die in hospitals every year. Though Postman does not argue that technology is not necessary he wants to point out that people are not well educated about the technology and also other education. He believes teachers nowadays should teach differently, “Every teacher ought to be a semantics teacher, since it is not possible to separate language from what we call knowledge. Like history, semantics is an interdisciplinary subject: it is necessary to know something about it in order to understand any subject” (pg. 194). So that being said all Postman wants is for American society to be more educated about technology and to not let technology run people’s lives or someday it will literally run the human race. I agree to some extent; people cannot become lazy and let technology figure out all their problems for them. If we become dependent on technology, we cannot be dependent on other people and most importantly cannot depend on ourselves.

-ChristoPHO