Hughes Discussion, Chapter 3

1. Has the US established itself as "the world's preeminent technological power?" Where does Europe fall? How about Asia?

Hughes writes that America is “Technology’s Nation,” and he is correct. The United States was the first technological power, but I feel that today we may not be as preeminent as we once were in the early to mid- twentieth century as Hughes writes about. In the writing, Hughes noticeably omits most other nations and continents other than the United States and Germany, however both arose as technological powerhouses, elevating their engineers and scientists to the level of almost deity in some instances. Hughes embodies in this chapter the essence of what we call the “American Spirit,” which is a venturing, forward-thinking human pressing to take hold of the forces that impact his/her life and manipulates those forces to have a directly positive impact on their life. This spirit is what lifted America to be the first nation of technology and a fertile environment for mechanization and systems that would serve to enhance the quality of life for its citizens.

 If we are speaking about the technological powers of today, the United States is definitely not the only one out there. We are accompanied by Japan, China, Germany, and I suspect, several other countries where technologies are kept secret even from their citizens, and certainly from the rest of the world. This is both disturbing and intriguing, but mostly disturbing. Hughes writes at length about the technological powers of Germany in the twentieth century and its commonalities with America in the “technology race.” At this point in history, both countries seemed to be adopting new technologies at lightning speed (for that time), and evolving into world powers through the utilization of these new technologies and machinery. Germany, however, has somewhat fallen behind in that race, and surely due to WW II and the fallout in the decades following.

Asia is heavily ignored in Hughes’ writings thus far, which does a disservice to the reader in that Asia has become a highly revered society of technology, and a large portion of the world’s advances in technology and systems have been born in Asian countries. Although, much of Asia is considered to be third-world societies and according to the Western school of thought, “backward thinking,” there are also several countries that are at the forefront of new technological advances, and unfortunately technological disasters as Japan has been the most recent casualty.

“With great power comes great responsibility,” and as we analyze and reflect upon the current state of affairs in the global economy and network, as the arguably most technologically advanced society in the world, it is our responsibility to respect and understand that we are what much of the world looks to in determining the direction they are headed in. They have learned from our advances, and from our mistakes. With this amount of power and leverage, America must heed the predictions of some of the writers in Hughes’ book and understand that the “control” that we seek over nature is not to be taken lightly, and ultimately we are at the mercy of many forces that we will perhaps never control. The examples that we set with our technological advances and those that we reveal to other nations could be our ultimate downfall as other powers struggle to make the world aware of their presence. We must embody a spirit of technological responsibility and stewardship that the rest of the world can look to and follow to experience success in their own technological standards and advancements.

2. What other ideas about "Machine as Technology" struck you as significant in this chapter?

As I was reading through the chapter, I conjured this image of a bustling city in the 1920’s, alive with the new inventions and progress that has been made by the industrial revolution and the machine age. This period in time taught us many things about the human spirit and what we are capable of, both good and bad. Hughes pointed out that with the advancement of machines and the production capacity of America where all classes had access to consumer goods, the bad also inevitably came to fruition. The mechanistic nature of the time period started to devalue humanity and gave birth to horrible working conditions, child labor, and workplace fatalities which ultimately led to the formation of unionization and labor laws to protect us from our own machines and drive to be bigger and better. We still struggle with these issues and require governmental regulations to intercede where human rights are being stripped from workers in certain industries. This is definitely a downside of technology and machines as was predicted by several authors and notables that have been cited by Hughes.

Another interesting point brought forth was the sentiment of Europeans that Americans were devoid of any measure of culture and refinement, which left them incapable of producing works of fine arts, music, drama, and other culturally enriching manifestations. The notion of machines as technology had caused Americans as citizens to be viewed as machine-like, and Hughes makes the comparison that Americans even appeared to have come from an assembly line with cleanly shaven men and women wearing heavy make-up like dolls. This notion seems to have survived the time period somewhat, as we tend to look to European countries as being more “cosmopolitan,” and refined than the Homer Simpson or Al Bundy characters that have somehow adhered to the American male. We even speak with an English accent to depict a level of sophistication in our cartoons, or even conversations with others when we may be joking or mocking another. I feel this is a direct result of our consumerism, which came from the machines as technology age Hughes discusses. Instead of recognizing the enormous capacity that Americans have to practice refinement and sophistication, we are instead bombarded with the “Snookie’s” (Jersey Shore, which I do NOT watch), Hannah Montana’s, and ridiculous “rappers,” of the day that are commercialized to the point of madness because they are “entertainment.” This is as much of a falsity as Milli Vinilli. These are not entertainment, they are pushed at us because they are cheaply produced, bubble gum versions of what the industry would have us consume because it profits them the most. I’m sure Rathenau, who seems to have the greatest measure of common sense of all the notable contributors, would be appalled at what has come of the evolution of technology in our time, and could offer some valuable advice for a return to civility that we very much need!