Fearing things such as an air pump or electrical machine is something that governments and religions have to take into considerations because of the possibility that they may make their beliefs or existing structures obsolete. There are many ways that technology can help government and change it for the better. One of Johnson’s quotes that really stood out to me was a recurring theme “major advances in civilizations are almost invariably triggered by dramatic increases in the flow of energy through a society” (Johnson pg. 126). He gives examples including agriculture, armies, governments, and industrialization that have thrived from this theory and in the end, wouldn’t be where they are without the advancement of energy.
Technological advances determine the course of history, whether it is hundreds of years ago or now. Personally, when I read Johnson’s text, it opened my eyes to all the ideas and events that have shaped what our technology is today and again, how technology and science affects almost everything in our lives that we generally don’t think about. For shedding new light altogether, I believe he did, all of his ideas he has touched on are how our world came to be and he allowed Priestley’s ideas to be explained and more understood for our society today.
1 thought on “Week 6”
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Bryce Dawkins
Hi Ryan I really appreciated your ideas and the examples you used to get your point across. I look to the second paragraph first because this is a paragraph I did not feel as passionate or open minded about. I personally felt at the time while writing my blog post that the inventions that Priestly had and found were not as important anymore regarding modern technology. I go to your sentence where you state “Technological advances determine the course of history” and I will say I agree with this. The relevance of Technological Advances are very crucial to the future and how we will shape our world. But at the same time I feel myself and possibly the world around me taking these late Technological Advances for granted, the experiment Priestly did with mint leaves and animals figuring out that plants are a key factor in the production of oxygen and the mammal survival. This discovery was a tremendous step in the future for Priestly and the world at that time but this is also something I feel we take for granted or something we look at as not important right now or less of a crucial matter. It is hard to stay in the past because it is the past and not the future. I feel we as humans want to look to the future and not acknowledge or use the information we have from the past so what we do know seems to be somewhat useless information at times. I hope i’m not getting to jumbled up here but what I’m trying to say is that the old generation of science is dying and the new is coming forth to the world, but I know we need the past just as much as we think we need the future.