"As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate"

The Issue - As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

My Plan

• Ways in which technology requires human thinking
• "Ability of humans to think for themselves" - academic, emotional, social, moral intelligence
• Stance - Middle ground

For

• reliance on technology leads to dependency; we come to rely on problem-solving technologies to such a degree that when they fail, we are in worse shape than if we didn’t have them in the first place
• everyday technologies such as calculators and cash registers have decreased our ability to perform simple calculations, a “use it or lose it” approach to thinking ability

Against

• developing, implementing, and using technology requires problem solving
• technology frees us from mundane problem solving (e.g., calculations) and allows us to engage in more complex thinking
• technology provides access to information otherwise unavailable technology connects people at a distance and allows them to share ideas
• technology is dependent on the human ability to think and make choices (every implementation of and advance in technology is driven by human intelligence and decision making)

Middle

• may diminish some mental skill sets, it enables other (perhaps more important) types of thinking to thrive
• the value or detriment of relying on technology is determined by the individual (or society) using it or that only those who develop technology (i.e., technical specialists) are maintaining their problem-solving skills, while the rest of us are losing them

The Essay

The statement references to a controversy that has been a point of contention throughout history - what is the trade-off we make every time we integrate a new technology and is it worth it? Throughout history, innovation has always lead to the adaptation of human lifestyle but with each advancement we have made we have left something behind. Learning how to start a fire brought humans out of caves and paved the way for the establishment of civilizations and cultures, but this came at the loss of our physical strength, nomadic culture and meat-heavy diets. No matter how you perceive this situation, the benefits are clearly outweighing the drawbacks. Furthermore, technology is dependent on the human ability to think and make choices, so without the active implementation of human intelligence the technology is useless. It can be said that the value or detriment of relying on technology is determined by the individual using it and that those who develop technology or use it to make further advancements are still maintaining their problem-solving skills, while the rest of us are losing them.

Compared to any time in the history of the human race, scientific progress is unprecedented in this century. For comparison, we can look back to times when computing devices, an inseparable part of our lives today, were not invented. It is easy to imagine the hardship they had to undergo with each tedious calculation and the efforts to keep historic records in stacks of papers. The importance of data storage and computations is unparalleled even now, but can be accomplished much more easily by computers, leaving humans with higher level problems to tackle with more complex thinking. For example, the human genome project which requires a significant amount of computation power to understand the intricate details of our genetical structure, would not have been considered possible just a few centuries ago. A project of this level, completed by scientists working together all over the world, would not have been possible without technology connecting people at a distance and allowing them to share ideas and information. Technology and our reliance on it is an enhancement, an inevitable part of evolution, and not a replacement for our thinking abilities.

Human beings no longer need to refine their calculation speed, which has led to diminishment in this mental skill set, but that does not mean the thinking and problem solving is not occurring anymore. In contrast, the development of technology has only seemed to encourage our minds to reach farther and break even more barriers. This innate desire to solve problems has propelled us to create technology that has eased our life, increased security, opened up new opportunities in business and led us to explore the furthest corners of the universe. Although, the downsides of many inventions, starting from their pernicious effect on our health to the degradation of the environment, has time and again led us to question whether technology is a bane or boon. Nevertheless, the best possible ways to tackle those downsides were also presented by people equipped with advanced technologies. Today, people strive to solve problems in the field of climate change, astronomy, medicine, etc, which would not have seen the light of the day without the technologies that empower us. Surely, technology has not deteriorated our problem solving and thinking skills, rather enhanced it by equipping us with sophisticated tools that have positively multiplied our cognitive ability.