The Technology of Peace!

Socrates states that people will learn many things but know nothing. That is, that they will not evaluate what they have learned. Since one cannot ask words to expand upon what they said (due to their inherent permanence and unchanging nature), one has to learn only what is said by the words. Socrates, in his method of teaching, uses the method of asking questions to the student. He seeks to identify flaws and inconsistencies in logic and reasoning. One cannot ask the page a question and expect an answer any different from what is written there. Additionally, the page is unthinking and uncaring. It doesn’t matter to the book who reads it, or for what reason it is read. The same written words can be used for many different purposes, for good or evil. A book cannot protest its use, cannot say “that’s not what I said” simply because it cannot speak. A book is unalterable, and there lies its strength and weakness. If we become a writing culture, we lose the ability to question the information that we learn. Also, if we become accustomed to learning without examining, we become unable to judge anything that we learn. According to Socrates, this deprives us of reason and thinking. I feel that Goody would not agree with Socrates, because he asserts that oral and written information can coexist. Socrates fears that his method of teaching will die out, and the written method will replace it. Goody identifies the symbiotic relationship between the two technologies. He states that neither is in danger of dying out, and that there is no real conflict between the two. Both the written and the oral compliment each other, and will continue to be used.



Technology, in each era, has come to commonly mean the technology of that era. In our terms, technology is the computer and the internet, the digital of the silicon born. In the years before, the technology was the car, the radio, the horse drawn carriage. All of these technologies are hard technologies. They can be touched, they can be listened to, and they can be used to move the world. But there is one invention that has changed more than the wheel. Language as a technology has defined the way that we think, act and relate to other people. It allows us to make endeavors past the scope of our individual abilities. Language allows us to have effects beyond our own physical presence. Writing takes language and makes it permanent. Language is extended from simply the oral tradition into something that can last for years, travel across generations, and exchange information with other cultures. In terms of its impact, language is definitely a technology. Therefore, the transcription of language into a permanent form is technology. I do not agree that the definition of technology should be “expanded” to include writing, because it already includes writing. The definition does not have to be expanded to encompass something that it already contains.