Machines and tools have given us the ability to do more in less time, giving us at the same time, more comfort. As the technology advances, computers become faster and more powerful.
These new machines are enabling us to do more in less time making our lives easier. The increased use of computers in the future, however, might have negative results and impact on our lives.
In the novel ‘Nine Tomorrows’ Isaac Asimov often criticizes our reliance on computers by portraying a futuristic world where computers control humans. One of the images, which Asimov describes in the book, is that humans might become too dependent on computers.
In one of the stories – Profession, Asimov writes that people would no longer read books to learn and improve their knowledge. People would rely on the computers rather than ‘try to memories enough to match someone else who knows’.
People would not choose to study; they would only want to be educated by computer tapes. Putting in knowledge would take less time than reading books and memorising something that would take almost no time using a computer in the futuristic world. Humans might begin to rely on computers and indirectly allow themselves to be controlled by computers being educated by it.
Computers would start teaching humans without having any choice of creativity. Computer would start to control humans’ lives and make humans become too dependent on the computers. Another point that is criticised by Asimov is die fact that people might take their knowledge for granted allowing computers to take over and control their lives. In a story called ‘The Feeling of Power,’ Asimov portrays how people started using computers to do even simple mathematical calculations.
Over a long period of time people became so reliable on computers that they forgot die simplest multiplication and division rules. If someone wanted to calculate an answer they would simply use their pocket computer