Model Summary “Computers and the Pursuit of Happiness” Essay

In his article Computers and the Pursuit of Happiness, David Gelernter examines the wallop of computers in the life-time of mankind. He addresses three capitulums whether computers and the internet started a new information date, whether computers feed been good for the human race, and whether they exit have a positive impress in the next half century. For the first question, Gelernters answer is no because, according to him, computers havent reduced our basic needs for things much(prenominal) as food, clothing, shelter and one another, nor has it decreased our need for physical stuff. He looks at the three arguments that people who claim that we are in a new information age make we have new machines that apprize create, store and deliver information, that computer networks have conquered geography and that these are happy machines.He contradicts all three claims. First, he says computers are only the in vogue(p) in a series of inventions that started us in the information age in the early 20th century. Second, mankind had already started to conquer length through infrastructure and technology. Finally, there had been many other intelligent machines in the lead computers such as the thermostat, the electrical system in a car, travel machines, radio, TV, electricity and so on. However, he concedes that computers have had a big impact in science and engineering since it is cheaper and more than efficient to use computational models in research in those fields. Next, Gelernter addresses the question whether computers have been good for mankind. He contends that if human beings are poor or ignorant, they need more wealth and information.In this country, most people are above the threshold of distress and ignorance hence, what computers bring into their life doesnt matter much except composition people are in the process of acquiring more wealth and information. Despite the wealth and information computers have generated, human happiness hasnt incr eased on the whole. Although technology does change social structures, the important question is whether those new social structures are better than the old ones. Gelernter says it is impossible to equivalence the two because the new ones have more machine ingredients whereas the old ones had more human ingredients.Finally, to the question whether computers will benefit human race in the next half-century, Gelernter responds by saying that computers and software are bringing in new possibilities and structures. Online schools make it possible for lessons to be presented and learned in ship canal that would not be possible otherwise. Although he would prefer face-to-face training by live teachers, he thinks due to the state of affairs in the American school system, software based teaching seems like the ruff hope.Gelernter concludes the article by saying that computers may be stronger, faster and more intelligent than humans, but the uniqueness of mankind lie beyond strength, rep air and intellect and he hopes in the future computer technology will show us how human beings can build extraordinary machines and, ultimately, how purposeless these machines are.