The Evolution of Speed Through Technology
Virilio and Gleick use speed as an analytic tool/concept to understand post-contemporary society. Both authors trace the
evolution of speed through technology. However, Virilio sees the evolution of speed through war and Gleick analyses speed
through the evolution of "time". Virilio?s technological military determinism in ?Speed and Politics? illustrates how we lost
slowness through technology and further more how it was developed for the purposes, and from the logic, of war. In ?Faster?,
James Gleick provides context for the complexity of post-industrial life and its transformation by technology. He tries to
define our relationship with ?time? to understand post-contemporary society. He places our culture's infatuation with speed into
a context; historically, technically, and psychologically. Gleick dissects time, showing us how the ability to measure time in
ever more exact ways has affected us and the world in which we live in. He claims: ?if we don?t understand time, we become its
victims?. Gleick and Virilio?s technological determinism illustrates that technology, not humanity, is responsible for
determining the direction and development of human life.
Virilio argues that the city, politics, culture, human presence and values are decaying due to the speed/acceleration of life.
?We are passengers of the empty circle who only wish to arrive before they leave. Speed is a perfect will to impotence?. Virilio
uses speed as an analytic tool to theorize a post-contemporary society. He develops his post-structuralist critique through the
lens of his new methodology, ?dromology?; the science, and study...
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...hnologies have crept into and militarized civilian lives. He illustrates
the interdependence between speed, technology, and war. Gleick?s meditation on hurriedness illustrates how those technologies
have altered our perception of time, which in turn has altered the individual?s concept of self. We are in a rush. We are making
haste. A compression of time characterizes the post-contemporary society. Stress, an adrenaline rash, and mania, are symptom of
the speed sickness, a result of the rapid march of technological progress. We hurry up and wait, in doctors' offices, traffic
jams, airport gates, on hold with the tech line. An inflexible networked system needs only one glitch, a delayed flight, to
starts an inexorable ripple effect that can turn into a catastrophic tidal wave.
Bibliography:
virilio, speed nad politics and gleicks faster
In Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, Douglass Rushkoff discusses his interpretation of the relationship of society and rapidly evolving technology. He believes that as technology progresses, society becomes increasingly dependent on it and eventually loses touch with the traditional sense of time and reality. Through the book Rushkoff makes several insightful observations about the development of society and how technologies were often the driving force behind these “Present Shocks.”
Advancements in technology and science contributed to one of the most gory and bloodiest wars in the annals of human existence. These new technological advancements revolutionized how people regarded war. War was no longer where the opposite forces fought in a coordinated battle. War evolved into a game of cunning strategy where the side with the bigger, more powerful, and smarter toys played better. This led to a fierce competition where each side tried to create the smarter machines and better weapons, leading to deadly mass killing weapons in the process.
John McTaggart in his essay “Time” presents a radical argument that claims time is unreal. While the argument is interesting and has attracted much attention for his arguments, I remain unconvinced of the argument he makes. This paper will lay out McTaggart’s argument that time in unreal, critically analyze why I believe McTaggart’s argument fails and present an alternative idea about time, utilizing aspects of McTaggart’s argument.
Here at the end of the millennium, the pace of modern life seems fleeting -- a
Life has changed tremendously in the past till date. Many changes have occurred both in the social, economic, and political facets of life. There are many changes still occurring with the evidence of shifting from old ways to new lifestyles in evident across the board. Lifestyles have also taken a different turn in the event that most people do not live in the old patterns and beliefs of life. Many people have thus not only forsaken the old ways and lifestyles but it is also important to embrace the idea and truth that the world has taken a different angle in every aspect. Technology has introduced various notes that have influenced the turn of events. Today, every feature of society is manipulated through the eye of technology, knowledge,
accentuates the ideas these impressions create in order to affirm the idea that time flies so we
In many lives, change is constantly happening. The economics, cultural values, and social ideals are different today from many years ago. For example, men many years ago rely on literature, libraries, and endless hours of searching for sources in order to make speeches and write stories, and they also had different modes of transportations such as trains. On the other hand, in today’s society, it is easier to find sources and to do research because of the advanced technology, and it is also unchallenging to travel due to the innovations of cars and airplanes. With this being said, it is idealistic that change has a positive impact on society due to the advancement of technology and new methods of transportations, and those changes attribute
We are always demanding more advanced machinery, and from the past, we have grown into a much more technological society. Lately, more and more people not only want more technology, they want them to be quicker. Things such as quicker computers, quicker connections to the internet, better cell phone connections, pagers, cars with more power, voice mail, palm pilots, etc. are in greater demand. People don't want to waste time anymore. We want things done quicker without as much effort. We want things to take less time to do them so we can have more time for other things. Their society is exactly like ours. Besides having advanced technological machines, they also have much larger speed limits, so people could get where they want a lot faster. Clarisse and Montag make it obvious to the reader that they live in a fast-paced world when they first meet each other. Before Clarisse runs into her house, they notice how fast drivers go that they "'don't know what grass is, or flowers because they never see them slowly,' she said. 'If you showed a driver a green blur, Oh yes! he'd say, that's grass! A pink blur! That's a rose garden! White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days'"(9). Their speed limit is so high that everything that they see seems like blurs. They never see objects; they only see colors. Our speed limit isn't as high as theirs is, but people usually go much faster than the speed limit is.
This paper will summarize two papers related to the article “Awe Expands people’s Perception of Time, Alters Decision Making, and Enhances Well-Being” by Melanie Rudd, Kathleen D.Vohs, and Jennifer Aaker. The paper will also compare and contrast the three peer-reviewed article’s strengths and weakness and whether the findings are complementary or contradictory. The validity of the studies and the implication and limitations of the results will also be discussed.
Felstad’s article titled Rapid Change or Slow Evolution looks at the way in which people who want more freedom within their occupation are moving their jobs outside of their offices, in order to create more leisure time for things they enjoy. These changes of location carry a multitude of benefits, but since the increase of technology, work is able to happen anywhere, which is beneficial to some people (and detrimental to others). This relates to the mention of the increase in technology within In Praise of Slow, as well as relates to Hungwe’s article titled Identity, Self-Interpretation and Workplace Change: An Investigation of the Work Activity of Machining. This article examines technology and how it is reducing the amount of physical labour needed within technological jobs, which means decreasing labour time and providing more free time for the workers. Overall, it is clear that all of the articles that have been mentioned offer some sort of insight into the field of slow work, and how it is becoming increasingly more popular as time goes on. This can only mean good things for the future of many societal institutions, including
People check the time throughout the day, every day, making time essential to lives. The intrinsic importance of time is twofold: biologically people have an internal clock to regulate the most basic behaviors like breathing, sleeping, and blinking, and socially, time regulates daily lives like communication, farming, and business keeping. In fact, Eviatar Zerubavel, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University, argues that standard time is one of the “most essential” elements of the “social world”; social life is made possible with the ability to relate time (Zerubavel 2). Therefore, any change in the perception of time marks modification in thinking or an alteration to the social fabric. Throughout history perceived time has changed: sundials
Each aspect is important to see how a society has changed over time and the differences between the past and now. Walking through the neighborhood I observed not only how modernity is displayed over the town through the past and present existing side by side of one
Throughout the centuries, society has been given men ahead of their time. These men are seen in both actual history, and in fictional accounts of that history. Aristotle, Copernicus, Galileo, Bacon, and even Freud laid the framework in their fields, with revolutionary ideas whose shockwaves are still felt today. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and so society has also possessed those how refuse to look forward, those who resisted the great thinkers in science and civilization. The advancement of science and technology is like the flick of a light switch; research may be slow and tedious, but once discoveries are made, they are not long hidden. In contrast, advancement in the ideas of ethics and human values come slowly, like the rising of the sun; there are hints at advancement for a long time before the next step is ready to be made. Because of this, science and technology takes off in leaps and bounds before human values have awakened to find society moving again.
“It was a new discovery to find that these stories were, after all, about our own lives, were not distant, that there was no past or future that all time is now-time, centred in the being.” (Pp39.)
The world that we live now is the place that time before was witnessed of a great transformation of society and life overall. A lot of changes have made us and our life better. A great transformation has lead us to a new way of living, new opportunities and experiences which has made our life better, by this making us more eager to look forward for new things and explore its advantages. This transformation occurred mostly in the 19-20 th century and this phase was named as modernity. A plurality of changes faced out the people life’s, making them satisfied with those changes and in the same time confused. In commons sense, we as humans are not always in favor of changes, and sometimes we refuse to deal with them. “To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world – and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, and everything we are. Modern environments and experiences cut across all boundaries of geography and ethnicity, of class and nationality, of religion and ideology: in this sense, modernity can be said to unite all mankind.”(Berman 1).Meaning that, in order to be modern and basically to live through this phase we have to adopt this changes and follow them, making them part of everyday life. By this in mind people know that their life will change in dramatically way .Some of those adventures will grow us together and some of them will put as apart. These changes of modernity are reflected a in the paper of Edgar Allan Poe “The Man of the Crowd” . A mysterious story which leads to an ambiguous reading, “The Man of the Crowd” tends to represent the new era of transformation. This manifesto t...