Approach the Moral and Philosophical Implications

¶ … Moral and Philosophical Implications Well technology has existed with humans from the time they have started moving in the world. At first it was quite simple as the objective of humans was to hunt animals for their daily meals and this was done by both men and women. This is no surprise as God, or whoever put humans into the world probably did not distinguish between the sexes, except for their roles in procreation and continuation of the species.

This is now being forgotten by the species and the number of children per pair is falling, and may be that would lead us to a situation where the species would have to be sustained through the test tube. Whether that would improve the quality of the specie one doubts, as is seen through the situation that has now developed in agriculture where the crops have to be sustained with the support of a lot of chemicals and other fertilizers, etc.

when man comes to this state, their possible contribution to mankind would be doubtful. Well, it is probably true that we are digressing from the authors that we are to talk about, and that is only natural as every human being prefers to blow his own trumpet and that is what we have been doing till now, blowing our own trumpet or giving out our own philosophy about man and societal development.

The first of these pieces "The Dynamo and the Virgin" by Henry Adams is probably the most technical and the language does not reflect English language as it has developed today. A lot of bombastic words, and probably those show off his personal education do not do much good for the poor reader. He probably does not understand what has been written and this would probably stop him from reading somewhere in between.

Let us first remember that the age of the printed literature has probably ended and most of the reading by today's young men is done on the computer, and here the stoppage of reading is simple -- press a button on the computer. The writing talks about the introduction of an ordinary person to developed technology, and the technology that is being talked about is outdated.

This is natural as technology was only at that level when the piece was written, and this makes it not worth reading today except as a historical piece and probably only for the purpose of reviewing it. It also talks about the fact the person who was supposed to be the expert in technology and taking the visitor around the place also did not know much. This is true as the job of attending to visitors is not jobs for experts.

Have you ever dreamt that Einstein would have had a job taking people around in an exhibition, and if he had, would he have been Einstein? Again, we are getting into semantics and criticism, and that is not the job, the job is to review the piece. The philosophy in the piece is correct and probably true at all times. The morals are probably neutral as there is no clear morals in the entire write up.

At the same time, the language is very bombastic and that would probably drive away a lot of the readers today. When we take into account changes, let us remember that changes take place in every part of human development, and it is through the process of change that human development takes place.

The reference to dynamos are real life dynamos and in the piece it is written as "To him, the dynamo itself was but an ingenious channel for conveying somewhere the heat latent in a few tons of poor coal hidden in a dirty engine-house carefully kept out of sight; but to Adams the dynamo became a symbol of infinity." The virgin that is referred to is also a concept that is found very difficult to understand by Americans and is referred in the book as "The Venus of Epicurean philosophy survived in the Virgin of the Schools." (The Dynamo and the Virgin (1900)) The second book that we are to talk about, "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque is quite famous and has had much appreciation through criticism and films made on the book.

The concentration of Remarque is on the collapse of the old European Values and that world. He later on wrote other novels which also gained popularity, but this first novel is the one that brought him the early success. The point to note that his ancestors were French, but the name was converted to a German name in the early part of the nineteenth century.

Initially he had enlisted at the University of Munster, but later had to join the army in the War on the German side when he reached the age of 18. He fought on the Western Front and during the course of the War was wounded. (Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970) - pseudonym for Erich Paul Remark - (the German name Kramer spelled backward?)) The book is a strong criticism of war in itself, and this is probably the correct point-of-view, though it is not understood.

The author's reasons for taking this view can be well understood considering his background. The concentration of the book is on development experienced by one of the main groups in the book, Paul and his comrades. The action of all the people here is quite common and the world has probably become a lot more immune to it than it was when the book was written -- 1929.

There have been a lot more wars, and in different countries, and with a lot more technology which has now reduced the importance of the soldiers. The book is probably to be viewed more along the lines of cowboy stories than a real war that people of this age can relate to it. At the same time, the cowboys were heroes, and so are the young boys referred to you.

The war is long, and that is also something that does not happen today, at least in the view of the group which thinks it will be winning the conflict. (All Quiet on the Western Front) Remember what George Bush had to say about his adventures in Iraq, and that war is supposed to have ended, though the American deaths continue.

On the other hand the people who were expected to be overrun in a period of weeks, by all the nations of the world -- that is why all the nations of the world then showed apparent solidarity with America -- the Iraqis, are still fighting on. One may call them to be terrorists or whatever name that one chooses to. And, that was the name given to the Vietnamese, in the 1960s. Yet these presumed losers fight on and in the end succeed in inflicting defeats.