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SteveAustin

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Everything posted by SteveAustin

  1. Issue : To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities. Most of the major cities in the world , be it New York or London or Beijing or Bombay, are cosmopolitan. People from different parts of the country , if not from different parts of the world , reside in these cities. The main reason for these cities being diverse is the diverse employment opportunities available in these cities. Major cities have firms ranging from electronics and software to pharma and automobile industries which attract people from other cities (or states too). In developed countries like US even the best education facilities attract young minds from all over the world making the country as diverse as possible. From the aforementioned points the apparent conclusion appears to be statement mentioned - 'Society's characteristics can be understood from major cities'. But this dogma is partially true. The diversity present in these major cities make the people learn about each other's culture,tradition, work ethics etc. Most of the citizens residing in the major cities have decent educational background which helped them in securing jobs. This basic education and exposure to the diversity in these cities would definitely shape them better in terms of being rationale and pragmatic. Apart from that the recent advances in technology , say the social media, is mostly accesible in the cities. In general people are radical and pragmatic in approaching a situation rather than being bound by superstitious or chauvinistc beliefs. The quite contrasting scenario can be found in the towns or rural areas where the diversity is far less when compared to the cities. If we look at the rural areas in poor or developing countries , say African or Asian countries, people are still bogged by the chauvinistic beliefs that men are superior to women , women should not work and should always stay indoors , girls don't have the right to study (for example the case of the Nobel Prize Winner , Malala) etc. The caste and religious sentiments always stay at the helm - be it marriage or any traditional function. There are many cases where newly wed inter-caste couple have been burned alive or expelled from the village or town. These are just few drops in the ocean. These situations are not observed in the cities where woman do work, girls are sent to school , inter religion marriages are slowly being accepted and people are far more rational in their approach. The way the rural society responds to a problem is very different from how an urban society approaches the same problem.
  2. Task : As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate. The author's opinion on the effect of technological devices on the thinking ability of a human being appears to be moot. The last century witnessed revolutions ranging from electronics to automobiles to agriculture and various other fields. Most of these revolutions (or evolutions) had a positive effect on mankind. The author appears to find fault with technology rather than the person who is either using it or applying it. A simple example would be the use of calculator. Calculators are generally used to solve difficult arithmetic problems. But there are people who overuse it even for simple calculations. This may be due to the person being lethargic , if it's a child he has not developed the basic arithmetic skills which may be due to introducing the calculator at an early age. This illustrates that technology ,if used judiciously , would cause no harm and infact would be beneficial. The author seems to be under the impression that all the problems that can be solved using technology can be solved by humans on paper. This is grossly incorrect. For example , consider numerical methods. Numerical methods generally involve an iterative process which can be solved on paper if the no. of iterations are few but becomes quite complicated if the no. of iterations go beyond a particular number. It is for this reason that computers are being used to solve these problems and the continual increase in the processing power is complementing the use of technology. The classic example would be the 'Travelling Salesman Problem'. As it is previously mentioned the effect of technology on human beings would depend on human beings use it. Overuse may turn out to be detrimental but judicious use will ever be beneficial.
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