Human Consciousness Essay -- Technology, ICT

Technological developments assume an integral part of human history. In the recent years, studies indicate that the advances in technology have penetrated into the human way of life thus changing the daily life of people. One area of human life that has been affected by technology is the human consciousness (Halal, 2008). The emergence of new technologies has led to greater impact on the human form of consciousness. It is noted that information, communication and technologies have affected the human consciousness in more profound ways. Studies also indicate that the predominant application and use of technology has led to a change in the human consciousness especially concerning the cognition, sense of self, perception and memory of individuals. This paper seeks to critically analyze the impact of communication, information and technology on these elements of the human consciousness. Studies indicate that consciousness and the mind have been dominated by the modern technology. However, it appears more problematic to understand consciousness and the outstanding issues that surround the effects of technology on the mind. There are numerous theorist and authors who have tired to define the word consciousness based on their disciplines. This paper adopts ray kurzweil definition of what consciousness means. He defined consciousness as a subjective experience that makes human beings to have a sense of self-perception and self awareness. Based on this definition, consciousness implies that consciousness is what determines human survival. Consequently, it can be argued that with the emergence of new technologies, the human survival has undergone tremendous changes that have changed how people feel, imagine,cuture and beliefs, choice, ac... ...d memory which has changed the brain structure where many people use technology memory devices rather than there brains for keeping memory of ideas or experience. This is said to result to degradation of the human memory where individual l cannot remember information because of overreliance on technological memory devices (Elsweiler, Ruthven & Jones, 2007). In sum, impact of technology on consciousness is immense. In both practical and theoretical terms, technology present greater opportunities for development of human consciousness while at the same time remaining a bigger threat to it. Nevertheless, if people have to realize the most benefit from these technologies on development of consciousness, there is need to embrace its positive value while working toward reducing its negative aspects on the development of sense of self, cognition, perception and memory.