Essay Questions

Illustrate one example of how the author employs the use of 'personification' in his literary work.

The author has used figurative language when he gives the computer human traits to perform things that men do. For instance, on page three, the author says that the computer can talk fluently and communicate with other systems in a meta-language to describe itself. In this illustration, the computer talks and expresses itself as a human being. Under normal circumstances, the reader understands that a computer is a nonliving object which cannot speak. However, the uses personification to beatify his work and make interesting to read. He says:

"A computer is fluent not only in the language of the system but in its meta-language – the language it uses to talk about itself and to interact with other systems – and it is sensitive to the limitations and the potential uses and abuses of that meta-language. It is, crucially, capable of both performing and responding to critique”

According to James Bridle, what is the major limitation of computational thinking?

Computational thinking is the conviction that every predicament facing human beings can be solved using computers. This has become a major problem in the current technological world. For instance, computational thinking has reduced originality and human thinking. Students are always on Google to look for solutions and answers to their school assignments. It implies that students do not want to use their brains to think any longer because everything they are looking for can be retrieved online. Besides students, some doctors and clinical officers resolve to online assistance when trying to understand the problems facing their patients. It is not surprising that many patients and drug prescriptions are based on online findings. Similarly, many people rely on online applications to solve their day-to-day troubles. What people forget is that computers are designed by humans and should not be the end of everything because they have limitations too.

Do you agree with James Bridle that technology is darkening the world instead of enlightening it?

The initiators of technology had good intentions because their primary purpose was to introduce technology to help people think and ask questions. However, consumerism of technology has impacted negatively on the objectives of technology. In this regard, people have postponed thinking to rely on technology in every aspect of life. As a result, creativity and imagination have been killed. This simply means that the world is not going to have better thinkers and creators than the initiators of technology. The reason is simple; no individual wants to think because every solution can be accessed using computer gadgets. Therefore, it is true that technology is darkening the world instead of enlightening it because the overreliance on technology discourages further innovation and thinking. This assertion is supported in the text when the author writes:

"….the abundance of information and the plurality of worldviews now accessible to us are not producing a coherent consensus reality, but one riven by fundamentalist insistence on simplistic narratives, conspiracy theories, and post-factual politics."