Essay Questions

Has Lyotard's prophesy about the future of science been fulfilled?

Lyotard predicted that there would be no future science without computerization. Everything in the modern world is reliant on computer technology. Everything, including mobile phone gadgets, is computerized. The current society is high-tech because it is connected globally through the internet. Most business transactions are done online using computer technology. Human and economic growth are both reliant on computer technology. Consequently, Lyotard was right when he predicted that future science without computerization is doomed.

What prompted the reliance on science and technology?

After World War II, people started believing in the advancement in technology because it was intended to improve life quality. Lyotard experienced the perception of people in the early 1960s and 1970s. Most people argued that technological advancement was a threat to human value systems bu8ijut others thought technology and science were unstoppable. Those who opposed the initiation of the technology claimed that technology threatened communal virtues and ideas. However, Lyotard has lived to fulfill his wishes because he wanted a society that appreciated science and technology. The current community cannot do without technology because everything is transacted using computers and the internet.

Which irony forms the central theme in 'The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge' by Jean-Francois Lyotard?

Lyotard takes his readers back to the years 1960's and 1970's when people were reluctant to acknowledge technology. In those years, most people rejected the contemporality ethos initiated during the Second World War by those who had confidence in science and technology's benefits. Ironically, the rejected culture in those years is the main backbone of the current human progress and economic growth. Most people who were young in those years are the greatest beneficiaries of science in the modern world because they can relate to how the events have changed. The thematic component of this irony is that the science that was rejected early days is part of human life in the current society.