Is technology killing our gut instincts and intuition?

DREW WILEY said:

My grandfather's generation was far more literate than mine. The current generation is dramatically even less literate. Of course, there are still opportunities for serious education and those still interested. But most of the population has gotten dumbed down by the Misinformation Age. It's largely about addicting millions of people to the latest and great electronic gadgets, and then getting overwhlemed by what I'd call "reverse censorship". In other words, the propagandistic use of sheer volume rather than eliminating the competition. He who has the biggest media megaphone can drown out the others. That's why Smartphones are smart - they're ectoparasites attach themselves to people's ears and suck
all their own brains out. They're behind all this new self-driving car technology - people pick up a cell phone and the car self-drives itself into the next
lane, or off the road, or into a tree. The morning commute was twice as fast and ten times safer before.

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its very easy to paint with a very broad brush.

DREW WILEY said:

My grandfather's generation was far more literate than mine. The current generation is dramatically even less literate. Of course, there are still opportunities for serious education and those still interested. But most of the population has gotten dumbed down by the Misinformation Age. It's largely about addicting millions of people to the latest and great electronic gadgets, and then getting overwhlemed by what I'd call "reverse censorship". In other words, the propagandistic use of sheer volume rather than eliminating the competition. He who has the biggest media megaphone can drown out the others. That's why Smartphones are smart - they're ectoparasites attach themselves to people's ears and suck
all their own brains out. They're behind all this new self-driving car technology - people pick up a cell phone and the car self-drives itself into the next
lane, or off the road, or into a tree. The morning commute was twice as fast and ten times safer before.

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Drew, I don't think literacy is the real issue.

There was a time in history when one could know the grand majority of human knowledge, no more. I can hardly hope to grasp the concepts that my daughter-in-law the molecular biologist deals with in the lab, I can though help her raise her children; a skill that she has much less training in.

What I have seen my whole life is 'the elders' expecting/wanting 'the young-uns' to have a foundation like 'the elders' had back when. What has changed radically in the last few hundred years is that more and more the 'young-uns' have specialized instead. Specialization, as long as one picks and promotes their specialty well, pays better and can even be better for the community.

The big practical problem for generalists is that they don't generally get rich.

Jim Noel said:

I have made 87, almost 88 trips around the sun. 66 of these were spent teaching which causes me to have a different outlook on technology and the results of its overuse. In a few words here are my observations of the effects of so much technology.
1. Even college students for the most part can not do simple mathematics without a calculator - %age for instance.
2. Multiplication, division and square root are a total mystery to many.
3. estimation is a lost skill whether it be area, distance, product of two or three large numbers, height, time, or many other areas of thought..
4. Problem solving is only done with a computer.
5. Without a cell phone or computer of some kind most have no idea of how to begin a research project no matter how large or small.
In other words, many things which are to me to be accomplished with no assistance from mechanical or digital devices are too complicated for most people who have grown up in the computer age.

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Here a challenge for those reading this thread...

• How many photographers have an ability to estimate/see 3:1. 5:1, and 7:1 subject contrast ratios in portrait lighting, and do not depend upon using light meters to measure subject lighting as 'low contrast', 'medium contrast', 'high contrast'?!
• How many have an ability to adjust flash exposure quickly on the fly, a) estimating distances to the subject and then b) knowing what aperture works for a few defined distances at an event, without having to use xTTL or a light meter?!
• If I give you $8.02 to pay for a $7.77 purchase, can figure the correct amount of money to give back in change without relying upon a calculator or the cash register to tell you how much change to give?!
• How many folks can parallel park -- without parking automated cars?

Items three and four I can do, item one I understand but don't have enough experience to carry out, item two beats me. I was educated in the 1950s/60s, mental arithmetic and parallel parking are easy, they both are skills that improve with practice.

wiltw said:

Here a challenge for those reading this thread...

• How many photographers have an ability to estimate/see 3:1. 5:1, and 7:1 subject contrast ratios in portrait lighting, and do not depend upon using light meters to measure subject lighting as 'low contrast', 'medium contrast', 'high contrast'?!

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This is an easy concept to "get" if demonstrated, in fact intuitive for those that have a preference with or without training. By definition though the precision can not be measured without some form of metering.

wiltw said:

• How many have an ability to adjust flash exposure quickly on the fly, a) estimating distances to the subject and then b) knowing what aperture works for a few defined distances at an event, without having to use xTTL or a light meter?!

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This, IMO, gets classified under 'who cares' unless you prefer using flash powder or bulbs.

wiltw said:

• If I give you $8.02 to pay for a $7.77 purchase, can figure the correct amount of money to give back in change without relying upon a calculator or the cash register to tell you how much change to give?!

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While I am fully proficient at count back, I feel counting back is well within most any 12-year-old's math capability. What is different today is that 12-year-olds are using mathematic principles to program computers.

Which is the more practical skill today?

wiltw said:

• How many folks can parallel park -- without parking automated cars?

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Paralel parking, while within my skill set, is and always has been an inefficient kluge, an after thought of the auto industry, a legacy process that needs to die.

wiltw said:

Here a challenge for those reading this thread...

• How many photographers have an ability to estimate/see 3:1. 5:1, and 7:1 subject contrast ratios in portrait lighting, and do not depend upon using light meters to measure subject lighting as 'low contrast', 'medium contrast', 'high contrast'?!
• How many have an ability to adjust flash exposure quickly on the fly, a) estimating distances to the subject and then b) knowing what aperture works for a few defined distances at an event, without having to use xTTL or a light meter?!
• If I give you $8.02 to pay for a $7.77 purchase, can figure the correct amount of money to give back in change without relying upon a calculator or the cash register to tell you how much change to give?!
• How many folks can parallel park -- without parking automated cars?

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I am good with 2, 3 and 4.

For 1, I confess my lack of experience in portraiture...

wiltw said:

Here a challenge for those reading this thread...

• How many photographers have an ability to estimate/see 3:1. 5:1, and 7:1 subject contrast ratios in portrait lighting, and do not depend upon using light meters to measure subject lighting as 'low contrast', 'medium contrast', 'high contrast'?!
• How many have an ability to adjust flash exposure quickly on the fly, a) estimating distances to the subject and then b) knowing what aperture works for a few defined distances at an event, without having to use xTTL or a light meter?!
• If I give you $8.02 to pay for a $7.77 purchase, can figure the correct amount of money to give back in change without relying upon a calculator or the cash register to tell you how much change to give?!
• How many folks can parallel park -- without parking automated cars?

Click to expand...

I did them all routinely but these days just the later two.

Mark, the problem with too much specialization is that once something else changes, you gotta adapt awfully fast yourself or go extinct. For example,
I know a lot of grads coming out of UCB with a much greater tech emphasis and remarkably little general education than in the past. IF they are somewhere near the top of the class they can get a lot of pay, BUT that gravy train can end mighty fast if their given specialty is upstaged by even
newer technology. The ones with dual degrees or some kind of hands-on apprenticeship tend to do better in the long run. Even old classical studies
like mechanical and chemical engineering are back on the rise, which were dead as a dodo for a long time. Computer and electronic engineering might be the big magnet career-wise; but it also has the greatest volume of competition. It's hard to get in. Biotech and Pharmaceutical R&D are also
hot, but perhaps even more subject to variables, including the foibles of Wall Street and reckless investing, things which can crush an otherwise viable business model overnight. More and more workers are just getting used to having a temporary job, then have to tweak their learning curve
over and over again. But literacy? Nope. The upcoming generation is only learning words analogous to grunts, devoid of vowels, that can be punched
using ones thumbs in between freeway collisions, or in the case of the campus, before being run over jaywalking while the eyes are glued to the
cell phone. Another person was killed just yesterday by an Amtrack train for that reason. It seems to happen every few weeks.

Don't forget about simple memory.

When I went to NYC and did a walk with a local photog we had some small talk with a construction worker, went from gentrification to his 50 year old "watch people nowadays not knowing phone numbers". He wins the bet on me as I only know my closest relatives numbers.

I had my birthday recently but had to be away and thought about turning off the date notification... Last year I thought about changing it to see what would (not happen). Not anyone bothered congratulating me! (Family did indeed). Even to some that had a glimpse of the date it went by unnoticed.

My brain is so saturated with names and numbers that I can hardly absorb any more. Literally thousands of customers know me on a first name basis, and I juggle zillions of products and inventory codes. Surprised I can even remember my own name at this point.

DREW WILEY said:

Mark, the problem with too much specialization is that once something else changes, you gotta adapt awfully fast yourself or go extinct.

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My point is that we, as a species, could not support the population of earth without our tech. Simply put I would postulate/guess that if all our computer tech were to fail the total human population might drop by half or maybe even a full order of magnitude before stabilizing. Lot of that is simply communication and logistics.

Well of course, technology goes back to when one rock got whacked against another and something sharp and useful got chipped off. But the history
of deceptive marketing probably goes back nearly as far. Some pathetic Homo erectus probably traded his sharpened stick for a handful of wild honey, and then got stabbed in the back with it; and the clever "marketer" walked away with both products.

The way “some” you talk about the past generations and the future sounds very pessimistic. It seems like your own interpretations and opinions have been attracted by the Technology itself.

Technology like many other things in life, should have its own limit, if not for everyone, for every individual to decide.

Out of sight, out of mind. You only have to “open your minds and see” lots of places on earth where technology (yesterday) today (tomorrow) doesn´t even exist.

wiltw said:

Here a challenge for those reading this thread...

• How many photographers have an ability to estimate/see 3:1. 5:1, and 7:1 subject contrast ratios in portrait lighting, and do not depend upon using light meters to measure subject lighting as 'low contrast', 'medium contrast', 'high contrast'?!
• How many have an ability to adjust flash exposure quickly on the fly, a) estimating distances to the subject and then b) knowing what aperture works for a few defined distances at an event, without having to use xTTL or a light meter?!
• If I give you $8.02 to pay for a $7.77 purchase, can figure the correct amount of money to give back in change without relying upon a calculator or the cash register to tell you how much change to give?!
• How many folks can parallel park -- without parking automated cars?

Click to expand...

All those questions can be successfully sorted out with common sense, time & experience (...), but two of them are technology-dependent.

Well, it's pretty obvious at the moment that our current technology has merely helped disseminate misinformation a lot more efficiently, and that people are indeed less educated. They said that about TV too; and it was true.

Mainecoonmaniac said:

As for me, I'm overly dependent on my light meter. But Fred Parker uses his intuition for his exposures. Take a look at this.

http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm

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Never heard of Fred Parker before, but glad I have now, thanks for sharing this link!

A nice basic tutorial, but otherwise... C'Mon. Who ya foolin'? At the end of the day I'll still trust my light meter more than a tip sheet. Yeah, there have been times I've sucessfully exposed even fussy chromes without a meter, but that was simply because I had subconsciously memorized a vast many analogous situations using a meter itself. "Open sun" means a completely different thing simply by driving several thousand feet higher in elevation, which is darn easy to do here in the West, not to mention a multitude of other variables.

DREW WILEY said:

A nice basic tutorial, but otherwise... C'Mon. Who ya foolin'? At the end of the day I'll still trust my light meter more than a tip sheet.

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One time when I was shooting a job, my meter said one thing, my Polaroid said another and my gut instincts said my meter is busted. I had to send it in to Minolta because it was 4 stops off.

Well at the moment we have an old Persian cat whose "gut instinct" is downright awful; and since he's nearly blind too, he sometimes doesn't make it to his litter box on time. In other words, this is not a particularly good day to be speaking about getting to work late due to guts and end-stinks! And as far as meters go, I keep several Pentax digital meters, and every one of them precisely matches in full linearity. One meter is set aside new to serve as a reference to all the others, and the battery only inserted for temporary testing purposes. But the furthest any of them have ever been off from one another is 1/3EV in the lower scale; and I had even that recalibrated. I also once had a Minolta Spotmeter F which precisely matched the Pentax meters.

These threads boil down to one question - are we becoming happier as a species? The answer is of course, yes and no. Yes, we don't succumb to scarlet fever, tetanus, whooping cough or getting trapped in fast moving machinery so often, and no, we spend inordinate amounts of time staring at computer monitors and getting hypertension, when we should be out chopping wood and listening to bird call. Example, I loved crafting silver prints from light and chemicals in a darkroom, a pleasure currently denied me by lack of facilities. However when I was compelled to do it for money, and produced prints against the clock for paying clients, it wasn't half so much fun and at times I felt as in harness and benighted as a pit pony.

I also mistrust the religious zeal with which whole sections of the population suck up the latest innovation, making the new iPhone (or whatever) less an incremental improvement on an existing technology, but a cause for international rejoicing, billions of words, Big Brother style promotion and trigger for crime sprees and one-upmanship. With so much technology the problem isn't the can-do nature of the innovation, but the denial of former ways of doing things. Manual control of exposure used to be rely on a couple of large and easily accessed dials. Now the same decisions require much less ergonomically friendly controls, and may even involve delving around in menus to achieve. The expectation is you'll do things "our way" and if an alternative exists it will inevitably be less convenient.

In addition to the curmudgeonliness of old men, which is nothing new, current technology seems to challenge previous ideas of what it means to be human in unprecedented ways. These all require doing things "their way", and the alternatives, and our capacity to say "no thanks" are diminishing all the time. What makes us happy has nothing to do with efficiency, convenience or continued consumption of retail goods.

Is this a bad way of making things?

Perfectly said!

blockend said:

I also mistrust the religious zeal with which whole sections of the population suck up the latest innovation, making the new iPhone (or whatever) less an incremental improvement on an existing technology, but a cause for international rejoicing, billions of words, Big Brother style promotion and trigger for crime sprees and one-upmanship.

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I have mixed feeling about smart phones. Everywhere I go, people are staring into these gizmos. There's a whole culture stemming from people always being connected. There's TMI, cyberbullying, constant humble bragging, bragging, and internet trolls that feel powerful making people feel bad. If one is fully participating in the culture, there's a heavy price to pay. There are people killing themselves from cyberbullies, feeling inadequate from what other people have posted on Facebook, and even some are living fake lives of luxury on the internet. I think we need more introspection and digital detoxing from social media. I try to use smart phones by participating what is useful and forgetting the rest. It's really hard.

Are we a happier species? Interesting question. Not today. Give me a day hiking with my view camera, or in the darkroom, and I'm a happier
species!

blockend said:

...
Is this a bad way of making things?
...

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Thank you for posting that - that is good honest work I'd be proud to do.





(edit: the cinematography and lighting was excellent)

blockend said:

Is this a bad way of making things?

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As a fun hobby, no.
As a business, yes.

Those machines may be fun but they are also are inefficient and dangerous.

markbarendt said:

As a fun hobby, no.
As a business, yes.

Those machines may be fun but they are also are inefficient and dangerous.

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Inefficient - so what? As long as there's no CEO, board of directors, or stockholders, and those that work there are happy with the financial aspects of their operation, who cares?

I think that's the point: it's a business and a hobby.