Blog 11

Some questions that came to mind while reading are: What is the evidence that suggests that typing on a computer is worse than hand writing something in terms of retention? And did the production and sales of pencils=s decline significantly in the computer digital age?

The readings were objective in that they did not criticize the constant use of computers in today's age, but rather discussed the positive and negative aspects of the technology, more focused on the invention of the pencil and its impact. For example, I learned how complex the pencil itself has changed in design over the centuries and the impact it had on keeping records and teaching future generations in the classroom. Thoreau was not just a proponent of the pencil; it was literally his job to manufacture and produce pencils. People including him and Bill Henderson defend the pencil and quill pen. The old writing technologies like wooden pencils were more natural, and, to some, they connected to the mind in ways that a computer never will as one must physically guide the point on the end of the pencil to make marks on the pencil to create letters and word and sentences and so on. I believe the more advanced technology becomes, the more likely people will be to trust them. Another interesting aspect of the pencil was the eraser which revolutionized how people now think about writing. You don't have to think of literally every word you write down before you write and while Plato believes this tarnishes human memory, I believe that writing and revising our work by erasing it will help humans learn from their mistakes so that they don't repeat them in the future. And so I did not understand why teachers would ban the use of erasers in the classroom. Overall, while some may take the pencil for granted as simply a sharpened graphite rod in a cylindrical shell of wood, I believe the modern pencil is the result of an engineering process that has been perfected and evolved since its conception and understanding this process will help humans appreciate and strengthen our scientific knowledge of how the universe works.