However, don't computers allow people to obtain more knowledge than ever before? Haven't computers proved to help aid society in many ways- advancing medicine, obtaining more knowledge of how the world works, allowing advancements in math, science, better communication with people halfway across the world. Have people not been able to gain more knowledge than ever before due to computers that have a seemingly infinite amount of information now at their fingerprints. Things like 'wikihopping' where one goes from countless links to another on such sites like Wikipedia where you read articles and cilck from one to another can bestow upon hours and hours of time dedicated to furthering such knowledge.
The internet is ull of knowledge, the usefulness of it is debatable- but it undoubtedly keeps a constant supply of new and fresh information updated. Also, for instance, how does one exactly 'discover' what it's like on Jupitar. A person cannot simply go and step onto the gas planet without either dying first from lack of oxygen, or freezing to death, or well, any of the combined in a painful manner. So wouldn't it be logical to use the internet to gain the knowledge and then be able to formulate an educated opinion of it. What about numbers, mathematicians and scientists use computers to sort and solve things. DNA- they would need computers to map out the strands, something that a human could never possibly do- or at least finish in a timely manner. If it takes a computer (take the genome project for example) years to finish, it would take a human centuries.
Would Thoreau not be supportive of the computers for their aiding of human knowledge? We know he supports independence, forming one's own opinions. But to form one's own opinions, would they not need to have a basis for forming an opinion. Are computers not just tools to expand our horizons, our views? Can they not also be cited, like books when researching? Computers are sources to prove information and knowledge right? So undoubtedly, wouldn't Thoreau support something that would help people gain information and be able to then use this information to be independent and form their own opinions?
