Andrew Vang You You are writing a paper on a topic that you have presented. You remember all the other papers you have written in your life and how you have changed or improved to make the papers you have written better. This is a small scale example of the question of how has h umanity learned from its past? This question is very broad so the ke y viewpoints will be narrowed down to three main points environment!agriculture" technology" and human interaction. #irst up is about environment and agriculture ag riculture and how we have learned from the past to constantly improve and become better at farming and preserving the world we live in. $The present nature and complexity of socioecological systems are heavily contingent on the past" we cannot fully appreciate the present condition without going back decades" centuries" or even millennia% &'ostan(a" et al.). There have been many advances in the way we approach agriculture and farming to improve production and maintenance of the land we grow them on. There have been man y implementations such as better irrigation systems" improved planting techniques such as crop rotating to help the ground replenish nutrients" and better things to use on plants such as new fertili(ers and planting tools. *ith these improvements to agriculture also comes concern for the environment and an d all that it encompasses. There are a lot of o f people who are concerned with the way crops and livestock are raised now and they raise many questions on what is exactly in our food that we eat. A lot of people fear the idea of chemical additives or genetically modified food. Although many people are skeptical of these things+ the a dditives and modified foods are generally harmless. $#ood additives are ch emicals that keep food fresh or enhance its color" flavor" or texture. ,ome people are sensitive to food additives" but this is rare% &-etter ealth 'hannel). Agriculture has improved by great leaps and bounds and any mishaps mishaps
in it are always learned from and quickly corrected to make a better more efficient agricultural structure and better and improved food for the population. /any people also argue that humanity is destroying and polluting the environment and hurting everyone that resides in it. According to the 0ational 1esources 2efense 'ouncil" the 3.,.4s most effective effective environmental action group" states $5utdoor air pollution is associated with over one million deaths and countless coun tless illnesses each year across the globe.% They also go on to talk about important issues such as how we treat the environment" safe drinking water. 5thers also like to argue on the issues of pollution on the environment and lack of care for it. Although there are many who speak out saying we don4t take enough care of the environment we have done a lot of things improve and reduce pollution. 6ven in the past hundred or so years we have done many things to improve the environment. 6xamples of this include preserving certain endangered wildlife and p lants and replanting trees in areas where we have harvested trees for lumber. umanity has also learned the harmful ways of acting and many" even some governments" have taken action to reduce pollution or destruction of the environment in many ways. A prime example of this is the 'lean Air Act. Act. The 67A &6nvironmental 7rotection Agency) states $'lean Air Act Act programs have lowered the levels of of six common pollutants 8 particles" o(one" lead" carbon monoxide" nitrogen dioxide" sulfur dioxide 8 as well as numerous toxic pollutants.% 0ow there are many things such as regulations and procedures that many have to follow to keep within guidelines of these laws that protect the environment. 9f you look back a bit further further you would see that few few of these things were were practiced if at all. The views of the agriculture!environment has greatly changed since the past and we are constantly learning to improve and better understand the environment.
Technology Technology is probably one of the biggest things we have been b een able to learn from and advance from by looking at our past. There are so many cases of this that has happened already and so many more cases going on even now. 9n the past" societies have benefited from many great technological advancements that today toda y most wouldn4t even consider as technology. The invention of the wheel is one. $The oldest known wheel found in an archaeological excavation is from /esopotamia and dates to around :;<< -'. 9t seems it was a potter4s wheel% &Ancient= 5rigins). 5ver the years the wheel has been used to make the lives of everyone easier" especially when it came to transportation. 9t was later improved b y many different methods such as making the wheels smaller or bigger and even changing the material a wheel is made out of from wood to rubber has made the wheel much better as a better developed tech. The wheel was not only used in transportation" but it was also used in v arious places such as mills or as gears to help quicken the process and make it easier for things to run smoothly. 6verything we own or use on a daily basis has been an innovation that was touched on and improved so that it would make our lives easier. 6xamples of these is how we have evolved over the years to use more electricity elec tricity instead of fire and using computers and web more to save on paper usage and waste or how we went from walking to cart and horse to riding cars that are self=powered and does not rely on manpower to move. 6ven in the past century we have seen many technological improvements such as better cars" computers" phones" and even television. A ma>or example would be the ob>ect that no one cannot not have nowadays" the phone. The phone has undergone many changes and continues to go through many changes even as speak. The phone as we all know used to be a big receiver with dials that was hung around your home. Then it became mobile but was still too big to effectively carry around. $9n @:" the /otorola 2ynaTA' 2ynaTA' <<
first truly mobile phone because it was small enough to carry% &The Art 9nstitutes). Then later it was improved upon and the purpose of the phone changed chan ged completely. *hat *hat once was >ust a device used for talking could now no w take pictures and send messages too. *e further learned from this and now we have today the modern phone that can surf the net" play games" as well as talk and text people. The phone was improved so much that it became a tool in our daily lives that is irreplaceable. ,ome people even >oke >o ke &or maybe they are serious) about having their entire lives on their phone. These are essential reasons why we must also look back on history and try to be better than it" especially when it comes to technology because we constantly must improve so that we can be one on e step ahead of how we were before. *e have to learn from the past to improve otherwise we will get complacent and stop being one step better than our predecessors. There are however" some people who are against ag ainst the advancement of technology. technolog y. Bevin Belly" ,enior /averick at *ired *ired maga(ine" wrote an article that compiled a list of all the reasons many are against the advancement advance ment of technology. Belly states" $9 think there are four basic arguments against technology with many sub=reasons. 9n summary Technology Technology should be reduced as much as possible because it is contrary to nature and!or humanity" and!or technology itself and finally" finally" because it is a type of evil and thus is contrary to Cod.% Belly then goes into detail about these topics like how we are destroying the environment with things such as pollution" how we are destroying ourselves by eroding human character" how technology is destroying itself by advancing too fast" and how technology is evil because it can be created solely for the purpose of killing humans such as weaponry or failed products that cause harm. e talks about how technology greatly improved especially during wartime where research and technology are greatly g reatly boosted but more at the cost of the world acquiring more
deadly weapons that are more efficient at mass killing. Albert Albert 6instein once said $9 fear the day da y that technology will surpass our human interaction.% /an y argue that nowadays people are losing the ability the talks and converse with others because they are too engrossed in the use of technology. /any like to argue that humans are becoming b ecoming more detached from others due to this $virtual distance%. Baren ,obel Do>eski" a writer for The Conversation" Conversation" states $Virtual distance is a psychological and emotional sense of detachment that accumulates little by little" at the sub= conscious level.% /any are unsatisfied by how technology has $taken over%. Barehka 1amey" a writer for 3se of Technology" goes through a list a pros and cons on the use of technology. e states $Today $Today businesses who have embraced technology have gained an advantage in the market" but it may cut down the number of manual labor which will put many out of businesses.% The debate over whether technology is better or worse for us is a con troversial topic that is argued on both sides. These arguments are valid in their own respect but others have their own say in it on how technology is good and more beneficial for us than it is harmful. A website website called debate.org allows users to post up their thoughts and over E
development" like virtual distancing+ 9 think it will never beco me anything ma>or that will drastically affect the way behave. *ith proper management and use of it" technology can help to further our growth and learning. The social or human interaction aspect of o f learning from our past has also been very ve ry beneficial to us. ,mith" a writer for the Journal the Journal of International Studies" Studies" says $9magery has always played a crucial role in politics po litics and nowhere more so than in our o ur understanding of nationalism%. e talks about how we as a society learn to view nations and have pride for where we live. This is a big difference from the age where everything was either city=states or empires ruled by a few people. e also talks about how humans have come to have a better appreciation and love for their country of residence too. This point is to show that as a society we have been able to grow and learn and become cohesive superpowers compared to being tiny bands of small civili(ations. As As a society that has to interact with others learning from and doing better than the past is a must to improve relations with all those those that you meet and talk to on a regular day basis. 6xamples of social changes can include everything from how nations have developed" how economies sprung up" and even eve n how we treat others. Another social aspect that we have chang ed over the course of time is on the treatment of others. *e have come a long way from the way things were in the past. 5f course there is still things such as discrimination in the world" but it is not as blatant or evident in many parts of the world. This topic like all the others is debatab le but almost everyone would agree that discrimination is still present in some way" shape or form. The thing most people debate on is if it is getting worse or better in the world. 5n the one hand many argue that discrimination is prevalent and is getting worse as the years go by. /any people believe that discrimination is worse than ever before and almost everyone agrees that something needs to be done. arry Alford" co=founder and '65!7resident of the 0ational -lack 'hamber
of 'ommerce states $*hy is there still discrimination even though we have all these safeguards? 9t4s because we really don4t enforce it as we should.% e talks about how because beca use of our inability to enforce these laws and rules discrimination exists still. 5n debate.org an overwhelming @;F of people still believe that discrimination is still prevalent and rampaging about in this country. /ychal 2en(el ,mith says sa ys $Yes" $Yes" America has gotten better about racism and discrimination" but that really doesn4t matter.% matter.% e goes on to say that better isn4t going to help those who are still oppressed by both racism and discrimination. 9n my o pinion yes" we have learned to better improve relations with everyone but we still have a long way to go. 9 feel that the battle to improve and learn from our past regarding how we treat others is an upward battle. Although it is an upward battle 9 feel that we are slowly &and when 9 say slowly 9 mean 16AD ,D5*) closing that gap to the top. 9 think it is only a matter of time and further improvement of ourselves and our descendants before we are able to do away with these undesirable issues and work towards a way to unite and eventually face bigger and harder challenges and then learn from those later too. 9n conclusion human society has come co me a long way from what it used u sed to be. *hether that be improvements to agriculture" technology and human interactions. There is still many things to learn from the past though and we have to constantly learn from our mistakes and successes and those of our predecessors. This thesis has only scratched the surface of learning from the past. The area is of study is very broad b road and hard to put into one piece of writing. opefully you are aware that we have to learn from the past to improve the future and will take steps to learn or research yourself.
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