Do We Think Through Computers?

Since my job requires total use of the computer to complete all of my assigned tasks, I spend the majority of my working day in front of the computer. If our computers at work ever crashed then we wouldn’t be able to replicate our work in another medium and that would cause major problems.
After evaluating my use of the computer for this past week I can conclude that most of my day is spent in front of one. When I come home from work I spend another hour or so online taking care of personal business and completing assignments for this class. My personal business on the computer ranges from checking my statements, communicating with friends, making travel arrangements, keeping up with the latest sports news and doing research.
Further analyzing of my personal use of the computer allowed me to see that although I may not think through a computer, I do use the computer to think for me. For example, if I want to know what the balance of my checking account is I can just go to my banks’ website and get the answer. I can also look up previous statements and set up automatic bill payments. The ability to set up automatic bill payments is the same as having the computer do the thinking for you. For example, if I were to pay my cable bill through snail mail I would first have to remember what day it is due, when it is due, write the check and mail it out which all requires thought. But with automatic payment, the computer does all the thinking for me.
Douglas Stewart brought up a good point in response to my post about automatic payment plans.
“I wonder how much of that is the computer thinking for us or simply performing a mechanical task?” stated Stewart. “I was thinking of this as I drove home tonight and my automatic transmission downshifted. I thought that it was simply doing a job that I could have done with a gear shirt, a clutch, and some coordination. But of course, a manual transmission is not available for the Ford Taurus.”
“When does the mechanical operation become a computer thinking? Or is that the right question?” added Stewart.
Good question. Going back to the original discussion question, “Do you consider using the computer as part of your thinking process, in other words do you think through the computer?”, I believe when a computer completes a task that we have the ability to do on our own that the computer has taken over the thinking process for us because we don’t have to think about completing that task like paying a bill or shifting a car. Simply stated, if any task requires us to think and we then delegate that task to the computer we no longer have to think about completing it because it will be done for us. Thus, the computer is thinking for us. Now, does this mean that we are also thinking through the computer? I don’t believe so because there is still some human thought involved in the sense that we have made the decision to let the computer handle a certain task so we cannot say that the human is fully absent of any thought but I also wouldn’t say that we are thinking through the computer by delegating it to manage one of our tasks because we have no role in managing that tasks once we hand it off to the computer.
I found the discussion to go both ways on this topic.
“There is no way at all that I think through the computer,” stated Justin Donarum. “I may research and find out answers to questions I may have, but I think for myself and on my own. Computers are machines. I would not trust a machine with my thoughts. If there was such a thing as to putting ideas and thoughts into a computer and let the computer tell me what I should do and say, I would be the last person on earth to use it.”
“As far as thinking through the computer, not so much,” stated Brian Leclerc. “I use the computer as a tool or vehicle by which my thoughts travel to others. I don’t think about how the computer will organize my thoughts unless I’m creating something for an interactive environment. Due to Web/interactive standards, those who develop for those environments must follow the ‘rules’ so those using the interfaces will do so in an efficient manner. In this respect I think in small ways I do ‘think through the computer’, but not by choice.”
I think Leclerc brings up a good point that in many ways we are ‘thinking through computers’ in some capacity already whether we want to admit it or not. This weeks’ evaluation of our computer use confirms that theory. Since I am spending most of my day in front of a computer definitely affects my thought process. I wouldn’t say that I’m at the point where I think through the computer but I do believe that computers have become more integrated into our thinking process than we may realize for the shear fact that we use them so much and in some careers, are dependent on them.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say I think through a computer it more or less aids my thinking,” stated Nicholas Tipson. “I am still the one thinking the computer is just the tool that allows me to complete my thinking. My computer use throughout the week has been increasing every minute, whether it is surfing the web or doing work for online classes. It is a necessity to have in one’s home and it is hard to believe that people can get by in life without the help in some way of a computer.”