Increasing Our Knowledge

Well, my classes are finally over for the week, and I think maybe it would be a good idea for me to actually comment on what I've learned relating to my Digital Civilization class in the past few days.  I wasn't really sure what to read in addition to the assigned readings, but I did find an online article by James A. Dewar, written a few years ago, that explained the rise of the information age by comparing it to the invention of the printing press.  I'll post the link on here as soon as I can figure out how.  (I really need this class, I guess.) 

There was one aspect of this article that was particularly interesting for me.  It explained that movable type was invented in China and Korea centuries before Gutenberg, but that neither of these countries could take full advantage of the invention because of their many characters.  As someone currently studying Chinese, I find it interesting that the Chinese still use characters rather than pinyin, although the characters are much more difficult to learn and use.  I can understand why they keep using the characters though, because my desire to learn a character based writing system was the reason I first became interested in Chinese.

However, although there's sometimes a lot of beauty and value in old ways of thinking, I agree with Dewar's point that the most successful countries will always be the ones who take full advantage of new methods.  Part of what made Utopia so great, according to the excerpt I read for class, was that the people were willing to use new knowledge the moment the obtained it.  I think this also applies to me as an individual.  I am surrounded by information, and whether or not I become successful in this changing world depends on whether I choose to take advantage of new methods of learning.

Aha!  I just posted a link.  It's down at the bottom of the page if anyone's interested.