Impact of Technology on Humanities
Technological advances are not only changing the way people conduct their lives but also the way humanities are configured and how humanists think. The new technological world both compels and enables new ways of thinking. For instance, AI developments are increasingly relying on communication and language. In turn, this significantly leads to an ethical analysis of the complex issues surrounding the integration and proliferation into a society with potentially great intelligence. As technology advances, so does the capacity of application in quantitative and qualitative research topics. Technological advances and new inventions are likely to transform three elements of humanities including teaching, research methods, and applications.
Technological advancement and easy access to new technology have paved the way to new methods of studying human processes at an inconceivable degree than before. With the new methods, the humanities have emancipated themselves from less comprehensive and more abstract models of thought. For instance, graph theory and computer simulations are no longer inclusive to social sciences and STEM. The new technological methods are now increasingly used in humanities to help humanists understand the emerging properties in human behavior. They are also used to understand the underlying nonlinear dynamics of different processes studied in humanities such as power relations, cultural revolutions, character and plot development in literature, and communicative and conceptual mechanisms.
Artificial Intelligence is now significantly used in humanities as deep learning and big data analytics are used to generate literature, restore ancient texts and make sense of large data sets. The current digitalization of humanities has not only brought them closer to hard sciences but has also rendered them indistinguishable in social sciences. New technologies like robotics and AI are likely to change many things in future societies. These technologies will not only transform the societies and how humanities are taught, but they will also need answers to the aforementioned questions. The transformations that will take place as a result of these technologies will set in motion creative destruction that will lead to severe transformations and social shifts in the short run. They are likely also to render people more isolated, jobless, and more connected.
Work Cited
Wymer, Kathryn C. Introduction to Digital Humanities: Enhancing Scholarship with the Use of Technology. London, Routledge
