We started the class with the understanding that modern computing and computers arose from the technology created from the pressures of the Cold War. We spent a massive amount of military money at this time on manpower, new forms of weapons technology, and weapon systems, which had never been done before. I was surprised to learn that an important part of the US military history is that before WW2, the policy of the country was that there should be no standing army, and that in a time of war America would mobilize and demobilize its army quickly. Between the increased demand for military technology and the advanced information management systems that lead to modern computing, most of our current technology arose from systems and ideas created by men such as Meigs, Weber, and Babbage. This leads to a  question we discussed  when we read Carr’s book The Shallows, do our minds adapt to the new technology we create, or is this technology simply an outward expression of how our minds already work? I’m inclined to believe it’s a little bit of both. Carr laments the days when we weren’t on the internet or our phones all the time, complaining that it has made us unable to focus on one thing at once, bit since when has multitasking been a negative thing? Using myself as an example, I oftentimes do something productive, like knitting, while I catch up on my favorite shows, and I do believe because of the technology I grew up with I’m able to divide my attention this way. My mind would become bored with doing just the knitting, just as I would become bored trying to write an essay I wasn’t particularly interested in, and so I play some classical music so I can still concentrate on my task and my mind doesn’t wander. I believe instead of the simple answer of whether technology influences the mind or if the mind influences technology cannot really be answered, but it instead cyclical. Yes technology alters our minds as we grow, and then those people create new technologies when they are adults, which influences a new generation who goes on to create better and faster systems, and so on and so forth.