首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
Computers have become an extension of us: that is a commonplace now. But in an important way we may be becoming an extension of
Computers have become an extension of us: that is a commonplace now. But in an important way we may be becoming an extension of
admin
2012-07-06
69
问题
Computers have become an extension of us: that is a commonplace now. But in an important way we may be becoming an extension of them, in turn. Computers are digital — that is, they turn everything into numbers; that is their way of seeing. And in the computer age we may be living through the digitization of our minds, even when they are offline: a slow-burning quantification of human affairs that promises or threatens, depending on your outlook, to crowd out other categories of the imagination, other ways of perceiving. Self-quantification is everywhere now. There are tools to measure and analyze the steps you take in a day; the abundance and ideological orientation of your friends; the influence of your Twitter utterances; your happiness.
Welcome to the Age of Metrics — or to the End of Instinct. The once-mysterious formation of tastes is becoming a quantitative science, as services like Netflix and Pandora deploy algorithms to predict, and shape, what we like to watch, listen to and read. These services are wonderful. They also risk lumping us into clusters of the like-minded and depriving us of the self-fortifying act of choosing. It is one thing to love your country because you have seen the world and love it still; it is quite another to love it because you know nothing else.
What will be the fate of causes, like women’s empowerment, that produce something not easily counted? Will metrics encourage charities to work toward the metric (acres reforested), not the underlying goal (sustainability)?
Focusing on the wrong metrics already distorts policy-making around the world, according to a fascinating new study commissioned by the French government. We use gross domestic product to measure everything. It makes it easy to compare economies, but it makes us undervalue what cannot be measured, the report said. Trees are killed because the sales from paper are countable, while a forest’s worth is not. Unemployment grants are cut because their cost is plain, while the mental-health cost of idleness is vague.
In short, what we know instinctively, data can make us forget. But the commission’s solution was revealing of our times: not more balance between qualitative and quantitative, but more metrics: new statistics on human well-being and economic sustainability to contend with data on production. "In this world in which we are so centered on metrics, those things that are not measured get left off the agenda," The commission’s chairman, Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics said. "You need a metric to fight a metric. "
Technology brings ever more metrics. The strange thing is that nothing in them prevents us from using other lenses, too. But something in the culture now makes us bow before data and suspend disbelief. Sometimes metrics blind us to what we might with fewer metrics have seen. The future’s challenge to us may be to decide how metrics might inform our decisions without becoming them. [488 words]
The last sentence of Paragraph 2 is used to demonstrate that metrics are______.
选项
A、preventing us from using instinct
B、encouraging us to form distinctive tastes
C、causing us to follow others blindly
D、assisting us to form strong beliefs
答案
C
解析
本题考查写作目的。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/60p4777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Inthefollowingtext,somesentenceshavebeenremoved.ForQuestions41-45,choosethemostsuitableonefromthelist(A、B、C、
WecanlearnfromthefirstparagraphthatTheconclusioncanbedrawnfromthetextthatinthewakeofAndersen%scandal,the
PresidentBushtakestothebullypulpittodeliverasternlecturetoAmerica’sbusinesselite.TheJusticeDept.stunstheacc
Inourincreasinglycomplexworld,informationisbecomingthebasicbuildingblockofthesociety.(46)However,atatimewhen
Youaregoingtoreadatextaboutdifferenttypesoffriendship,followedbyalistofexamples.Choosethebestexamplefromt
ImmediatelyaftertheCivilWar,however,thedietbegantochange.(46)Railtransportationincreasedthesupplyandimproved,t
ImmediatelyaftertheCivilWar,however,thedietbegantochange.(46)Railtransportationincreasedthesupplyandimproved,t
Mostofuswouldliketobeboth(1)_____andcreative.WhywasThomasEdisonabletoinventsomanythings?Washesimplymore
Theword"draconian"(Line1,Paragraph4)mayprobablymeanBysayingthat"AngeloshasBecomeanationalcausecelebre"(Line
StephenM.Saland,chairmanoftheStateSenateEducationCommittee,isaconservativeupstateRepublican,andStevenSanders,c
随机试题
试述语言的系统性。
这个实验表明,世上一切事物都在运动。
下列哪一种强心苷药物口服吸收率高且作用持久
槟榔主要驱杀使君子主要驱杀
项目评价中,保证项目财务可持续的必要条件是():
旅游者()财产受到侵害的,有依法获得赔偿的权利。
一个三口之家的年龄之和为99,其中,母亲年龄比父亲年龄的大7岁,儿子年龄比母亲年龄的大7岁。问多少年后,父亲年龄是儿子年龄的2倍?
我国《刑法》规定,犯罪构成的要件包括()。
Dr.JeremyJosephvolunteeredtoperformcataractsurgeryonpatientsinZimbabwein1995,andparticipatedinhisfirstexpedit
Sincesheinheritedherfather’sfortune,sheiscompletelyindependent______herhusband.
最新回复
(
0
)