Technology: The Red Pill or the Blue Pill?

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In recent years, the concept of the blue pill and red pill has become popular. The origin was the famous movie, the Matrix, in which the world is a fantastic reality designed by sophisticated technology based on mathematical principles. People live their lives without being aware of the truth, but their lives are nothing but rat races. Chasing after money and ephemeral pleasures. Neo, a hacker, accidentally finds a glitch in the code of reality.

Morpheus, who escaped the programmed reality at an early age, has spent his entire life fighting the malevolent machines manipulating reality and keeping humans asleep from the world's true nature. His mission is to find the one who will end this war for good. According to prophecy, Neo will be the One. So he appears in Neo’s world to offer him a choice. 

He is presented with two pills, the red pill, and the blue pill. If he takes the blue pill, he can return to his mundane life and ignore the existence of the Machines. But if he takes the red pill, he’ll learn the truth about reality and live an authentic life, fulfilling his mission to liberate the other humans from this spell and end the order of the machines.

The reason why the movie and the concept of two pills became so popular they went on to produce three more series (which I binge-watched in one night), was because it resonated with the growing fear of humanity that one day the machines will not only outsmart but also rule us. 

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So the pressing question today is this: is technology helping us advance ourselves, or is it slowing us down? A quote extracted from Celeste Headlee’s book Do Nothing, which I read last week on Cole Schafer’s blog, left me pondering the usefulness of technology in simplifying our lives.

“Why do I have more to do than my grandmother, despite owning a dishwasher, microwave and portable computer?”

There are tons of questions looming around when you start thinking about it: 

• Is it making us smarter, connected, and capable, or dumber, disillusioned, and weaker? 

• Is technology freeing us from heavy work, or loading us with even more tiring tasks? 

• Is technology bringing us closer to each other or making us more distant? 

With the release of ChatGPT, a revolution driven by AI has taken a massive leap. Now we can skip writing, researching, painting, and ideating. A dozen states have banned its use, especially in school since students started cheating. But it will be impossible to stop its use. 

However, while the threat is real, Artificial Intelligence is nothing but a tool. It doesn’t run on its own and we can learn to adopt it to enhance our education and the output of our work overall. There are teachers who are using it to facilitate their teaching and grading processes. 

Source: Reddit

or this other teacher who is amazed at how much the tool has shifted her entire teaching experience.

Source: Reddit

Last week, during our lectures we watched a video on the top reasons we must integrate technology into our teaching process. Some of the key points I could extract were these: 

• Students love learning through technology.  
• It engages the Four Key Components of Learning.   
• It offers professional development.   
• It makes life easier for teachers. 
• It improves test scores.  
• It helps students with low attention spans.  
• It allows students to learn from experts.  

Such reasons are the bedrock of why we should integrate technology into our education systems more. But if I were to add a few more reasons, I’d say that: 

• It enhances student engagement.  
• It offers a personalized learning experience. 
• Encourages collaboration and communication.
• It enhances critical thinking and problem-solving skills, etc.

EdTech has branched in many areas of education, and ChatGPT isn’t the only tool currently used in teaching. Digital folders have replaced clunky cabinets, podcasts are replacing lectures, and virtual reality will forever revolutionize remote classes. Ahead lays a bright albeit scary future for future teachers and unborn kids. Are we ready for it? We don’t know.   

But we’re learning. Technology is one pill, neither red nor blue. It’s we who assign labels, which is exciting. And staying excited for the journey that lies ahead instead of being frightened is the true meaning of education. Let’s embody it.  

“I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message.”  

—Steve Irwin