"Humanity, in its desire for comfort, had over-reached itself. It had exploited the riches of nature too far. Quietly and complacently, it was sinking into decadence, and progress had come to mean the progress of the Machine."(E.M. Forster The Machine Stops 158) Such is the horror portrayed of the future of computer technology by many great writers of today. While it has been an undeniable fact that advances, be it in technology or thought, are sought after in the hope of improving life further, it has also brought many to consider the future of such advances and where they may lead mankind to. It is difficult to see where computer technology is leading primarily because the technologies fuelling it are still being developed and at a furious rate. It is difficult also because of the breadth of the impact of such technologies to date. With so many areas of society being affected, many effects are transitory, many are insignificant, some are contradictory and some are even undesirable.

So, where will it all lead and why should we care? And why now?

Because the change due to these effects is exponential-small differences in yesterday can have suddenly shocking consequences (Negroponte 5). In this essay, it is my earnest intent to argue against and dispel all needless fears that society has for the rapid advancement of computer technology. To elaborate on my argument, I will illustrate that there are parallels between the development of writing and the development of computers. Through these parallels, it will be shown that just as Plato had fears about writing, many people today have fears about the rapid advancement of computer technology, yet today writing has become an integral part of our lives. After all, technology does not degrade human life but on the contrary enhances it (Ong 83). Therefore, it is only right that we boldly embrace the computer the same way as our ancestors have done to writing, and to allow it to improve our lives just as how writing has enriched our thoughts and consciousness in spite of its deadness and unresponsiveness. In short, the invention of writing gave birth to information, communication and computer technology, the result of the matrimony between symbols, speech and society.