This response will be 1,000 words minimum; any citations to Lightman can just be a page number (37); this is an idea-based essay, so there are no personal references. This is also our first full essay, so focus on a good outline, a good claim, and good development of your ideas. Remember that an essay isn't something you just type up at the last minute. An essay is a formal and professional presentation of an idea that you have thought through, organized, and written carefully.
Sometimes, when we read Lightman's 7th chapter, " The Disembodied Universe," we get the idea that he's a cranky old guy who just doesn't get it when it comes to technology, and we fight his ideas.
But having spent many years studying brain science and learning has taught me that he's right about most of this--even if we really, really love our phones and stuff. Phones do real damage to our lives in the ways that he suggests. Science proves his points. But we also like our phones and there are advantages to them.
I want us all to think about his ideas and recognize the double-edged problem of phones (we love them; they hurt us), but I want you to write about the final few pages of the book where he speculates about our future with technology. Imagine a human whose powers and capabilities are enhanced by technology (this is sort of a sci-fi speculation: What might that power be? and how would it work?), and thenexplore the benefits -- and the drawbacks--of that technology.
An example from another century: When cars were first introduced, people often reacted angrily at first (we always think that progress is going to destroy the world), but gradually cars caught on -- and nearly everyone wanted one because they were quicker and cleaner than horses, they allowed people to take longer trips, etc. But what did they lose? They lost a sense of community, they lost the exercise they used to get from riding a horse or walking to town, they lost perspective about the environment around them, etc. Technology often gives us something -- and takes away something.