I enjoyed Neil Postman's perspective in his article titled "Five things we need to know about technological change" (1998).  He wrote about five ideas to consider when thinking about technological advances.  One particular perspective that he wrote about was to think about who advances and who is left behind when an advance in technology is made.  Postman used the example of the blacksmith "singing the praises of the automobile but who also believes that his business will be enhanced by it" (1998, p.2) and Postman states further that this was not the case, the blacksmiths business was not enhanced by the automobile, but rather the opposite is true.  This made me think of the automated check-outs that have been installed at many stores.  I often think about what advantage these machines create for people.  On one hand, I see the benefits to the company, they are advancing in the sense that they may save money in hiring less people to do a job that a machine can do.  On the other hand, I do not view this as a positive advance for people in general.  When I am in a store that has eight automated check-outs being used at the same time and are manned by one employee, my first thought is that seven employees are either down a shift in their schedule or, possibly out of a potential job.  As one group of people advance with this new technology (the business), an opposite group (the employees) are disadvantaged.  Neil Postman gives some good points to consider when thinking about the new technological advances that are being introduced and the effect that it has an all people.