This big topic for this class was slavery.  More specifically, “why are we no longer allowed to “own” another human, even through the “owned” person submits themselves to the others service, as in indentured servitude?”  That was an interesting question to pose to the class, most response followed the “slavery is wrong” argument, but then the question was brought “why is it perceived wrong in today’s day and age.

The topic then expanded or narrowed, depending on how you view it, to discuss the differences of the personal and working selves, and how this changed as slavery “ended.”  It was proposed that slavery, and indentured servitude, was the norm up to around two years ago because there was a societal differentiation between a person’s self which agreed to work and that same person’s self who actually did the work.  It was also proposed that at this point in time, people who were enslaved lacked this divide between selves, and so it was not unethical to own another person.

This topic led to a very interesting lesson, and it led to a further discussion of how modern people in this technological era who progressively develop a new sense of self, one that is different than the other two discussed.  It is evident to me that in addition to this difference between selves of someone who agrees to work and that same person’s self who does the work, there is a new self, the “technological self.”

This new self is how someone either behaves, presents their thought, or interprets the world, through the use of technology.