Once Albert Einstein said, “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity” (Moffett et al. 175). Nowadays, his statement is more challenging than ever. We live in the age of technological progress that works both ways. On the one hand, it significantly eases our life and improves its level. On the other hand, almost uncontrolled development of technology makes people dependent and results in loosing humanity. Comparing with previous days, we have become less attentive and more indifferent to everything around us. The aim of this paper is to discuss the impact technology has on people’s minds and bodies and to evaluate the importance of this impact.
One can say that technology positively influences the life of people, and the evidence of this influence can be seen everywhere, and one will be right. Indeed, we can easily find differences just comparing the modern world with the world of forty-fifty years ago. Nowadays, we have the Internet, computers, laptops, smartphones, a smart TV, and most of us have personal automobiles. It is needless to say about the significant medical progress, new industries, and innovative ways of education. The development of technological progress led to the creation of new occupations and the increasing of jobs. Furthermore, it positively influences the modern economy and the collaboration between countries. Of course, everything of this sounds good, but it is just one side of a coin. The mentioned benefits refer to the way and level of our lives, but how do technologies influence us?
The technology has an impact on both our bodies and minds. On the one hand, this impact refers to medical advances, such as artificial hearts, artificial limbs, etc. On the other hand, “the latest achievements of modern science are used to enhance body functions not only in the field of medicine” (Kuboszek 5). As Kuboszek writes, the Internet has been originally developed for the military purposes. The governments that focus on the military domination have lots of various military programs aimed to create the “Future soldier” that never is less suspected to death and tiredness and is more prone to the qualities of the real soldier. Surely, the major instrument of creation the “Future soldier” is technology. An important question here is the correlation between the features of the soldier and an ordinary human. What kind of a person a perfect soldier should be? In the opinion of the governments and their military forces, the perfect soldier should obey without question, should have an abnormal strength, should be able to kill people and perfectly comply with the command’s orders regardless of their cruelness and mercilessness. In other words, the perfect soldier should have no regrets and should lack emotions and humanity. Of course, at the moment, the creation of such soldier is a scientific fantasy, but we can often see its images in the mass culture including science fiction books and movies. Nowadays, the military uses the advanced technologies for designing the innovative equipment and weapons for soldiers. This equipment aims to keep soldiers save from the cold, provides them with the information about the location of enemy forces, gives them an ability to see in the dark, etc. However, quoting Copeland, Kuboszek states that in no far-away future solders will be able to get technological intrusions that “will stimulate soldiers’ muscles giving them abnormal strength” (Kuboszek 5). Sounds more or less harmless, but who knows what the next step will be. Maybe, one day the scientists will be able to use technologies for the suppression of human emotions. What will differ us from cyborgs from science fiction movies then?
The mentioned idea of the perfect “Future soldier” questions the relationship between technological progress and ethics. It is well known that the relations between technologies and ethics form one of the most important issues of the modern world. The rapid and advanced development of technologies mothers technological revolutions, and we can see the evidence of these revolutions throughout history of the humankind. Generally, we learn about new technical innovations or scientific discoveries almost every day, and the first question that comes to mind when one look at the whole situation refers to our future. What will our future be like? Is it possible to predict the future impact of the technological progress on the humankind? Is it possible even to predict the future of technological progress? Technological innovations that seemed to be a scientific fantasy even about thirty-forty years ago are common and real nowadays. They ease our lives but mother additional responsibilities. As Moor writes, “The emergence of a wide variety of new technologies should give us a sense of urgency in thinking about the ethical (including social) implications of new technologies” (Moor 111). A lot of bright examples of the correlation between ethics and technologies can be found in the medical and military spheres. For instance, let’s consider the issue of cloning. On the one hand, cloning can save lots of lives and help in treatment of diseases and transplantation, but on the other hand, how ethical cloning is? What would the person feel if he or she has seen his or her clone? And how ethical will it be to use the clone as a donor? If cloning is improved and becomes widespread, people will automatically lose part of their humanity.
Generally, the development of a technological revolution has three stages. The first stage means introduction, the limited number of users and limited area of use. The second stage implies to the permeation stage characterized by the growth of users and the widening of the area of use. Finally, the last stage is a power stage and means that the technology becomes used globally. In his article “Why We Need Better Ethics for Emerging Technologies,” Moor considers the revolution made by computer technologies and subrevolutions made by the Internet and cell phone technologies, and states a question about the cooperation between technological revolutions and ethics. He writes, “because new technology allows us to perform activities in new ways, situations may arise in which we do not have adequate policies in place to guide us” (Moor 115). Indeed, the modern technological progress develops so rapid that it is often hard to trace this development and to react in time. If the first stage of technological revolutions almost has not got ethical issues, the final stage is closely connected to them. Of course, the global use of Wi-Fi can hardly bring visual harm, but there is a possibility that once we have to meet something more serious, and an untimely reaction will result in serious consequences.
In the modern world, three major rapidly developing technologies include nanotechnologies, neurotechnologies, and genetic technologies. Indeed, none of them go that far as a computer technology and have the same impact on society, but the progress in development of these technologies is rather obvious and clear. For instance, let’s consider genetic technologies. Nowadays, genetics advancements provide us with GMO food, fertilization, the analysis of DNA, etc. The common genetic technology services are legalized and comply with legislation. The same can be said about nanotechnologies that are not that common but form a future basis for most industrial processes and manufacture. Moor notes that all mentioned technologies have essential forms of malleability (Moor 116). For instance, genetics means life malleability, and neurotechnology has mind malleability. Let’s imagine that one day the advancements of genetics would allow us to be healthier and live much longer than nowadays and that we could easily escape diseases that make a lot of people die nowadays. The issue of the natural selection would be overcome, and our planet would be congested. There would be no place for people to live or to work. Now, let’s imagine possible consequences of this overpopulation. Would the solution of these consequences really leave place for humanity?
Now let’s move away from the global issues of the technology, science, and ethics and consider the impact common and generally available technologies have on ordinary people. With the development of technologies, we have become dependent on various technological inventions. Nowadays, everybody has a mobile phone and laptop and spends most part of life online. The Internet provides us with a lot of information and gives us access to almost everything. We can just take our smartphone, open the browser, and find the data we need. Sounds convenient, doesn’t it? However, as it was mentioned above, technological progress works both ways, and together with this unlimited access it unconsciously limits us. For instance, let’s consider the sphere of communication. Before the invention of personal computers and the Internet, people spent a lot of time meeting with other people and having live conversations. Nowadays, the Internet and mobile communication provide an opportunity to communicate with other people due to social networks, calls, and text messages, and Skype allows meeting with a friend in the comfort of the home. Indeed, it is worth noting that such ways of communication unite the world as give an opportunity to meet a person from another country. However, under such circumstances, people lose their communicative skills and an ability to socialize. As Drago states, “People are becoming more reliant on communicating with friends and family through technology and are neglecting to engage personally, uninhibited by phones and devices, even when actually in the presence of others” (Drago 16). It is important to understand than communication is much more than an exchange of phrases or messages. The human is naturally a social creature, and he or she should not just move fingers to type a message but talk, laugh, move, and see other human beings. Chatting will never replace the live communication.
It has already been mentioned that one of the major modern technologies is neurotechnology. Among other things, neuroscience studies the influence of the modern technologies over human’s brains, especially among children and teenagers whose brains are more plastic and susceptible to various external influences. Howard-Jones writes, “With respect to developing intimacy and friendships, the second half of the 1990s generated several studies that showed greater internet use amongst teenagers was associated with reduced social connectedness and wellbeing” (Howard-Jones 14). Of course, since those days, the Internet social networks has been improved to provide the communication with existing friends, but, according to surveys, teenagers who use the Internet to make new friends experience lower wellbeing than those who use it for chatting with the existing ones (Howard-Jones 14). At the same time, the Internet is widely used for cyber bullying that is more difficult to escape just changing a school. It is also worth noting the excessive use of the Internet challenging nowadays that could become problematic when affects the daily life and withstands control. One more negative issue is laziness. Several decades ago, people learnt the new information going to libraries or talking with other people, but now they just look for it at the Internet. The easy and unlimited Internet access mothers an illusion of the access to knowledge as people often misunderstand their own knowledge and the one they are able to get from the Internet.
In conclusion, it is important to note that technological progress is not just the positive modern world issue but also the negative one. The negative side of the almost uncontrolled development of the technologies has both global and local consequences. Global consequences that are mostly a scientific fantasy at the moment but can become real at any time refer to the issues of ethics and the question of humanity. For instance, we know that each of us experience times when should give the wall to other people. But, if people could live longer, how would they behave towards others including their children? The local issues are more real and mostly refer to lack of real communication and inadvertence to the world around. We look on the screens of our smartphones, do not notice what happens around us, and, hence, become more vulnerable and indifferent. These issues can be resolved. It is just important to know about their existence and be able to put yourself into perspective.
Works Cited
Drago, Emily. “The Effect of Technology on Face-to-Face Communication.” The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications 6.1 (2015): 13-19. PDF.
Howard-Jones, Paul. “The Impact of Digital Technologies on Human Well-Being.” Nominettrust.com. Nominet Trust State of the Art Reviews, Jul 2011. Print. Accessed 12 May 2016.
Kuboszek, Mateusz. The Influence of Technology on Human Body and Mind in David Cronenberg’s Films. Diss. Akademia Techniczno-Humanistyczna w Bielsku-Białej Wydział Humanistyczno-Społeczny, 2007. PDF.
Moffett, Sandra, McAdam, Rodney, and Stephen Parkinson. “Technological Utilization for Knowledge Management.” Knowledge and Process Management 11.3 (2004): 175-184. PDF.
Moor, James H. “Why We Need Better Ethics for Emerging Technologies.” Ethics and Information Technology 7 (2005): 111-119. PDF.
