A glimpse into human civilization a century ago will reveal a stark difference in the way we lived then and now. Technology – scientific technology, communication technology, transportation technology, media technology, nanotechnology etc, has permeated every aspect of our lives inevitably due to the rapid enhancement and modernization in the science. Technology has been widely claimed for the disastrous impacts on the public health, ethical issues, environment as well as social issues. The pivotal concern is whether technology can solve the problems it creates. In my opinion, at the present condition, technology can solve the problems but not all the time. Nonetheless, I strongly agree with the view that technology can eventually alleviate the problems it poses with the help of Man in centuries to come.
Technology poses an increasing threat to public health due to the development in scientific technology which allows Genetically Modified (GM) food to be produced in recent years. HM food which is also named ‘Frankenfood’ has caused the spread of antibiotic resistance in the body, according to a recent study in Newcastle University. The consumers of GM food are more prone to illnesses as their antibiotic resistance gets stronger with excessive consumption of such food. This can lead to increased health risks such as stomach and colon cancer, according to Dr Stanley Ewen, a consultant histopathologist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
However, with modern technology in medical science, cancer is no longer as fatal. The patients who are found to have cancerous cells in their body do have to face death. Take for instance; lung cancer which was previously incurable is now made curable with enhanced technological surgery or radiation therapy. Despite the arguable fact that GM food can cause cancer, cancer is increasingly less feared due to the high success of being healed from such a ‘deadly’ disease.
Besides the trouble in public health, technology has perverted the ethical code. Genetic Engineering technology produced Dolly, a female sheep that was created in 1996. Many religious groups like the Catholics and Muslims raised concerns that it was a wholly unnatural process of asexual reproduction. They assert that it was against the ethics and moral values as we are human being, thus we should not ‘play’ God by intercepting God in the process of life and death. This issue has been furiously debated as cloning was considered to corrupt our morals.
Yet, it was largely rebutted that it was a mere exaggeration of ethical issues. Who is to say that it is not God’s will that we clone ourselves? The religious groups assume that they know God existence and intention. Even today, there is not even a single scripture to that support anti-cloning. Therefore, the argument that technology has subverted ethical issues is not justified in the first place for it to say that technology has harmed our ethics.
Opponents of technology posit that it has created severe environmental degradation in recent years. The swift betterment in communication technology like the internet and transportation technology like faster planes has increased industrialization processes that cause increased pollution in the air, land as well as water. In places like China, this is a severe problem especially for the individual who stays near the industry. These pollutions have directly and indirectly affected the human race as well as the flora and fauna. Air pollution has caused respiratory problems and breathing difficulties that can cause lung cancer due to the excessive toxic gases releases from the industries. Land pollution causes the soil in the region to be poisonous that cause fruits and vegetables grown in the region to be hazardous for consumption. Water pollution that is very common in Third world countries like Nigeria and Somalia can cause birth defects and skin problems. As such, the environment has been sacrificed with the use of technology for economic progress.
However, opponents of technology have failed to realize the aspect of green technology that is developed recently ad advocated strongly through the media. Green technology is the use of environmentally friendly technology that uses the minimum amount of energy, produced minimum waste and produce the same or even better products. These products such as hydrogen car and ‘green’ light bulbs have been increasingly evident in first world countries like Singapore. Moreover, some buildings are made green too like City Square Mall in Singapore. These efforts of green technology and government have pushed down the level of pollution significantly as it uses minimum fossil fuel. With the presence of this technology, it is thus able to tackle the problem that it causes.
Last but not the least, technology has been arguing to have brutalized the social aspects of the individual, especially in developed countries like the US and Singapore where they can access communication technology easily. Communication technology has insulted the word ‘society’ itself that comes from ‘socialisation’ – the idea of interaction and communication. With the advent of inventions such as the internet with Youtube, MSN Messenger, Facebook and Twitter, we are now communing with a lifeless collection of microchips, not each other.
However, proponents of such technology agree unequivocally that communication technology has in fact increased the ability and opportunity of people to communicate. In the past where there was the absence of these ‘lifeless’ microchips, people have to travel far and waste numerous precious time just to socialise with their friends. Yet, nowadays, people can even socialise with many friends on the net with few clicks away. This technology has allowed people to have a greater social boundary as well as saves time on travelling. Therefore, technology can solve the problems of socializing that many of the people in the past faced.
Upon closer scrutiny, technology has increasingly been able to solve the problems it creates in spite of challenges. Nevertheless, up to the ninth year of the third millennium, it has been pervasively claimed that technology fail to solve the problems it creates upon the religious matter. However, I strongly believe that it is the matter of time that technology coupled with Man brain to explain the conflicts between them as seen from the increasing trend that technology solves problems that was unsolvable in the past.