Pros & Cons of the Technological Imperative
The Pros and Cons of the
“Technological Imperative”
March 20 2011
Technological advances have been gaining more and more information over the past years and by doing so, they are able to advance their technology each and everyd ay. These improvements have helped but they also have the potential to hinder society. The Flying Machine, Locks, Computers and Why we Play God, and, Zap! It’s the Future are all written examples of how technology can be positive and how it can also be negative. The Flying machine written by Ray Bradbury, Clocks, computers and Why we Play God written by Jay Bookman and, Zap! It’s the Future written by Chris Wood, from the book ‘Passages’, 2002, are the technology pro’s and con’s that I will be commenting on. In debating the impact of technology, historians often cite something called “technological imperative” : that if something can be done, it will be done – that human beings lack the discipline needed to turn our backs on a tempting but dangerous technology; there are both positive and negative aspects to this phenomenon. The Inventors inventions described in the three articles in the passages are explaining three great but different types of inventions found in various parts of the world and at different times.
They are several pros and cons to the first point of this thesis , ‘ if something can be done, it will be done’. The first article called The Flying Machine, written by Ray Bradbury tells the story of the invention of a machine. It describes a Servant that runs to tell the Emperor of his new invention of flying but when asks, does not know why he invented it. “Here is the man who has made a certain machine, and yet asks us what he has created. It is only necessary that he create, without knowing what “, (Bradbury, page 209). It was created but there was no reason to create it. It was a great invention but he did not know why he did it. “I have found beauty. I have flown on the morning wind…I can’t say how
“Technological Imperative”
March 20 2011
Technological advances have been gaining more and more information over the past years and by doing so, they are able to advance their technology each and everyd ay. These improvements have helped but they also have the potential to hinder society. The Flying Machine, Locks, Computers and Why we Play God, and, Zap! It’s the Future are all written examples of how technology can be positive and how it can also be negative. The Flying machine written by Ray Bradbury, Clocks, computers and Why we Play God written by Jay Bookman and, Zap! It’s the Future written by Chris Wood, from the book ‘Passages’, 2002, are the technology pro’s and con’s that I will be commenting on. In debating the impact of technology, historians often cite something called “technological imperative” : that if something can be done, it will be done – that human beings lack the discipline needed to turn our backs on a tempting but dangerous technology; there are both positive and negative aspects to this phenomenon. The Inventors inventions described in the three articles in the passages are explaining three great but different types of inventions found in various parts of the world and at different times.
They are several pros and cons to the first point of this thesis , ‘ if something can be done, it will be done’. The first article called The Flying Machine, written by Ray Bradbury tells the story of the invention of a machine. It describes a Servant that runs to tell the Emperor of his new invention of flying but when asks, does not know why he invented it. “Here is the man who has made a certain machine, and yet asks us what he has created. It is only necessary that he create, without knowing what “, (Bradbury, page 209). It was created but there was no reason to create it. It was a great invention but he did not know why he did it. “I have found beauty. I have flown on the morning wind…I can’t say how
References: |“ It’s unique power lay in its ability to synchronize many independent individuals one |Passages, 2002, Gage Learning Corporation, | |smoothly functioning organism” |Bookman, Jay, page 214 | |Most scientists are seeking to create some form of artificial intelligence in relatively|Passages, 2002, Gage Learning Corporation, | |practical, non threatening terms |Bookman, Jay, 215 | |“…scientists could, eventually could enable the construction of the technology that may |Passages, 2002, Gage Learning Corporation, | |replace our species” |Bookman, page 216 | |“Here is the man who has made a certain machine, and yet asks us what he has created. It|Passages, 2002, Gage Learning Corporation, | |is only necessary that he create, without knowing what “ |Bradbury, Ray , page 209) |“I have found beauty. I have flown on the morning wind…I can’t say how beautiful it is |Passages, 2002, Gage Learning Corporation, | |up in the sky… That is beautiful, Emperor, that is beautiful, too!” |Bradbury, Ray , page 209) |“…who is to say that just such a man, in just such an apparatus of paper and reed, might|Passages, 2002, Gage Learning Corporation, | |not fly in the sky and drop huge stones upon the Great Wall of China” |Bradbury, Ray, page 210 | |“ Reseachers here made giant strides in identifying, purifying and in a number of cases, |Passages, 2002, Gage Learning Corporation, | |manufacturing complex materials that can sense, adapt to – or even act upon – their |Wood, Chris, page 229-230 | |environment” | | |“…his ‘smart dust’ – working models are closer in size to Smarties- could also spy on |Passages, 2002, Gage Learning Corporation, |