Technology and Its Lasting Effect on Society | Teen Ink

Technology and Its Lasting Effect on Society

December 11, 2014
By Michael Ellis BRONZE, Merritt Island, Florida
Michael Ellis BRONZE, Merritt Island, Florida
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Science and technology is forever changing in society, and has been of vast importance to our society. Science though can reach the the point of no return, the point where technology is no longer benefiting society but instead harms it. Every technology created has had a great importance and purpose to human life but when a technology has no purpose then it only creates problems. Problems not with side-effects or politics but instead with how science and ethics converge. Ethics often regarded as a moral philosophy can call in question the purpose of pursuing certain technologies, such as the recent advances in cloning. Scientists blindly forging ahead with new discoveries with no regard to ethics makes the human race open to mistakes that were previously unforeseen.


Pursuing technologies without a second thought for the repercussions could result in the demise of the human race, by letting humans be even more careless about the environment. In many writings tampering with science and the environment along with it’s ramifications is evident, including Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder.” In this short story Bradbury warns us about tampering with the past with a time machine and describing it as “finicky business,” (Bradbury). No matter how hard people try to make things perfect there will always be little flaws and imperfections, so if humans attempt to change our environment no matter how meticulous they attempt to be somewhere someone will make a mistake and this could add up just as in “A Sound of Thunder” “crushing certain plants could add up infinitesimally,”(Bradbury). Just as in “A Sound of Thunder,” if the human race tries to use technology as an excuse to be careless then it will result in dramatic changes in the present.


If science were to just blindly forge ahead with new technologies with no care for how they impact the future and the present then the human race would eventually cease to exist due to its own fault. With recent advances in the field of cloning this calls into question “why we would want to do this in the first place, to actually bring back a species," as stated in “Bringing Them Back to Life,” by Carl Zimmer. Although there are some benefits to this they do not overweigh the the consequences or the questions brought forth, such as does doing this let humans “amount to playing god,” (Zimmer, pg.2)? Cloning animals and de-extincting them lets humans think that they can do anything they please because they can just bring it back to life that there are no repercussions to our actions. As the argument rages on in the scientific community, the answer is pretty clear, cloning species, bringing them back to life is completely unethical and could lead to humans being careless in the way they treat the environment and other species.


Science as it is forever changing must be controlled and directed in the direction that benefits society the most instead of harming it. Technology although vastly important to society can be a gateway to chaos, by letting humans be able to be careless in their actions. As supported in “A Sound of Thunder” even the littlest mistake can create a domino effect affecting the entire human population. De-extincting animals allows people to do anything not ever thinking about the consequences it may have, such as hunting, someone may think “well it doesn’t matter if i kill 10 zebras, because they can just be re-created.” In order to prevent any of these travesties from happening scientists need to be monitored in their research and be only allowed to explore certain area’s of their field that are approved. If scientists are not monitored and are allowed to continue their research into the unknown then the human race could face obliteration through no one else’s but its own.


Works Cited
Bradbury, Ray. "A Sound Of Thunder." Elements of Literature. Florida ed. Vol. 3. Austin: Holt   Rinehart Winston, 2003. 35-44. Print. Elements of Literature.
Zimmer, Carl. "Bringing Them Back to Life: The Revival of an Extinct Species Is No Longer a Fantasy. But Is It a Good Idea?" National Geographic Apr. 2013: 28. Web.


The author's comments:

THis piece was inspired from the lack of acknowledgement for the present events by poeple in our society.


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