Is every technology innovation paving the way up for human？
With the rapid development of the human society and global environment, scientists and
governments have realized that there are plenty of new elements, materials and even thoughts
which need human to discover and research. So, they are more preferring to encouraging
people have more own ideas which can help enrich the future direction of society by creating
more technology with far-reaching consequences for pushing society forward, like today’s AI,
new energy vehicles, satellites and so on. However, only because an increasing number of
technological innovations can be proposed and invented without some high thresholds and
strict limitations, did some of technology have obvious side effects which is related to society
strife, biological health and ethical problems.
First, it can’t be denied that some advanced technology like self-driving cars and social
media, can bring a more abundant and convenient lifestyle for people. They can provide a
number of emotional value, help deal with most of complex issues and even replace people to
face something dangerous. Nevertheless, should we only value their advantages for human?
Absolutely not. Everything has its side effect, not to mention their drawbacks for society
crisis far exceed the benefits. Self-driving, an advanced invention can help people to drive
and ease the burden in traveling, but as a macro-perspective, its intelligence will heavily take
the bread out of drivers’ mouth. As one research describe, there will be over 4.5million people
who drive for a living facing the unemployment in the US. (Brandon, 2022) So, what they can
do after this? Using their skills to ride the train at the amusement park or hanging out in the
street? And then, social media, which seem to colorize our daily life, may also severely
damage people’s privacy security in society. When people have a communication or make
some comments in the social media, some of they always leave some privacy information that
can be found after that. So, some scammers can directly aim the victims by social media
information instead of people’s identity. From 2021, the scams due to losing information in
social media have hit 2.7 billion dollars. (Hetler, 2024) And many of cheated people choose to
end their life. Both of these technologies would change world into a worse pattern. So, a clear
and strict limitation or even a ban for them may be rather necessary.
Second, it should be the primary step for most of things that are invented or discovered to
checked whether it’s beneficial or just not harmful to human and other creatures. Some of
innovations may create some new concept or function that can improve the development of
society but their side effects for health are ignored, like nanotechnology and VR technology.
Nanotechnology can be applied in electronics, materials science, or medicine revolution by
manipulating matter at the atomic scale. However, it still faces varies of challenges that may
shake its position of future application. For example, some relevant research has found that
nanoparticles which are released into environment can accumulate along the biological chain
sustainably, and they will cause negative for creatures with it, like they can reduce the rate of
photosynthesis or transpiration of plants growing in the soil. (Ray 2019) Then, VR, a
technology can provide a more idealized world with vision, is still exist problems can’t be
accepted. When people apply it in the daily life, a changed continuously vision between VR
and real-world may blurry the bound between two worlds. (Sarker 2024) It can’t be promised
that whether people would take some crazy or legal actions in real world which is normal in
VR world. Both of them embody some harmful aspects for health of creatures. So, maybe
they should be put into use after these problems be worked out.
Third, it can’t be ignored yet that many of technologies with new concept and definition have
faced severe challenges related to the ethical issues from multiple fields, like genetic
engineering and CRISPR. CRISPR, the innovation technology can even revolutionize genetic,
which support to edit DNA precisely. So, maybe people can create some genetic with the
ability of preventing diseases or improve the yield of produces by these measures in the
future. (Sarker 2024) However, if it is applied into society legally, whether the human’s DNA
can be avoid being edited before they are burnt? These children, called “designer babies” can
be designed to whatever their parents want, with strong, smart, handsome or other characters.
So, if the society could be a programmed world filled by various people as the robots of
specialization made of steel? So, it’s essential to limit it or even let it never see the light of
day by law for people’s peaceful and diversified life.
However，it seems that not everything is able to be judged whether it's right or wrong until it
is examined once and once again to be a valuable technology for human. For instance, the
companies with self-driving will pay more taxes unless working in some dangerous
environments. And AI has been set up some limitations on ethnical issues and edit the
restrictions on self-replicating AI. So, some of them can still be applied after retaining
advantages and optimizing crucial drawbacks.
In conclusion, it's undoubted that not every innovation technology is valuable for human, and
most of them exist the fundamental disadvantages which can't be changed. But it is necessary
to select a few negative technologies which can provide a active effort after eliminate their
potential dangers.
