Thursday, February 16, 2006

Technology Good & Bad

This is another general topic which I have picked to talk today. Technology which is good and bad for humans. There is no technology that has been developed which doesnot have a bad side. It is upto the people to know how to utilize the better side. It all comes down to the fight between good and evil. When will people learn that for good things to happen or Evil things to happen, it all comes down to Humans. It is the humans on this earth which decide whether a thing will be used for good or evil.

The most basic example that can be taken is Nuclear. Its main purpose for development was for more power as industries were developing at a rapid pace, we needed more electrical power. Intially instead of trying to generate electricity we end up making the worst use by building the Nuclear (Atom) Bomb. It was the humans who developed the bomb, it was the humans who made the decision to drop the bomb, it was humans who dropped the bomb from the plane, it was the human who got blasted by the bomb. What can one say? How do people still sleep after making a decision like that? That is a wonder. If intially itself the nuclear was being used for generating power then we would have never faced problems like that of Greenpeace activists and other organisations. Instead of spending so much time on developing a bomb if they had spend time on knowing how to contain the nuclear fission then this world would have more opportunity in using the nuclear power.

Similarly many examples of technology can be taken. Another advent is the Internet which make everyone close to each other and has revolutionised todays medium of communication and information gathering. But the down side of the internet is that what ever crime that happen in real life can happen in the Internet world. Forging, Deceiving, last but least identity theft and sooner or later murder... Basically erasing the identiy of the person. But still people donot talk about the bad things about the internet like the Billion dollar Porn industry. Does anyone know that the number one search word in the world is 'Sex'.

Technology has given more opportunities in trying and implementing new stuffs. Like Solar Cells, intially we were using the conventional Electricity powered Water Geysers to boil water for the baths but now or atleast in Bangalore I find most of the houses having Solar Water heaters. I know the reason for the sudden change. People intentions have not changed to good environmentalist but to preserve their Electricity bills. In the long run people have found that they can save a lot of money if they use a Solar water heater. Atleast due to this reason we get to conserve some electricity. But still each country should learn how to utilize Solar and Wind energy. I guess India doesnot have much choice with Hydel as it is nearly coming to a limit of putting them up.

The gulf countries will never think of Solar power as the power generated through crude oil is more cheap than installing the Solar cells or more like buying them. Anyways when will the countries ever start learning how to care about nature as always nature will return to claim its resources. In the farming industry we utlilize so much fertilizers that the food are heavily contaminated and the soil are lost of its nutrients. If only people try in an orderly way by using Legume to provide the soil by returning the nutrients then we can cut down on the fertilizers. Also worse is that we still have no idea about Recycling, be it the garbage or the water.

This world is going through one of the worst cycles of climatic changes. Very hot summers which led to heat waves and heavy dehydration of people. And now very cold winters with suddenly heavy snowing in some areas. This all has been due to humans and noone else can be blamed for it. We are the ones who are making the Ice caps at the North and South Poles melt. In this process the sea-level keeps increasing and if a tidal wave hits any shore-city, it would not be a suprise. Also heavy flooding is bound to happen in many places. Also droughts are prominent. These all can affect the soil directly and indirectly. Looking at all this I thought Humans will try doing something about it but then again forget that we are not considering on stopping all the mistakes that we have been making.

Coming back to the topic of technology being good or evil. Take Biotech industry for example. If we say something good has come out that can make us look younger for more age then the Bio-tech industry will be hailed good and saviour of mankind. But when the same industry can help in creating Biological weapons that can destroy millions of life then it is deemed unfit and against mankind and will be sealed off for life. It's kind of the same story of 2 sides of a coin.

General Technology that is good and evil. If a regular earthquake hits in the country side then nothing will happen if you are in the open. But when that same earthquake hits a city then the city will come to a stand still due to the falling of building structures. Here I will say that we build the building and it was the building that killed not the earthquake. Similarly with floods, if it happens in a country side water moves comfortable from one side to another and will surely find a medium to disperse. But when a city is built, the same flood can bring the city to its knees. Here I can say these all can be avoided only if more proper Human attention is paid to blend with the nature.

We humans have been able to reach the moon and make such amazing structures. Can we not make better environmental friendly stuctures. With the current statistics coming in, we know that people die more with man-made stuff than nature's fury. We build cars for our comfort to travel but it is us humans who drive at high speeds just to get a straight ticket to the grave. When will people learn from the mistakes of others just to improve ours. I hope this post atleast make people to start thinking about the future for technology.

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