There's a pretty good argument to be made that the ills of the world are due to modern technology. The combustion engine, electric lighting, powered flight, mass produced products. These and many other such things have all resulted in depleting natural resources and causing pollution quite literally on an industrial scale.
When it comes to the fuel that powers these modern technologies there is an even more depressing legacy. Our energy source of choice is the burning of fossil fuel, in other words oil, coal and gas. However there is now rather less fuel left than has already been burned and what has already been burned has raised levels of atmospheric CO2 to record levels. We're caught on the horns of a twin dilemma.
So we're filling up at the Last Chance Gas Station and will soon be running on fumes, waiting for the inevitable breakdown and long walk back. It would be ironic if the final blow was delivered by our own modern transport network in the form of some especially virulent worldwide pandemic.
But how likely is this scenario really and can the blame all be laid at the door of technology? The fact is that this is hardly a first offence - as a species we have a pretty poor record when it comes bad behaviour leading to unfortunate consequences. But every time we've somehow managed to survive and emerge stronger.
The fact is that you cannot separate people from technology. It's what defines us. Go back however far you like into prehistory and wherever a few old bones are identified as being human in origin you will find evidence of technology.
Tracing the human race back as far as possible we can never find a period when we actually didn't engage in making clothes, decorations, tools and weapons, or cooking food, painting pictures and making music. These things in a sense define what it is to be human, just as wings or a poisonous bite help define other creatures. We are compelled to invent and employ technology just in order to get by.
It's no exaggeration to say that Mozart's Magic Flute has its origins in the hollowed out animal bones that our ancestors fashioned into crude early flutes, or that the weapons of modern warfare can trace their lineage back to stone arrow heads. Consider as you read this, brought to you as a stream of ones and zeroes, that digital communication evolved from printed media, which was a step up from handwriting which itself developed from painting which seems to have started when we still lived in caves.
There has never once been a time when human technological evolution ceased in its quest to adapt and improve. Ironically this is often because the failings of an earlier technology become all too apparent. Our modern sewage systems and clean flushing toilets owe their origins to the success of the steam technology that drove the Industrial Revolution, thereby creating urban crowding and rampant disease from contaminated water supplies.
So if there is one thing we can be sure of it is this: technology almost certainly helped bring us to our present impasse, but it also once again represents our best hope of averting disaster. Salvation lies, not in reverting to some previous pre-tech era, but in moving forward to develop better "eco-technologies" - LED's to replace incandescent lighting, solar energy in place of fossil fuel, and extend the opportunities offered by the internet.
These newer technologies use fewer of the planet's resources and cause less pollution, both directly and indirectly (by reducing the need to travel so much for example). Yet at the same time they can enhance our lives and broaden the choices available to us. Sure, one day we'll realise that they too were less than perfect and guess what we'll do then?
When it comes to the fuel that powers these modern technologies there is an even more depressing legacy. Our energy source of choice is the burning of fossil fuel, in other words oil, coal and gas. However there is now rather less fuel left than has already been burned and what has already been burned has raised levels of atmospheric CO2 to record levels. We're caught on the horns of a twin dilemma.
So we're filling up at the Last Chance Gas Station and will soon be running on fumes, waiting for the inevitable breakdown and long walk back. It would be ironic if the final blow was delivered by our own modern transport network in the form of some especially virulent worldwide pandemic.
But how likely is this scenario really and can the blame all be laid at the door of technology? The fact is that this is hardly a first offence - as a species we have a pretty poor record when it comes bad behaviour leading to unfortunate consequences. But every time we've somehow managed to survive and emerge stronger.
The fact is that you cannot separate people from technology. It's what defines us. Go back however far you like into prehistory and wherever a few old bones are identified as being human in origin you will find evidence of technology.
Tracing the human race back as far as possible we can never find a period when we actually didn't engage in making clothes, decorations, tools and weapons, or cooking food, painting pictures and making music. These things in a sense define what it is to be human, just as wings or a poisonous bite help define other creatures. We are compelled to invent and employ technology just in order to get by.
It's no exaggeration to say that Mozart's Magic Flute has its origins in the hollowed out animal bones that our ancestors fashioned into crude early flutes, or that the weapons of modern warfare can trace their lineage back to stone arrow heads. Consider as you read this, brought to you as a stream of ones and zeroes, that digital communication evolved from printed media, which was a step up from handwriting which itself developed from painting which seems to have started when we still lived in caves.
There has never once been a time when human technological evolution ceased in its quest to adapt and improve. Ironically this is often because the failings of an earlier technology become all too apparent. Our modern sewage systems and clean flushing toilets owe their origins to the success of the steam technology that drove the Industrial Revolution, thereby creating urban crowding and rampant disease from contaminated water supplies.
So if there is one thing we can be sure of it is this: technology almost certainly helped bring us to our present impasse, but it also once again represents our best hope of averting disaster. Salvation lies, not in reverting to some previous pre-tech era, but in moving forward to develop better "eco-technologies" - LED's to replace incandescent lighting, solar energy in place of fossil fuel, and extend the opportunities offered by the internet.
These newer technologies use fewer of the planet's resources and cause less pollution, both directly and indirectly (by reducing the need to travel so much for example). Yet at the same time they can enhance our lives and broaden the choices available to us. Sure, one day we'll realise that they too were less than perfect and guess what we'll do then?
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