Is technology good or bad?

[We Never Know]

Studies show the more we advance in technology, the lazier and dumber people get because they have to do less and think less. Since cell phones have became the next big thing, teenagers needing eye glasses has increased by 43%.
We have technology to mow lawns, paralell park our cars, give us directions, clean our houses, do our studies, do our work, raise our kids, baby sit our kids(give them a game and keep them occupied), etc.
Is it a good thing or bad thing?

 

[John53]

Like everything, some good, some bad.

 

[Jumi]

I'm sure technology itself isn't good or bad, it all depends on how we use it. Today's factories are no longer death traps for workers, we can produce cleaner energy without forests dying due to acidity. Some diseases used to be death sentences, but now treatable.

That kids are using smart phones, but they aren't trained to use their eyes and spend time to relax them is the real problem rather than the screens. That's just my opinion anyway.

 

[HonestJoe]

Studies show the more we advance in technology, the lazier and dumber people get because they have to do less and think less. Since cell phones have became the next big thing, teenagers needing eye glasses has increased by 43%.

Did you work that out yourself or did you just read it on the internet? Incidentally, the increase in eyesight issues is more likely related to poor diet and health rather than technology directly.

We have technology to mow lawns, paralell park our cars, give us directions, clean our houses, do our studies, do our work, raise our kids, baby sit our kids(give them a game and keep them occupied), etc.

Is it a good thing or bad thing?

Technology is far too wide a scope to simply call it “good” or “bad” and like all tools, it boils down to how we choose to use them, the classic “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. A lot of the stuff we use technology to do or to help us do are things that at one point in time we didn’t or couldn’t do at all and there are countless things technology has made safer, cleaner and healthier.

I think humans do have a tendency to find the easiest route to achieve our aims and that can lead to laziness and other longer term costs over the short term benefits, but that isn’t a technology issue in and of itself. Used correctly, technology is just as capable of helping us avoid those mistakes as it can support us in making them.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Studies show the more we advance in technology, the lazier and dumber people get because they have to do less and think less. Since cell phones have became the next big thing, teenagers needing eye glasses has increased by 43%.
We have technology to mow lawns, paralell park our cars, give us directions, clean our houses, do our studies, do our work, raise our kids, baby sit our kids(give them a game and keep them occupied), etc.
Is it a good thing or bad thing?

For me technology is a double-edged sword.

We gain great advantages and conveniences while at the same time weakening ourselves to a point of dependency on technology, whereas the advantages and convenience of technology suddenly supersedes our own natural abilities and capabilities to cope without any technology leaving people in a mindset of, "what do I do? What I do, what do I do!!! Help!!!... Should those advantages and inconveniences fail.

I can imagine somebody from the 1800s coming up and chiding somebody for being so pathetic and to get a grip on oneself. *Grin*

 

[ChristineM]

Studies show the more we advance in technology, the lazier and dumber people get because they have to do less and think less. Since cell phones have became the next big thing, teenagers needing eye glasses has increased by 43%.
We have technology to mow lawns, paralell park our cars, give us directions, clean our houses, do our studies, do our work, raise our kids, baby sit our kids(give them a game and keep them occupied), etc.
Is it a good thing or bad thing?

Technology is what it is, it helps locate and cure cancers and other once deadly maladies, it helps reduce your carbon footprint, it helps grow more food for an increasing (and in some places starving) population, it even allowed you to post your post.

It also produces more devastating and deadly bombs, causes viruses to evolve resistance to them, provides the means for less physical and mental exercise.

Use it wisely and it can be a boon to individuals and to society, abuse it and there will be problems

 

[Altfish]

Technology is good.

Man's use of technology is variable.

 

[Augustus]

Technology...helps reduce your carbon footprint,

Technology created your carbon footprint in the first place...

 

[Revoltingest]

Not good.
Great!

Just think....
Without technology, everyone here would be arguing & fighting with
co-workers & family instead of disembodied posters on the internet.
You'd be getting fired & divorced instead of moderated.

 

[ChristineM]

Technology created your carbon footprint in the first place...

Yes, and... Now it is working to reduce it.

How about curing cancer and saving over a billion people from starvation?

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Studies show the more we advance in technology, the lazier and dumber people get because they have to do less and think less. Since cell phones have became the next big thing, teenagers needing eye glasses has increased by 43%.
We have technology to mow lawns, paralell park our cars, give us directions, clean our houses, do our studies, do our work, raise our kids, baby sit our kids(give them a game and keep them occupied), etc.
Is it a good thing or bad thing?

Yes.

 

[ChristineM]

Yes.

Concise.

 

[Augustus]

Yes, and... Now it is working to reduce it.

How about curing cancer and saving over a billion people from starvation?

And it also causes cancer and enables massive overpopulation in the first place

It's not a 'criticism' of technology, just a description.

In any complex system, such as human society, adding a new variable will cause unpredicted impacts. Of course there are many technologies that were created to do great things, which they certainly achieve. This rarely comes without negative consequences of some degree though that often result from the normal use of technologies rather than their misuse.

 

[ChristineM]

And it also causes cancer and enables massive overpopulation in the first place

It's not a 'criticism' of technology, just a description.

In any complex system, such as human society, adding a new variable will cause unpredicted impacts. Of course there are many technologies that were created to do great things, which they certainly achieve. This rarely comes without negative consequences of some degree though that often result from the normal use of technologies rather than their misuse.

What technology, when used correctly, causes cancer?

Consider, certainly at the moment, that the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.

Yes overpopulation is a problem caused by increasing technology. A problem that technology is going to need to tackle because civilisation won't.

 

[Revoltingest]

Yes overpopulation is a problem caused by increasing technology. A problem that technology is going to need to tackle because civilisation won't.

Actually, I think technology is just going to result in making overpopulation worse
due to our lack of wisdom & appreciation for a diverse & expansive natural world.
But at least it provides a greater understanding of all the critters we're extinctifying.
(Yes, that's a real word.)

 

[Quintessence]

Studies show the more we advance in technology, the lazier and dumber people get because they have to do less and think less. Since cell phones have became the next big thing, teenagers needing eye glasses has increased by 43%.

Since nobody has directly asked yet....

... citation/reference please?

Is it a good thing or bad thing?

Neither. It is (mis)use of technology that is good or bad, depending on one's personal/cultural values.

 

[Augustus]

What technology, when used correctly, causes cancer?

Transportation and industrial technologies that pollute the environment for example. Basically anything that produces carcinogens by definition causes cancer.

Consider, certainly at the moment, that the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.

It depends on what perspective you look at it from. In terms of quality of life for the average human today then you are certainly right.

It's been pretty terrible for non-human animals though.

Also depends on the degree to which you factor systemic ruin into the equation (nuclear war, massive environmental collapse, etc.). If everyone dies then that's a pretty big disadvantage. Millions of small improvements are more than negated by infinite harm.

From the perspective of 'is it better for me as of today?' pros very much beat the cons. From the perspective of 'has the likelihood of human extinction in the next 10,000 years increased or decreased', it has likely increased significantly.

Can't put the genie back in the bottle anyway, so it doesn't really matter one way or the other: it's just for fun.

Yes overpopulation is a problem caused by increasing technology. A problem that technology is going to need to tackle because civilisation won't.

And possibly not in a good way

 

[dianaiad]

Buncha Luddites.

But then, given that I'm still HERE because of technology, and I personally think that's a good thing, I may be a little bit biased.

Oh...and since living in London no longer is a death sentence from 'killer smog,' and neither is Los Angeles...though LA never reached the level London did...

Technology isn't good, It's not bad. It just is.

The medication that is fighting my cancer is an analog of thalidomide. Remember thalidomide?

and it is (in itself and its analogs) saving far more lives than it caused birth defects. This is NOT me approving what happened to those babies. In fact, the original investigation into thalidomide was badly done and irresponsibly handled. It should not have happened, and I have my own theories (definitely not 'right wing' theories) about why it did.

But it's true value has nothing at all to do with what hurt and killed those infants, and it should never have been used to combat morning sickness (REALLY? one of the nastier side effects of it and its analogues is nausea, for crying out loud).

It's true and best use is to combat blood and bone marrow cancer...and it is very good at that.

Is this the fault of thalidomide? No. It's the fault of the people who misused...then used correctly, the discoveries made about it.

This is me, expanding, as is my wont, the 'yes' answer found earlier on the thread.

Oh...and to get rid of technology because it is 'bad,' would mean, er....not even hunter gatherer lives. THEY used tools and fire. Technology.

We are stuck with it.

 

[ChristineM]

Actually, I think technology is just going to result in making overpopulation worse
due to our lack of wisdom & appreciation for a diverse & expansive natural world.
But at least it provides a greater understanding of all the critters we're extinctifying.
(Yes, that's a real word.)

There was (died 10 years ago) a guy called Norman Borlaug. An agromonist who uses genetic engineering to increase wheat yeild n drought prone countries.

He is credited with saving over a billion (yes billion) people from starvation.

A brilliant act until you realise that he has caused a 14% increase in the worlds population.

Technology is a double edged sword

 

[Thief]

give us directions

so Albert gets in the cab
and the driver says …..Where to?

Do you know where Albert Einstein lives?

Yeah!....everybody knows where he lives

Take me there