Introduction to Technology and Society

In just a little over a hundred years we have gone from the first manned flight by the Wright brothers, to walking on the moon, to establishing a international space station. The advancement of technology has brought about modern medicine, personal communication, and knowledge to people around the world. While technology has obviously done wonderful things for society it has also created many problems that people often protest to. There are two major issues that deal with technology that interest me. These include cloning or stem cell research, and the miniaturization of technology. The first, cloning, interesting me because of the spiritual and moral issues that come about when dealing with artificially creating another being. The second issue is the miniaturization of technology which is how technology has gone from huge computers to computers that can fit in your hand or backpack. How these have changed society or could change society in the future are points in technology that interest me.

The technology of cloning or stem cell research has interest with me because its possible use for medical advancement, food development, and its moral dilemma in society. With the advancement of cloning we could in the future be able to artificially grow limbs, heal diseases that were once incurable, and increase longevity of life. While these all sound great on paper the idea that we as humans are only meant to live for so long brings up a moral dilemma. Whether you believe in God or not humans simply are not meant to live as long as it could be possible with these future technology. While the goal of this type of research would help many people the idea that we could ultimately live for as long as we desired is a question that we as a society must decide. The idea though that this technology could end starvation by creating artificial food would help a great many people on the world as well as limit the amount of land we need to produce food and save more land for the future. The miniaturization of technology will continue to make technology smaller and more compact eventually replacing more and more items that we use everyday. The fact that todays cell phones have more computing power than the first space shuttle to the moon is evidence that technology is going to eventually be miniaturized to an unbelievable level.