The Human Experience With Technology

The Human Experience With Technology

The world is full technology, almost everything you see is the result of technology. Our houses, cars, buildings, streets, lights, even simple things like spoons, pencils, and nail clippers are all examples of technology. We use it everyday without even think about how it affects us. We don?t think about how much a part of our society it has become, or what life would be like without it. We don?t question our technology once we become accustomed to it but maybe we should. We should think about what technology has brought us, and what it enables us to do.

Is there anything dangerous about our dependence on technology? Of course there is. Being dependant on anything can be dangerous. The good and bad consequences of our dependence have to be measured constantly. If the lights go out, if the car won?t start, if my computer crashes, these illustrate the weaknesses in technology that result in dangerous consequences. Yet those possibilities and realities do not deter us from using technology , or from designing new technologies.

A technological failure can be a threat but, the worse threat to us is ourselves. In a recent interview with Simonetta Rodriguez, (an engineer and recent graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the field of civil and environmental engineering) I asked if she felt that there were any dangers about humans dependence on technology. She said, ?If the computers go down no work gets done. But before computers we got a lot less work done all the time. The greater danger is how we use technology.? We must use care when making decisions regarding technology. If we do not pay close attention to the later consequences of decisions, we could find...

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...ontrol anything except what it was made to control. It is human beings who decide what the technology should and will control.

We are the masters and makers of technology. If we did not invent it there would not be any. Technology is and does what we want it to do. It has no mind of its own, it cannot force anyone to use it, only humans can do that. If a person feels he or she depends of their computer too much, he or she should cut down on its use, or stop using it altogether. Humans survived without computers and we could do it again should we choose to do so. Few would choose to do this.

Technology does not have a mind of its own. It cannot decide for itself to launch nuclear missiles at the U.S., humans must decide that. We built this destructive technology, we must control it. Technology is not dangerous to humans, humans are dangerous to humans.