The Pros And Cons Of Technology

Will humanity as we know it survive it 's obsession with advancing technology? Our expanding repertoire of increasingly advanced digital tools allows us to access and spread information around the world in real-time. Smartphones don 't just keep us constantly connected to the people in our lives, they grant us access to the whole of human knowledge via the internet. Computers have become so powerful and compact that most individuals in the modernized world are never without one; and in many cultures, they are the central means of communication, spreading information, and almost every other facet of modern life. While some may fear this increased reliance on technology, many have embraced the inevitable melding of man and machine. From it 's

They fit in our pockets and are rarely out of arms-reach. These handheld computers we still refer to as phones hold a vast array of tools for understanding and participating in the world around us. "Search engines answer our most obscure questions; status updates give us an ESP-like awareness of those around us; online collaborations let far-flung collaborators tackle problems too tangled for any individual" (Thompson 347). Just a few decades ago, these everyday interactions would have seemed nothing short of magic. As these technologies developed, we developed novel behaviors and habits alongside them. Social media allowed us to reach out to people around the world in a way never possible before; GPS technology showed us the world in a new way and revolutionized the way we travel; file sharing granted individuals the ability to instantly exchange information with others. These fixtures of society are now so deeply ingrained into our identity that the loss of a single one would cause mass

It evolves right alongside us, all the time getting faster, smaller, and more powerful. Looking into the future, it is getting easier to conceive how technology may one day become part of our biology. "Technology has moved away from merely making our lives more convenient, and now it has the potential to change every aspect of what we are as humans. We are becoming transhuman" (Hughes). Transhumanism is the ideology that humans can, and in fact should, use technology to overcome our human limitations. Everything you can imagine may one day be a reality. WiFi-connected eye implants that grant you the ability to access the whole of human knowledge, see in every light spectrum, take pictures and record video, all in the literal blink of an eye; artificial organs and limbs that out-perform and out-last their biological counterparts; nanobots the size of blood cells throughout your circulatory system that can fight disease, alert you to health issues, stop bleeding and repair wounds in minutes rather than weeks; these technologies are not as far off as you might believe. After millennia of being at the mercy of mother nature, we have discovered we no longer need to be subject to her rules and