Benefits Of Technology

Man, powered by his imagination and inquisitive character, has wondered he mechanisms of Nature since time infinite. This quest for the truth, the ways in which his surrounding works, has led to many a scientific discoveries and innovations.

Since the art of making fire and creating handcrafted tools, our civilization has come a long way. Science and Technology are making advances at an amazing rate. From telephones to the Internet, calculators to computers, cars to rockets and satellites, we are submerged in a sea of discoveries and inventions made possible by Science. Fields like Medicine and communications have made inroads into our cultures and thus our lifestyles.

So vast is the impact of Science in our lives, that people fear the unthinkable. It leads them to accusations such as Science tries to play God. However, according to Hume, God is part of the order that exists in the universe. If so, then Science is just helping us discover the Almighty, which most people perceive as the Ultimate Truth. To quote Charles Pierce, ""There is one thing even more vital to science than intelligent methods; and that is, the sincere desire to find out the truth, whatever it may be."

Repeatedly, it is also heard that we are so dependent on Science and Technology that we who create it are nothing but mere puppets. How can we be the slaves of this great resource? In fact, it would not be wrong to term Science as a friend of Humanity. This faithful friend has come through many a times. We have reaped innumerable benefits out of this friendship. In return, the sacrifices we had to make constituted just a small price in return. This price can be termed as a small token of appreciation for our friend, Science.

According to an existential argument, existence precedes essence. If so, then human existence is absurd and unjustified. The goal of a human being then is to justify his existence. We humans tried to take charge of our own lives by choosing to justify its cause. According to Mahlotra, a person who is aware of the fact that by the freedom of choice we have, we are responsible for our actions and performs those actions acknowledging freedom of others too, is the one who shall find meaning in his life. Satre points out for us that a man is nothing else than a series of undertakings, that he is a sum, the organization, the ensemble of the relationships which make up these undertakings. For some people Science and Technology are those actions, which fill their life with meaning.

Medicine for instance, is one of the thousands and thousands of fruits that we have harvested from this friendship. It has helped humankind in innumerable ways. People have started taking charge of their own health and life. Therefore, the life expectancy of a person living in the nineties is about twenty years more on an average from that which people enjoyed at the start of the last century. By the virtue of medicine, not only does a person live longer but also lives his life to the fullest in the best of health.

Deadly diseases such as small pox, plague and polio have caused a large number of epidemics resulting in major loss of life. The Plague Epidemic of London in the 1600's had wiped out nearly a fifth of its' population. Researches and scientific effort led many scientists to find cures or preventive vaccinations for these life-threatening diseases. Today these diseases have been eradicated from the face of the earth. Thanks to our Science, millions of lives have been saved from the clutches of these evils. The benefits of discovery of these vaccines needed to be passed on to the public. To cater to the huge human population, Technology in this field evolved side by side the scientific progress. Better techniques resulted in faster and more efficient developments of these scientific discoveries.

The field of medicine today is well equipped to cope with the health problems faced by man. Science behind Medicine has led to awareness and preventive education among the public. Certain procedures propagated through these awareness programs such as regular exercising and taking regular doses of insulin for diabetes patients help maintain the health of today's patients. Insulin can now be synthetically prepared in our laboratories using bacteria cultures. Antibiotics and other medicines sometimes help us fight life-threatening conditions. In short, the patients are often handed a second chance to live. We are no longer at the complete mercy of nature. The right to choose and to take control of one's life has been passed down to the individual.

As pointed out by Willard Gaylin in his essay, Harvesting the Dead, the technology we have developed has essentially changed the definition of death. Now although a person could be declared dead, he could have willed his usefulness beyond his mortality. Medical Technology has reached a point where organs can be transplanted from one individual to another. Many see red in such an act as desecration of a human body. However, by donating his or her organs to give a new lease of life to someone else, the person found a meaning not only in his lifetime but also in his death.

Medicine has often been cited as a means to over-population. Sure, it helps us live a little longer but it also provides us with birth control techniques such as contraceptives and sterility operations to help prevent it. Speaking along this line, instead of blaming Science and Medicine for our troubles, would it not be right to blame those who do not heed the advice provided by Science and makes use of the technology it has provided to curb over-population?

Issues such as euthanasia and abortion have always been topics of debate in the field of Medicine. Even before the present day techniques were developed, people already had in place procedures that essentially had similar goals to what is now termed as euthanasia. Science has just provided us with simpler ways that are not tough on the patients themselves. This in my opinion is no justification but the fact. Further man controls the use of any technology. It is a question of ethics of the person resorting to such means. If there is enough reason and rationale behind it, then it can be judged as an act of mercy. On the other hand, an abuse of this technology is nothing but a murder. Even if it results in a few cases of abuse of this science, we cannot possibly discount Science or Technology as bad or evil. It is its use that is bad.

There has been a lot of discussion and hype surrounding the recently unveiled Human Genome Project. As one of the researchers puts it, "It has opened a library of life which might take atleast a century to explore". With such a huge database at our command, there is no telling where