Glass cellphones... brilliant |
About a month and a half ago, an Orbital Sciences rocket exploded during
liftoff. Although nobody was injured from the explosion, hundreds of millions
of dollars of supplies and equipment were destroyed in a matter of seconds. The
fireball, which could be seen for miles, stunned observers; many hadn't even
seen a lift-off before, much less an exploding one.
Only three days
later, another space-related accident occurred: during a test flight of Virgin
Galactic's SpaceShipTwo spacecraft, a premature wing rotation due to pilot error resulted in the
destruction of the spacecraft, killing one of the two occupants and severely
injuring the other.
Look at digital technology, for example. Computers were
originally built and designed to make people's lives easier by speeding up
calculations, and now they're everywhere. People carry their computer-powered
gadgets to every corner of the globe; in 2013, more than 1.8 million mobile phones were sold worldwide.
But digital technology has many problems.
One of the biggest problems with digital technology is the
maintenance required. Malware especially comes to mind; last year, 31.53% of all computers in the world were infected by malware. Y2K was another particularly well-known problem; although
very little happened in the end, an estimated total of about $500 billion was
spent preparing for it worldwide.
The cost of buying digital technology is also a significant
disadvantage. On Amazon.com, a Samsung Galaxy S3 costs about $260. According to
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average hourly salary in the U.S. is about $24.50, so the average person would have to work for more than 10 hours to buy a
smartphone. If the smartphone doesn't save at least 10 hours of the owner's
time, that time is lost forever.
Even if a person manages to avoid maintenance and purchasing
costs, there are still other problems that come from technology usage itself.
One common way that people spend time on computers, for example, is by using
Facebook. Facebook allows users to constantly socialize and communicate with
each other, so it might seem that it would have positive results. Not so. According
to a University of Michigan study published in 2013, Facebook usage has in fact
been linked with a negative impact on happiness. This is the
complete opposite of the results that Facebook ought to have.
So those are some of the disadvantages to digital
technology. What about the other sorts of technology? The automobile is also a
common technology. Most people agree that cars save a lot of time, but do they
really?
A study conducted by the non-profit organization AAA shows that an
average sedan in the United States costs a little over $10,000 per year, due to
such expenses as maintenance costs, fuel costs, insurance, taxes, and finance.
To afford this, an average citizen would have to work for around 400 hours per year,
or a little over an hour and a half every workday, without holidays. And
then there's the time spent driving the car to a repair shop, time spent
pumping gas, and time spent working on the taxes for the car. So in reality, cars
don't really save that much time after all.
But that's not the only problem with cars. Another problem
is the number of accidents they are involved in. According to the U.S.
Department of Transportation, an estimated 9,754,000 vehicles were involved in
crashes in 2012, and 21,667 of the people involved in the crashes were killed.
The people who lived had to deal with the damage, which cost money and time. And
the people who died paid the highest price that can be paid in this world. In
this light, perhaps cars don't serve humans as well as they should.
Of course, there are still numerous objections to these
claims. One possible objection is that the time spent maintaining devices is
time well spent, because otherwise nobody would do it. But simply because a
person spends time doing something doesn't mean that the time is well spent. For
example, the average male between ages 8 and 18 plays more than 16 hours of video games per week. Most of this time could be spent in better
ways, such as studying, and yet it is still spent on video games. The same
applies to technology; people might serve their technology because they see
benefits, and fail to decide whether those benefits are worth the necessary
time and work.
The U.S. job rankings are particularly good at showing what
technology does to society. According to the United States Bureau of Labor
Statistics, customer service representatives rank 7th out of all American jobs. That's almost 2.5 million people who make their living chatting
with people about problems with technology. There are more customer service
representatives than freight, stock, and material movers. Technology clearly doesn't do what people expect if that many people are
necessary just to solve the problems with it.
Admittedly, the problem is a subtle one. In many cases, the
work a person does for technology is eventually paid back in some way or
another; the fast arrival of an ambulance is a particularly good example of
human victory over technology. Nevertheless, technology should be used with caution. As the October rocket explosion and the SpaceShipTwo disaster
demonstrate, technology does not always serve mankind.
It has a mind of its own.
New posts every month - subscribe for free!
No comments:
Post a Comment