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TECHNOLOGY : BANE OR BLESSING? Less than 150 years ago, on the banks of Lake Michigan, stood a small farming town with a population of about 100. As the railroad industry emerged the population grew and more goods were transported to this small town. Over time the town grew rapidly, it was colonized quickly, industries grew, and people from all over the country came for the work opportunities here. Presently that small farming town is one of the largest and most important cities in the world, Chicago. Chicago is just one of the many cities whose surroundings changed from peaceful pastures to sky-scrapers, the sounds of cows mooing to horns honking, and the smells of flowers to a pot-pourri. The rate at which technology is striding is unfathomable. Industries are popping up from nowhere, and businesses are growing faster than ever. Technology is now taking huge strides disowning the methods that were used earlier. My dad calls me paranoid but I believe that technology spells our doom. In the movie "Jurassic Park," Ian Malcolm puts it best, "The problem with this technology is that it didn't take any discipline to attain it." The invention of the computer has spoiled us all considerably. The results of any experiment can be simulated in the computer before they are even carried out. The guess and check method, although considerably slow, taught scientists new things with each failure. Thus, the thought that every failure brings you closer to success. With the computer, there is no failure, and no new knowledge is added on to the existing knowledge. The base for new knowledge is crushed. What mankind is trying to do now, is to build a house of cards in the air. I am sure after reading this many of the readers will be outraged and I have no doubt that I will get a lot of criticism for this article. The computer is viewed by many as a tool, and no doubt, it is, one of the most important tools ever invented. However, tools are only useful when used correctly. If the early man had used the ax for cutting human body parts, instead of trees, all of us would be walking around with a broken arm or leg by now. The computer was a tool that was invented to help man in daily life, by assisting him/her in performing tasks that would be too tough for him/her to perform otherwise. But as time passed computers grew into something that they were not meant to be, they were employed by the government in wars, and soon turned into machines that were in every mind, and in every household. This Sunday the Chicago Tribune ran a story on some U.S. exports that might have aided India in constructing a nuclear bomb. One of them was a super-computer. A computer that could perform 2062 million theoretical calculations per second, and could simulate a nuclear blast without the country actually having to test the deadly bombs. Computers have now become life for everyone, and apart from watching TV, it has become the only other activity that millions of people perform. People are becoming increasingly lazy, and their physical activity is minimal. A recent study showed that 40% of the Americans are obese, and many more are following their footsteps, I believe that the computer has a significant contribution to this weight gain. With the introduction of the Internet and the personal computer about a decade ago, the computer technology has skyrocketed. The Internet has brought the world together, but has also exposed the normal public to every single bit of information available in the world. More ups than downs, but the downs can be extremely serious and must be regarded with top priority. Things like thefts over the Internets have been becoming increasingly serious. In the late 90’s almost all the major banks in the world have been providing service via the Internet. The thieves no longer have hold-ups, but dial-ups. All they need now for robbing people blind is the Internet and a series of letters. As I have mentioned before, what humans are attempting to do now is build a house of cards without a base. They are short of one important foundation, discipline, and eventually, the house will collapse. Date Posted : June 28, 1998. What do
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