Technology and Humanity: How to align

Technology is cast a spotlight on today and is a very hot subject needless to say. Medical service, science, business, and many more fields don’t seem to be able to improve or even to remain the same as they are now without technology. Technology is great and useful, and we rely on it very heavily. But, does it mean that we do not have to look at “humanity” anymore? Should we focus on only technology? Well, you see this kind of questions everywhere now. Today, I am not writing this to say either of them is more important. I want to draw an attention to the fact that they are something that should coexist in nature.

How Humanity is considered

I am aware that “humanity” is not only a field/subject in university. But maybe we can have a grasp of how humanities are recognized nowadays from the tendency seen in university.

The faculty of Humanities is vanishing from Japanese universities because such studies are not ‘practical’, there is a big budget cut for Arts and Humanities in many universities around the world like in the UK, or in Copenhagen just to name a few… Now the trend seems like that humanities are disregarded and that’s why nations think it is not really worth investing in it. It is true that it is hard to think of occupations that have to do with purely humanity. On the surface, it makes sense that nations do not appreciate that kind of studies because they wouldn’t help nations to be economically lively.

Technology in the Past and Today

Many of the technologies we use today were invented in modern times and now the demand of technology is very high. But let’s look back at the beginning of technology. One of the examples of primitive technology is a tool made of stones to make it easier to cut things. Here, notice, what did technology do? It is ‘helping’ humans.

Science is expanding, technology is improving day by day, and it is really exciting and stimulating. But who is using technology? — Humans. Why does technology exist? — For humans to use. Humanities may be useless themselves; but technology is useless without humanities. We humans decide that technology is useful — and most likely nothing else finds it useful.

We have to remember that technology is serving us. So, for those who love developing technology, it is important to know what we like and want, and what we feel comfortable with.

Let us see some cases where technology and humanities meet:

Here are just a few examples to show that humanities do matter in a way to generate technology.

If a kind of technology is too violent and there is no use for healthy and appropriate purpose, a lot of us would feel bad and not use it. Ethics will help us think about that. In the end, it is us humans who make use of technology, and thus, our feeling towards what we are using is very crucial. That can be a deciding factor whether or not that technology will thrive.

What about literature? It will give us some sense about how we think, how we interact with matters, and what we dream of. Literature is the place where we can find creative ideas to inspire new technology. One of the oldest SF narratives, True Stories written in the 2nd century by Lucian from Syria in Roman Empire, features a travel to outer space and some interaction with aliens. Not only this story, but also many other stories should have inspired and motivated people to make space technology happen, and tell us that it has been a dream since a long long time ago.

It All Comes Down to Humans

As I said above, humans are the ones who use and ‘appreciate’ technology as what it is. One more important thing to note is that money comes from customers, that is, people.

So, technology is to help humans, but nowadays, it is also a source of money making. People use it, and they pay for its usefulness. Money is essential to live. Therefore, if you are an engineer, a mechanic, an inventor, etc., humanities are really relevant for your business. Well, not just these kinds, but also all the businesses out there are related to humanities because we make money from humans. It seems plausible to say that a popular and successful technology is hard to achieve without an understanding of humanities. Humans have to find it useful for technology to prosper. Caring about humanities will likely lead to satisfying the users.

Technology needs a purpose. That will be the goal that engineers try to achieve by creating new/applied technology. When there is no purpose, it must be hard for them to know what to generate. That purpose can be figured out through humanities: What humans wish becomes a goal of next technology.

Technology Gives Us Chance to Think about Humanities

We humans cannot do so much without technology. Can you imagine our life without technology? No computer, no electricity, no cars! Our activities won’t be the same without them. Economy that we have established until today won’t work as it does now. We have more time to think about what we want rather than what we must do. It is because what we have to do, such as eating, communicating with someone far, or just living in general, do not require so much effort these days thanks to technology.

Humanities are luxury. Our ideas and creativity probably got more complex and somewhat more sophisticated because of that. A lot of people from many places in the world can discuss issues together, which was impossible a long time ago. Now is a great time to enhance humanities rather than ignoring it. And it is really possible in this day and age. As time goes, technology develops and humanities shift. They do not remain the same all time. They interact and help with each other to improve themselves. That is why they are to coexist in nature.