The controversy that is ‘Technology’
We are being faced with a force that is both good and evil; technology. Many see technology as the greatest threat facing humanity today, greater even than climate change. As something that is man-made, technology’s future is unpredictable.
Image: http://eng-cs.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Cybersecurity01_Web.jpg
Sophisticated technology is often exploited; uses ranging from terrorism to monetary fraud. In addition, the issue of cyber security is evident in governments and organisations, as well as in groups and individuals. You may have heard of how Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) employee, leaked information about NSA’s surveillance and monitoring of many citizens in the US. Snowden was praised for his ability to prove the NSA’s breach of citizens’ privacy, but was also criticised for disclosing top secret information which was supposed to keep citizens safe. This brings to light the question of whether technology can aid humans without controversy, as well as questions of ethics and philosophy. Who has the right to judge how one should use technology? Who has the right to set the guidelines for ethics? The situation is made more philosophical as we need to establish what is defined as ‘wrong’. With natural morality (though controversial in its own right), we have a general sense of what is right and wrong, but can that alone be used to justify some, if not all, use of technology?
Even then, we continue to develop technology in accordance to our needs and to make life more convenient. Such has been seen with the increased use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, the search for convenience is making the threat of AI even more credible. A decade ago, those who genuinely believed that AI could somehow rebel against humans were laughed at. Today they’re taken more seriously, even by scientists.
If technology were to fully outsmart humans (indeed many people speak now of “smart phones dumb people” as people are starting to look more at their phones than at each other), I wonder how humans would react. Perhaps that day has already come.
