by “If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger” -Frank Lloyd Wright
As I read this quote, I felt the familiar prick of annoyance that I’m sure many people my age have felt whenever constant judgement of how lazy our generation is due to technology is brought up. Then I realized that I just recently bought a speaker I can control through speaking, no need to even lift the mentioned “push button finger.” Obviously this is just a joke, as using voice controls to play music won’t lead to our bodies atrophying, but it brings me to a very real problem I feel in today’s age regarding technology. We put the blame for the consequences of us abusing technology on the tech or creator, and not at us, the users. Yes, smartphones have taken a very integral part in most people’s lives, and many complain how it has made us antisocial and lazy. But putting the blame on the phone isn’t right in my opinion. The benefits could easily outweigh the cons if people used them responsibly. Saying phones are the reason for issues like antisocial behavior lets us avoid confronting the idea that the phone only exacerbated the behavior, not caused it.
“Whenever science makes a discovery, the devil grabs it while the angels are debating the best way to use it.” -Alan Valentine
There are so many examples of both good and bad developments in science, but there are some that are harder to define. Take the atom bomb for example. By definition, a weapon of mass destruction that kills and mutilates people would probably be classified as bad. But weapons are needed to defend against danger. Like the phones mentioned earlier, many inventions aren’t inherently beneficial or detrimental as it depends on how it is used. The issue is, there always seems to be someone willing to use a discovery for their own desires, consequences be damned. The quote by Valentine emphasizes this– how people with the worst intentions tend to just use what they want while the morally conflicted debate endlessly. Does this mean that advancements should sometimes be slowed down or stopped based off their potential to do bad in the world? Who would get to define those standards on what is acceptable or not?
There seems to exist a misconception that all scientific progress is linear. That innovation is always an ideal to strive for. However, unless innovation is checked there is no reason that it should be perused anymore that scientific stagnation. Why should we continue to develop a field unless we can anticipate the possible outcomes and how the pros weigh against the cons. We are quick denounce many more “primitive” cultures and times as worse, but would today’s stressors exist without previous innovations. This pandemic exists in part due to overpopulation that is a result of “more efficient” housing developments.
In the end, each discovery is simply new information. We can use that information however we choose, and that makes us the most important aspect of any advancement in science. Once we fully accept that responsibility I believe less creations will explode in our faces.