ISSUE30

雨&彩虹UID: 132532

30"The primary goal of technological advancement should be to increase people's efficiency so that everyone has more leisure time."

Should the primary goal of technological advancement rested upon the improvement of people’s efficiency so that people has more leisure time? The speaker claims so. I concede that technological advancement do increase efficiency, but either should be this the primary goal or the result be that everyone has more leisure time.

I concede that technological innovation has increased people’s efficiency. Just consider the wide used computer technology. The designing tools and software installed help to short working time and facilitate working efficiency. The word-processing software makes paper work not as boring and time-consuming task as before while. The vast information available on the Internet cut our time spending on searching among thousands of books in the libraries. In our daily life, all the modern transportation means such as car, plane and subway act as efficient agents to carry us home or even places thousands miles away.
Agreeing on the revolution effects brought by these modern conveniences, I am still against the speaker’s claim in two aspects. For one thing, I consider that the primary role carried out by technological advancement far outweigh what the speaker defines as simple as increasing efficiency. The crucial mission of technology should be the tackling of the most urgent problem of modern society. Thousands of people in the world still suffer from hunger and insufficiency of medical care. Environmental problem such as greenhouse effect, deforestation, wild-animal extinction all deserve the effort of our human beings through the use of modern technology. In this sense, if we set the increasing of efficiency to be the primary role of technology, we face the danger of being obsessed in the sole ideology of pragmatism and neglecting those social problems.

On the other hand, the speaker’s claim that modern technologies render people more leisure time is just a fake and naïve illusion. If we turn around to observe modern people, it is not hard to notice how tired expression the wear on their faces and how hectic lives they are living. The chief stimulus behind technology is that people crave for efficiency and this is a reflection of the increasing efficiency stuff placed on them by their bosses and customers. Returning to the example of program-designer. He may save some time today by resorting to some designing software but may spent more time in updating his professional knowledge in this field or choosing and adapting to new technological advancement. People may increase their traveling efficiency by using modern transportation tools, but end in realizing that traffic jam is ever annoying and this modern convenience is a trade-off to their health condition. Modern technology increases people’s expectation for each other. Our families expect more earning, our bosses expect for increasing deal-settling efficiency, our customers expect quick complain-dealing and timely thorough service. Yes, we first feel with confidence that modern technology will free us from the bondage of daily trivial work but end up in realizing that we again relegate to become the servants to high efficiency.

To sum up, I agree with the speaker to the extent that efficiency does constitute an important part of technological advancement. But I strongly feel that by overlooking the social function of technology, we neglect the most crucial aspect of what it can do for the mankind. What is more, I do not agree that modern efficiency can increase people’s leisure. On the contrary, I believe by increasing people’s expectation and standard for efficiency, we lose more leisure time in trading off for money-making, job security and so forth.

blake_wangUID: 9871

outstanding,excellent.

0,but either should be this the primary goal or the result be that everyone has more leisure time. -->neither...nor... right? what's your meaning?
1,short-->shorten
2,working efficiency-->chinenglish? people's efficiency.
3,as before while-->what's the mass?
4,the increasing of efficiency -->increase
5,and so forth-->remove them. useless.

Smile111UID: 140402

结构安排得不错，但是确实有一些语法错误，细心看你就知道的

如but either should be this the primary goal or the result be that everyone has more leisure time.

我觉得应该改成but neither should this be the primary goal nor the result be that everyone has more leisure time

imongUID: 140258

谢谢rainbow的贡献
因为大家一般都按照manfen的顺序写的题号
为了避免confusion，我已经把题号改成30了

shp104UID: 153756

好文．赞．朴实但很明白！