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ISSUE 88
Technology not only influences but actually determines social customs and ethics.
1. 科技能够影响社会习惯.
2.科技不能决定社会风俗习惯
3. 科技能够不能影响社会的伦理道德.相反,社会的伦理道德反倒可以影响科技的发展
In this era of rapid technological developments, it seems that the world gradually evolves to the one that manifests itself in a way with every aspect deeply effected by technology. Hence, some people, the speaker included, tend to advocate that technology is playing a pivotal role both in influencing and determining the social customs and ethics. I mostly incline to repeal this assertion except the part that the technology influences social customs. In the lines below, reasons are listed to support my position.
To begin with, it is of great importance to recognize the fact that technology has the power to influence social customs, while being absolutely incapable when it comes to determination. Consider, for example, the most marvelous innovation of the 20th century Internet. With the help of Internet, office clerks begin to get used to chatting with friends online, or sending emails for information exchange, instead of face-to-face talk which may be a very popular way in the past; due to the existence of Internet, an alternative for shopping, the E-commerce, is provide to housewives, although there still calls for a great work on the legal system of shopping on-line in many undeveloped countries; And that political leaders can view today's headlines, pieces of news, events happened international or domestic online by watching the computer screen should be attributed to the coming of Internet. Indeed, the technology, with its various incarnations, such as internet, automobiles, electricity and so forth, are exerting a great influence on people's everyday life, in other words, in shaping the social customs.
Now that technology is so powerful in affecting people's daily lives, would it be possible or even probable that it can determine social customs? People in favor of this view might cite that the nearly every people is benefiting from the technological developments, from spiritual life to material existence, from housing condition to traveling vehicles. True, that technology brings us conveniences as well as advancement of our living conditions, but isn't it the will of human beings that determines the way of life? In this sense, technology just presents us with more appealing and better alternatives than the traditional ones. What is more, the most traditional social customs will basically remain its traits no matter how the technology develops. For instance, in China, the most significant holiday is the spring festival, during which children working outside their hometown will definitely return their home to see their parents every year. This social tradition is determined by the deeply rooted sense of family in Chinese culture. What technology influences is just by which way the families can get together.
As for ethics, I would hold that technology seldom exerts any influences, while, conversely, ethics sometimes impede technological development. My tuition is that ethics, as deeply held beliefs in people's minds, would render the masses distrust any contradicted information or novel things. I propose that the most striking instance would be the clone technology to illustrate this point. Most people, except those scientists researching on clone technology, would find the replication of human beings, made possible by the clone technology, in sharp conflict with the already existed social ethics. That's why until now, after years of the invention of this technology, no mankind is cloned except some animals. Surely, this example aptly shows that ethics will take on the predominant side when contradicting with technology. And perhaps only when we see one cloned person come into being can we shake the foundation of the conclusion that technology seldom exerts any influences on ethics.
In short, from all the discussions above, it can be safely concluded that the author's assertion is unreasonable except that technology influences social customs. The majority of people should be aware of the technological power in affecting our lives, and take advantage of that power to ensure a better future for us human beings. |
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