ISSUE88 技术决定社会习俗和道德【求拍，有拍必回】

爱上千年的猫UID: 2476232

TOPIC: ISSUE88 - "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
WORDS: 542
TIME: 00:45:00
DATE: 2010-3-16 21:03:50

Technologies no doubt influence our daily life significantly. Thanks to the advancements in technology, we are emancipated from tiresome works and are able to engage in more challenging works we like. However, we should not overstate its significance in influencing social customs and ethics. After all, these things belong to ideology and can only be determined by human thought, rather than technology or anything else.

To begin with, we should give clear definition to social customs and ethics. In my opinion, social customs are a set of formalized behaviors formed in the long history of human society and accepted by the majority. They instruct how people associate with each other and perform in the society. While ethics are rules telling people right from wrong, informing them what should be done and what should not. It is the social customs and ethics that build up the basic sketch of a society, making people socialized and maintaining the stability of society. They are rooted in the long history of human minds and are not easily altered.

Then, we can follow some examples to examine whether technologies can determine social customs and ethics we defined above. Consider the way we communicate with each other. In the ancient time, news are spread from mouth to mouth which limits the speed and credibility of what we want to communicate. Later people begin to use letters to keep in touch with friends and relatives who do not live with us. Then, with the invention of telephone and telegraph, we step into a new age of electricity. These inventions significantly increase the frequency and convenience of our communication. And now by virtue of net technology, we can use emails, MSN, and other tools to "see" and "chat" with each other whenever and wherever we desire. They make us more closely linked with the world around us and shorten the distance between us and our friends, or even political leaders. Although the tools we use to contact others advance with the development of technology, the social customs--the dependence on continuous communication with others--simply remain unchanged.

The influence of technologies on ethics is similar. With the help of high technologies, we are able to accomplish many tasks that we can never imagine before. The example of space exploration aptly describes the situation. Through well-designed spaceships and man-shipped rockets, we can land on the moon and other planets around the earth. Recently some are arguing that the land on other planets should be owned by those who first occupy that land. However, our basic ethics tell us it is as scrupulous as setting colonization on earth since the planets are belong to the universe that everyone has the right to share. Once occupied by a certain nation is trespass on others' right. Technologies, rather than determining ethics, are actually restricted in the acceptable range of our ethics, for the purpose of serving human instead of manipulating.

In the final analysis, we should always keep in mind that technologies are eventually tools to assist people achieving goals. As long as we have not lost our ability of thinking, considering, analyzing, and distinguishing, technologies can not be the determinant of social customs and ethics, which are the most precious wealth of our human minds.