- 最后登录
- 2010-8-3
- 在线时间
- 3 小时
- 寄托币
- 53
- 声望
- 0
- 注册时间
- 2010-7-24
- 阅读权限
- 10
- 帖子
- 0
- 精华
- 0
- 积分
- 39
- UID
- 2861795

- 声望
- 0
- 寄托币
- 53
- 注册时间
- 2010-7-24
- 精华
- 0
- 帖子
- 0
|
此生第一篇issue。。盼指点
OPIC: ISSUE88 - "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
WORDS: 868 DATE: 2010/7/25 16:58:01
In an age when the internet is daily necessity, air-conditioning common practice, automobile another pair of shoes, it is really easy for any of us to ignore the existence of technology. Yet if deprived of all these, even for a single day or an hour, one’s life becomes a catastrophe. Cities suffering from power cut are best examples of the significance of technology today. I fundamentally agree with the author that technology influence social customs and ethics, either subtly or significantly. But whether it determines these depends on the type and timing of a certain technology.
If we look through history, there were times when every new technology brought about great changes in people's actions and ideas. With fire, our forefathers learned to eat cooked foods and became civil; with paper and pen, our ancestors found ways to record history and became knowledgeable; with car and plane, they freed their feet and learned about their regions; with the internet, they freed their thoughts and learned about the globe. It is definitely hard for any of us to say that we are not affected by technology, either interior or exterior. Take plastic as an example: such invention-- after changing what we wear, use and eat-- exerted considerable influence on what we think and believe. People began to sense the power of human beings to reconstruct the world and took the belief that, not only god but we can create things as well. In this way, along with technological breakthrough are new lifestyles and beneath that style are new customs and ethics.
But it is arbitrary to quickly say that technology influence customs and ethics simply by changing life styles. Close scrutiny reveals that technology works in an endless cycle like this: it was invented to satisfy people's needs; after such satiation it creates a lot more needs. In light of this, technology, other than changing life style, is eventually making people more and more voracious and such desires drive the changes in man's own customs and ethics. We have all heard about the story: when train was first invented, experts commented that, not to say taking, even seeing a train, may leave someone mentally disordered since the train was so quick, quicker than people could stand. It sounds ridiculous for people today, for whom even super-sonic plane becomes not as quick as expected. The desire for speed is only a reflection of social life. People are now in want of fast restaurant, fast hotel, fast education and even fast marriage. It is seemingly that technological breakthrough which leads to better physical speed, has now made people accept what they originally refused, such as one-night stand. Ethics and social conventions have been changed due to people’s unsatisfied desires.
If we get down to fundamentals and examine how many of these technologies are changing lifestyles and creating desires, we will sure find that it was not like yesterday when nearly all inventions had an impact. No one spares time to study how many patents are patented worldwide every day. We all know it must be an astonishing number. That is to say, with limited speed of adjusting customs and ethics, not all technology are having influences. Say, a new Macintosh software, no matter how powerful it is, cannot affect a PC user. People who are living diversified lives are less influenced by the even more diversified technologies, compared to their ancestors.
Today, the impact of a single technology is reduced to a limited extent, and the influence of it becomes more unconscious. However, as a whole, technology is exerting larger than ever influence on the way people socialize. The distance between countries and even continents has been diminished to be unrecognizable. The result of bridging geographical gap is profound. People contact each other regardless of ethnic, gender, occupation, region and anything we would consider decades before. It is safe to draw the conclusion that people today are more tolerant and willing to accept differences. And such tolerance changed people’s view of the world and of themselves, which is underlined in every social custom and ethic.
After all, no one can deny the influence of technology on social customs and ethics, yet determination is a one-way process, which cannot readily explain the impact of social customs and ethics on technologies. It is clear to all that Japanese cars are different from European ones, as is obvious that people there have different hair colors and complexions. Technology, although somewhat abstract, is a product, which is decided by the one who makes it and is influenced by the social conventions this certain one takes. Furthermore, beyond interactive influence, technologies and social customs and ethics, when contradicting each other, are actually readjusting themselves and making compromises from time to time. For example, hot issues like cloning are challenging both science and ethics. Therefore, it is not precise to say that technology determines social customs. It might be better to define an interactive relationship.
Here comes the conclusion: technology, by changing lifestyle and creating needs is surely influencing social customs and ethics. And its way of influencing people is now in a broader sense. Social customs and ethics, in turn, exert influence on technology as well. |
|