issue88 快来拍~~

paburawUID: 2204657

TOPIC: ISSUE88 - "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
WORDS: 515          TIME: 上午 12:43:51          DATE: 2006-7-9
1 科技对社会文化的影响巨大，举电视改变了人们的休闲方式，而通讯的发展，各国的文化相互交流渗透
2 照着这个趋势，科技的影响是有增无减的。电脑的发展使人们的交流方式发生改变，使人们在家就可以办公
3 但是科技与道德之间的关系应该是互相促进的，一方面科技使人追求真理，这个过程中人们的道德也得到提高，另一方面我们不能让科技来决定道德，因为科技本身带来的很多问题需要用道德标准来衡量。

Along with the rapid pace of technologies, there is a general discussion about the influence of technologies on customs and ethics, sometimes people even regard that technologies determine social customs and ethics. As for me, I agree with that technologies exert great effects on social customs and ethics, but it is absurd to extend to determine them.

To begin with, no one would deny seriously that technologies produce great effects on all aspects of human life. The standard of living has risen sharply over last decades due to the fast improvement in the technology and science. Many innovative inventions are major force of shaping and changing our life style. An outstanding example is television, since the advent of television, the leisure style converted from conversation with several friends or reading to sitting on the sofa while watching TV at home. Moreover, the contents on TV would set fashion in society. Since the broadcasting of cartoon Mikey Mouse, which has been popular with children for almost more than forty years, there are more and more people who become attracted by this lovely cartoon mouse. Several generations have grown up under the influence of this classic cartoon. In the addition, satellite communication and global mobility bring about a revolution in people's communication with each other, and our world now is referred as global village. Cultural exchange between nations is more frequent than any time in the past; this trend also makes cultures penetrate each other and under improvement oriented towards more various.

From the current situation, in the next century the impacts of technology tend to seem to be increasing more than now and ever. With the wide spreading of individual computer terminal, along with the availability of Internet in most places of world, the way in which mass communication completely transformed from the traditional face to face communication to people facing his own computer screen using special software to talk with each other. Although some people would argue that this kind of communication makes people stranger than before, they cannot no deny that it is an easier and cheaper way.
What is more, as people have access to their own computer, they can work at home, and use the Internet to exchange opinions with associates, even they can hold a meeting with colleagues in different places, making the international trade quicker and simpler.

As for the ethics, the relationship between ethics and science is that of promoting each other. On the one hand, the science promotes the ethics. Quest for science is also the process of researching for truth, during this process, we humans are begging to enlarge our understanding what is really meat the saying that practice is the sole criterion of testing truth. Not only does the rapid development of technologies, but social morality heighten as well. On the other hand, we cannot let technologies to determine ethics, because technologies have also brought about ethic problems themselves, which should be evaluated by moral principles and norms. Such as theoretical possibility of clone of human beings, only from scientific view, the success of this technology would have benefits to our humans,  for example, providing organs for transplantation, however, it is indisputable that the majority of people will refute it, because of clone human would also create many ethical problem, here, the technology and science are not useful in solve this kind of problem. In shout, people should use the ethical criteria to guide the development of technology, rather than allow technology to determine ethics.

In sum, although technologies exert great effects on social customs and ethics, positive or negative, we should be cautious to not let it to determine the social ethics, instead it is our responsibilities to use the social ethics to guide technologies in the right orientation.