issue88 【7\8\9\10】 8.2(第12次） by warboy

warboyUID: 2444492

TOPIC: ISSUE88 - "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
WORDS: 595          TIME: 01:36:00          DATE: 2008-8-3 1:10:02

I strongly agree the speaker's statement that customs and ethics is largely determined and affected by the technologies. The technology actually becomes the part of life. And influence development of our society. My point of view accord with speaker base on reason that the technology is tools to facilitate my life and changes our concept of value. At the same time, I must point out the social customs and ethics adversely influence the development of technologies.

The technologies as product of human intelligence serve us to be comfortable and efficient. With the digital technology progress, we can access information and communicate each other more quickly and effective. People no longer need to take a long stance travel for meeting someone or send a letter to keep touch. Now，both can be replaced by the internet or cell phone, while that foreshow that some customs may vanish. For example, in China, when the first day of the New Year come, decade years ago, people always visited each other and gave the bless to express the good will for the new years. When the phone appeared, people just called each other rather than visited. The cell phone carried a more convenient method- short message- instead of calling. Finally, when the internet came to us, my cell phone had been silence and my e-mail box always be exploded with a myriad of bless e-letter after the first day of the New Year.

On the other hand, the technologies as sponsor of new values concept actually have large impact on our ethics. Technologies incite the economic structure change, and then such change is responsible for the alternative of other aspects of social life. Consider our attitude toward abortion and contraception which is crime in Catholic and Christian rule. However, with the technology of abortion and condom invited, people's attitude is various since the scientist prove that it is the necessary of preventing some disease such as ADIS. And other instance involved so-called denaturalization. In past, if a man dressed up like a woman, he must be abased and even taken for psychotic. However with the scientific correct definition of such people and the surgery of denaturalization, most of people begin to tolerate their beings. So the technologies certainly have a chief influence on the ethic.

However, I must concede that the customs and ethics have counteractive to the development of technology. After all the customs and ethics stem form a certain culture and history which decide the technology impose little effect on some certain customs and ethics. Consider the different attitude toward robot between Japanese and American, the variance of culture is obvious. In Japan history, dummy always represent the massager of god. So Japanese consider the robot as the messager and pay more attention to it. To the contrary, in western culture, the dummy is representative of devil, and is considered that will make a plan to replace human in amount of science fiction. So, although the American's whole technological level is higher than Japan's, the ability of design and producing is behind Japan. We would like to conclude just because of the history and culture, the American scientist are not willing to place more emphasis on that, rather than that American is lack self-assertion for robot technology,

In sum, we must concede that the technology is alternative our aspect of life not just including the customs and ethics whose change, though, is more obvious. At the same time, the customs and ethics in a way determine the influence of technology regardless of negative or positive. Consequently, only if we safely draw such interactive relationship between technology and custom and ethic, some new technology may better serve our life and society.