Issue88 【7\8\9\10】作文小组 第十二次作业 8.1

DemiquaverUID: 203651

TOPIC: ISSUE88 - "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
WORDS: 553          TIME: 00:45:00+          DATE: 2008-8-12 23:18:00

Today, we are enjoying an unprecedented degree of intelligence in technological prowess and modernization, which is contributed by technologies. Given this scenario, will technologies determine our social customs and ethics? Someone may worry so. However, to my point of view, the answer of this question will be surely negative.

Obviously, nowadays technologies play an important role in our daily life. People today cannot even enjoy their lives without technologies. So many customs and ethics are influenced by the use of technology. Take Christmas Day as an example, people live in the eastern country didn't know such festival at all in ancient times. With the development of transportation and communication, nowadays, eastern people realize what is Christmas and what do westerners do in this festival. As a result, we can see a lot of people in eastern countries celebrate Christmas Day every year as well. All of them, no matter old and young, enjoy this new custom which is introduced by technologies. Another telling example that technologies influence social ethics involves the genetic technology. Since people realize that close kin may lead to mental crippled offspring, majority amount of adults are aware of the right attitude in selecting spouse, which help to establish healthy societies.

Someone may argue that technologies will sooner or later determine the social customs and ethics because they have spread into our culture. However, this argument clearly underestimated the immunity of humans' customs and ethics. Social customs and ethics are accumulation of human's culture with a long history, which are the traditional behaviors and basic standards accepted by most of people in a society while technologies only have a history of hundred years. As we can see, although visible calls can help us to talk with others face by face on the Internet, family members still choose to gather together on Christmas Day or Chinese Spring Festival for celebrating new year. This is resulted from customs and ethics which cannot be substituted by technologies forever.

On the contrary, as far as I concerned, social customs and ethics determine technologies. As I mentioned before, as customs and ethics are traditional behaviors and basic standards held by people, they direct every action we take in our daily life, including the development of technologies. Technologies are the technical means we use to create a better life. If these means are in accordance with our standard determines, they are accepted, otherwise, they are refused. Consider, although technically gene technology is able to create cloned human beings several years ago, it is still seriously forbidden in all countries due to the social ethics of human beings. What’s more, different societies with different ethical standards determine the use of same technology. In some countries, euthanasia is legal while in others it is not permitted. All these above prove that since humans are rational animals, technologies, which is created to serve a better life, is always determined by social customs and ethics that is the basic principles held by humans to live in the world.

To sum up, although we are enjoying convenient and comfortable life today, we don’t forget our basic standard of life. Technologies, which influence and improve the quality of our daily life, are favored. On the other hand, with the guidance of humans’ rational intelligence, technologies will never determine social customs and ethics.

DemiquaverUID: 203651

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