Restrictions on Technology and Science Research

Technology and human knowledge are ever evolving and changing. Restrictions put on this advancement of technology only hinder the exponential growth of scientific fields. Human nature and morals naturally curb the exploration into fields of research harmful to humans or to society as a whole. The benefits of an unrestricted technology greatly outweigh the possible disadvantages of such a system. The development and advancements in science should be largely unrestricted.

Restrictions on technology and science have only served to slow down human progress and scientific development. In medieval Europe, restrictions on scientific ventures, set by the church, as well as the systematic persecution of scientists and inventors, that not only slowed the advancement of human knowledge, but arguably reversed it. The church was apprehensive of any science that contradicted the ideology set forth by their religion. Medical advancements were constrained as a result of restrictions set by the church on the study of human anatomy via dissection(White). The church also set restrictions on the translation of the medicinal texts of Hippocrates because of his pagan views. Without sufficient knowledge of the human body, doctors were not able to treat patients properly or develop new techniques for the treatment of the ill. Many great minds were persecuted, such as Galileo, who put forth ideas about the solar system we live in, that contradicted the views of the church(Linder)(Pogge). A more modern example of the restriction of technological advancements once again comes in the field of medicine. Stem cell research was affected by the Clinton and Bush administrations, which limited research using human embryos. Most restrictions involved the limitatio...

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...he threat of self-destruction is enough of a restriction that governments or other organizations do not need to interfere.

Works Cited

Federal Policy. In Stem Cell Information [World Wide Web site]. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2011 [cited Monday, February 24, 2014] Available at

Linder, Doug. "The Trial of Galileo Galilei." Famous Trials. N.p.. Web.

Orf, Darren. "10 Awesome Accidental Discoveries." Popular Mechanics. N.p., n.d. Web. 2014.

Pogge, Richard. "Lecture 16." Astronomy . N.p.. Web.

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Manhattan Project.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Web.

White, Andrew. "A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom." . N.p.. Web.