Over the years humanity has experienced a significant increase in the world population, and today that number continues to rise. With an increase in people, the demand for food goes up tremendously. Agricultural science has continuously developed new technologies that have enhanced the efficiency and value of agricultural production. Although the enhancements increase the production of agricultural goods, it’s important to understand the impacts it has on our environment and food system. In this book review, I will discuss both the cultural and natural dimensions of Agricultural Biotechnology, and how it relates to our current problems in Human Relations. I will also provide personal insights and feelings in regards to the book titled Enough: Staying Human in and Engineered Age written by Bill Mckibben. I will discuss the dynamics of the book and present specific evidence and quotes from the book to support my statements and feelings I have toward the book. I chose to do a book review on the book titled Enough: Staying Human in and Engineered Age written by Bill McKibben because I believe it is relevant to what I’ve been learning in Current Problems in Human Relations course. In this book, the author, Bill McKibben discusses different components of new technological advancements such as, the current development of biotechnology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and the creation of robotic technology, and he fears that if these new technologies are not controlled, they will most certainly change our natural way of life. Bill McKibben argues that we all have the ability to limit ourselves and realize when something is good and when something is bad or wrong. “We need to do an unlikely thing: we need to survey the world we ... ... middle of paper ... ...ize that new technical advancements are not always a good thing, and we need to restrain our limitations and recognize that we truly have enough stuff already. I would recommend this book to everybody. Even though there may be individuals that might disagree with some of the arguments that McKibben poses throughout the book, I still think it is a great book to get any mind thinking about the challenges that lie ahead for our future. I will end with a quote from McKibben (2003) “These new technologies are not yet inevitable. But if they blossom fully into being, freedom may irrevocably perish. This is a fight not only for the meaning of our individual lives, but for the meaning of our life together” (p.199). Reference Works Cited McKibben, Bill. 2003. Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age. New York: Owl Books: Henry Holt and Company
As technology moves forward, previous generations feel left behind and nostalgic with the ever increasing advances of it. The Last Child in the Woods is an essay written by Richard Louv expressing his lament over technology apparently replacing nature the way it was when he was a child. He uses pathos, anecdotes, and dictionary choices to share his nostalgia and worry for the way car rides used to be and the way they are now. Louv starts with an example of just how far technology has advanced today by opening this passage with news of an experiment at the State University of New York where “Researchers.are experimenting with a genetic technology through which they can choose the colors that appear on butterfly wings.” He does this to introduce the idea that maybe technology is going too far for its own good into nature.
Technology can only take a generation so far; it is the imagination and creativity of an individual that will take the world they live in to a level that technology can only build; a world where highways of a person’s thoughts make the world thrive. In the 19th century it was believed technology had been exhausted, and then individuals, such as Einstein, Planck, and Fleming, took science on their backs and brought their own ideas to life. A generation can thrive together as one, but only through the minds of lone thinkers, who alone can move a generation out of one era and into another. Anthem, a novella written by Ayn Rand, talks of a time where the minds of individuals were eradicated, and a community of clone-like minds replaced creativity and individualism with a sole idea of uniformity. Equality 7-2521 knew that technology was something that could be used for greatness, “This has never been done before, but neither has such a gift as ours ever been offered to men,”(61) but for the world he lived in, technology was an atrocity.
Albert Borgmann follows the general project by Heidegger to see how technology has harmful effects on humanity and to determine how it can be reformed. Borgmann shares Heidegger’s view that modern technology is starkly different from premodern technology in its pattern of disclosing the world to human beings. Borgmann agrees that a sort of ethical reform must be undertaken to limit technological ways of living from dominating the lives of individuals and to keep technology in its place. His proposal for a direction of reform first takes cues from Heidegger but then asserts the need for different tactics.
Today there are strong debates and questions about the extraordinary breakthroughs in science such as cloning, in communications through the Internet with its never ending pool of knowledge, and the increasing level of immersion in entertainment. People facing the 21st century are trying to determine whether these new realities of life will enhance it and bring life as they know it to a great unprecedented level, or if these new products will contribute and perhaps even cause the destruction of society and life. To many cloning, censoring, and total immersion entertainment are new, but to those who have read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the topics are reminiscent of the horror that is found in Huxley's fictional utopian world where the dehumanizing of man is achieved in the interests of "Community, Identity, Stability," the world state's motto.
Until now, genetically engineered crops were created to resist insect pests or to control the growth of weeds by using herbicides. However, in this circumstance the genetically engineered rice not only benefits the farmers who grow it, but primarily the consumers who eat it. These consumers include at least a million children who die every year because they are weakened by vitamin-A deficiency and an additional 350,000 people who go blind. In addition to this concern, there is another. It is prospected that by the year 2020, the demand for grain, both for human consumption and for animal feed, is projected to go up by nearly half, while the amount of farmable land will probably dwindle, thus introducing a whole new series of problems.
In today's world, technology is constantly changing from a new paperclip to an improvement in hospital machinery. Technology lets people improve the way they live so that they can preserve their own personal energy and focus on the really important factors in life. Some people focus their energy on making new innovations to improve transportation and the health of people that may save lives and some people focus on making new designs of packaging CDS. Technology is significant in everyone's life because it rapidly changes what is in the market. But, some new innovations of technology are ridiculous because they serve no purpose in helping mankind.
My only contention with the author’s point of view is that technology is not the only culprit. The only thing we can truly blame technology for is enhancing our true
Aldous Huxley once said, “Technological Progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” Huxley, a philosopher and novelist, wrote this quote over forty years ago and yet it still resonates with the role technology plays today. The growth of technology has contributed to mankind's social demise making it ultimately harmful to all humankind. Begone are the days one would perform simple tasks without the aid of technology, our reliance on technology has grown so much that it is taking away jobs from real humans and ruining the way of life with simulations and indoor activities. The constant advancements in technology have weakened our society tremendously by making people co-dependent on technology through social
The evolution of technology has been hand in hand with the human subjugation of the earth, but the question persists, when does the use of technology go too far? Advances in medical science have increased the average human lifespan and improved the quality of life for individuals. Medical science and biology are steadily arriving at new ways to alter humans through the use of advanced genetic alteration. This technology gives rise to the question of how this new technology ought to be used, if at all. The idea of human enhancement is a very general topic, since humans are constantly “enhancing” themselves through the use of tools.
The most wonderful activity a human being can experience is new flavors and foods. For example, the first time a person tastes a delicious juicy piece of prime rib or a delightful hamburger with cheese and ham, his world is never the same. However, since the beginning of the twentieth century, the production of food has been supplemented by science. This has triggered an angry dispute between the people who support the advances of biotechnology and people who love nature. In order to understand the controversy, we have to know the meaning of genetically modified foods. With new technological advances, scientists can modify seeds from a conventional seed to a high tech seed with shorter maturation times and resistance to dryness, cold and heat. This is possible with the implementation of new genes into the DNA of the conventional seed. Once these "transgenes" are transferred, they can create plants with better characteristics (Harris 164-165). The farmers love it not only because it guarantees a good production, but the cost is also reduced. On the other hand, organizations such as Greenpeace and Friends of Earth have campaigned against GMO (“Riesgos”) because they think that they are negatively affecting the earth (Gerdes 26). Both the advocates and the opponents of genetically modified foods have excellent arguments.
Genetically modified food’s, or GMOs, goal is to feed the world's malnourished and undernourished population. Exploring the positive side to GMOs paints a wondrous picture for our planet’s future, although careful steps must be taken to ensure that destruction of our ecosystems do not occur. When GMOs were first introduced into the consumer market they claimed that they would help eliminate the world’s food crisis by providing plants that produced more and were resistant to elemental impacts like droughts and bacterial contaminants, however, production isn’t the only cause for the world’s food crisis. Which is a cause for concern because the population on the earth is growing and our land and ways of agriculture will not be enough to feed everyone sufficiently. No simple solutions can be found or applied when there are so many lives involved. Those who are hungry and those who are over fed, alike, have to consider the consequences of Genetically Modified Organisms. Food should not be treated like a commodity it is a human necessity on the most basic of levels. When egos, hidden agendas, and personal gains are folded into people's food sources no one wins. As in many things of life, there is no true right way or wrong way to handle either of the arguments and so many factors are involved that a ‘simple’ solution is simply not an option.
Although the book has its flaws, I did enlighten me on how technology affects society. I learned a great deal about technology from the book. I learned more about the increasing attachment of people to technology, how technology affects us socially, and most importantly, the e...
The author's point of view was to inform the reader of the technology change and how everyone will be affected by this change in every social aspect. I thought this chapter was helpful because it informed me of the past, and I realize we came a long way as far as technology is concern.
Mannoia, Jim (1997, May 15). A philosopher looks at the effect of modern technology on our view of human life. At http://www.houghton.edu/offices/acad_dean/Techpap.htm.
New opportunities and challenges of human health are presented by the application of biotechnology to food. Biotechnology helps improve the quality and nutrition of foods consumed by people,this helps their health. Foods produced through biotechnology has been around for more than 15 years but people are still debating about how safe the food is. Biotechnology still have to plays its role by increasing agricultural productivity,especially in light of climate change. I believe that biotechnology is still going to help better th nutritional value of food. It can also assist farmers to increase their productivity so that they can feed their families and many people across the globe. The whole world should be using the food biotechnology because it has the ability to change the world,it can be to end world hunger .