The Potential Effects of Developing Technology

Technology is a tool created by the human race to enhance its ability to learn and grow as a collective group. Humans taper these tools, created through technological process, to their uniquely specific needs. Technology, when used in a morally sound way, can have immense benefits that help a culture grow and develop effectively as demonstrated by the society in Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World; however technology can be a double edged sword in the sense that it has the power to destroy as demonstrated in Arthur C. Clarke’s novel 2001 A Space Odyssey. When this is coupled with its own unreliability, technology can be a challenge for those who seek to control and master its enigmas. Technology does not have the ability to choose right from wrong; it is up to the beholder of this technology to make a proper moral decision.

Technology is used by its creator, the human race, to help it achieve a desired outcome of events or circumstances. Technology cannot pick and choose what it will and will not do; its actions are dictated by the controller of this technology, a puppet- master of sorts. In the novel 2001 A Space Odyssey, the people of the ancient world use technology to help them survive on the Open Savannah where there is little to eat if you cannot hunt the numerous beasts that roam the region, “With these weapons, the limitless food that roamed the savannahs was theirs to take,” (Arthur C. Clark p 23). When the ancestors of civilization discovered that simple sticks and stones could be used as weapons to hunt the many animals that walked among them every day, they took a step forward into a new age of discovery and learning. Now that their food supply was secure they were able to think about other mysteries that still ...

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... has the potential to destroy a civilization at the peak of its success or create a new one from the ground up. Without proper direction given by the controllers of technology, things can quickly spiral down in a direction that does not benefit anyone. In Brave New World, technology was used to create a utopia where people prospered but in 2001 A Space Odyssey, technology nearly brought on a nuclear holocaust. Technology does not take sides in a fight, it is merely a tool used by man to better himself and those around him. Technology is not corrupt or immaculate; its role is determined by its user, the human race.

Works Cited

Clarke C. Arthur, 2001 A Space Odyssey, New York, Roc, 1968.

Huxley Aldous, Brave New World, Great Britton, Chatto & Windus 1932.