The dark side of technology /
Townsend, Peter. D.
The dark side of technology / Peter Townsend. - UK Oxford 2016 - xi, 306 pages ; 23 cm
Technological progress comes with a Dark Side where good ideas and intentions produce undesirable results. The many and various unexpected outcomes of technology span humorous to bizarre, and even result in situations which threaten our survival. Development can be positive for some, but negative and isolating for others (e.g. older or poorer people). Progress is often transient, as faster electronics and computers dramatically shorten retention time of data and knowledge (e.g. documents, data, and photos will be unreadable within a generation). This is also destroying past languages and cultures in a trend to globalisation. Advances cut across all areas of science and life, and the scope is vast from biology, medicine, agriculture, transport, electronics, computers, long range communications, to a global economy. Our reliance on technology is now matched by vulnerability to natural events (e.g. intense sunspot activity) which could annihilate advanced societies by destroying satellites or power grid distribution. Similarly, progress of electronics and communication produced a boom industry in cyber crime, and cyber terrorism. Medical technology may maintain our health, but we ignore possible drug related mutagenic changes, and we continue with errors in creating a global food economy by devastating the environment and causing extinction of species, just to support an excessive human population. This diverse coverage of the book is consciously presented at a level designed for an intelligent, but non-scientific readership. It includes suggestions for positive future progress with planning, investment, and political commitment, as well as contemplating how failure to respond endangers human survival.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-306).
Have we the knowledge, willpower, and determination to survive? -- Technology and survival: are they compatible? -- Natural disasters and civilization -- Good technologies with bad side effects -- From trains to transistors -- Food, survival, and resources -- The 'Silent Spring' revisited -- Medicine: expectations and reality -- Knowledge loss from changing language -- Decay of materials and information loss from technology -- Technology, the new frontier for crime and terror -- Technology-driven social isolation -- Consumerism and obsolescence -- Rejection of knowledge and information -- Hindsight, foresight, radical suggestions, and a grain of hope.
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE. Technological progress comes with a Dark Side where good ideas and intentions produce undesirable results. The many and various unexpected outcomes of technology span humorous to bizarre, and even result in situations which threaten our survival. Development can be positive for some, but negative and isolating for others (e.g. older or poorer people). Progress is often transient, as faster electronics and computers dramatically shorten retention time of data and knowledge (e.g. documents, data, and photos will be unreadable within a generation). This is also destroying past languages and cultures in a trend to globalisation. Advances cut across all areas of science and life, and the scope is vast from biology, medicine, agriculture, transport, electronics, computers, long range communications, to a global economy.
9780198790532 0198790538
2016939460
Technology and civilization.
Technology--Social aspects.
Technological innovations--Social aspects.
Technological innovations--Social aspects.
Technology and civilization.
Technology--Social aspects.
Soziologie
Technologie
T14.5 / .T68 2016
303.483 TOW-P
The dark side of technology / Peter Townsend. - UK Oxford 2016 - xi, 306 pages ; 23 cm
Technological progress comes with a Dark Side where good ideas and intentions produce undesirable results. The many and various unexpected outcomes of technology span humorous to bizarre, and even result in situations which threaten our survival. Development can be positive for some, but negative and isolating for others (e.g. older or poorer people). Progress is often transient, as faster electronics and computers dramatically shorten retention time of data and knowledge (e.g. documents, data, and photos will be unreadable within a generation). This is also destroying past languages and cultures in a trend to globalisation. Advances cut across all areas of science and life, and the scope is vast from biology, medicine, agriculture, transport, electronics, computers, long range communications, to a global economy. Our reliance on technology is now matched by vulnerability to natural events (e.g. intense sunspot activity) which could annihilate advanced societies by destroying satellites or power grid distribution. Similarly, progress of electronics and communication produced a boom industry in cyber crime, and cyber terrorism. Medical technology may maintain our health, but we ignore possible drug related mutagenic changes, and we continue with errors in creating a global food economy by devastating the environment and causing extinction of species, just to support an excessive human population. This diverse coverage of the book is consciously presented at a level designed for an intelligent, but non-scientific readership. It includes suggestions for positive future progress with planning, investment, and political commitment, as well as contemplating how failure to respond endangers human survival.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-306).
Have we the knowledge, willpower, and determination to survive? -- Technology and survival: are they compatible? -- Natural disasters and civilization -- Good technologies with bad side effects -- From trains to transistors -- Food, survival, and resources -- The 'Silent Spring' revisited -- Medicine: expectations and reality -- Knowledge loss from changing language -- Decay of materials and information loss from technology -- Technology, the new frontier for crime and terror -- Technology-driven social isolation -- Consumerism and obsolescence -- Rejection of knowledge and information -- Hindsight, foresight, radical suggestions, and a grain of hope.
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE. Technological progress comes with a Dark Side where good ideas and intentions produce undesirable results. The many and various unexpected outcomes of technology span humorous to bizarre, and even result in situations which threaten our survival. Development can be positive for some, but negative and isolating for others (e.g. older or poorer people). Progress is often transient, as faster electronics and computers dramatically shorten retention time of data and knowledge (e.g. documents, data, and photos will be unreadable within a generation). This is also destroying past languages and cultures in a trend to globalisation. Advances cut across all areas of science and life, and the scope is vast from biology, medicine, agriculture, transport, electronics, computers, long range communications, to a global economy.
9780198790532 0198790538
2016939460
Technology and civilization.
Technology--Social aspects.
Technological innovations--Social aspects.
Technological innovations--Social aspects.
Technology and civilization.
Technology--Social aspects.
Soziologie
Technologie
T14.5 / .T68 2016
303.483 TOW-P
