Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Technology

When talking about human nature, a professor at Simon Fraser University once proclaimed, “Everything humans do is unnatural”. After the class discussion on technologies affects on humans it is clear this is very true. Technology is a major part of humanity as we know it today. It affords certain segments of the population to avoid past daily activities including scavenging for food, searching for shelter, and fighting for their lives. Instead we are able to use tools and other social structures to complete these tasks, and have extra time for other activities. This free time has allowed the species to figure out ways to help deal with diseases, hazards, and other factors that may harm humans.
The technology that has been developed in the medical field has had a tremendous impact on prolonging our lives. It has also let some people live that may have died before, allowing these individuals to pass on their genes to another generation. In this way, it is a manipulation of natural selection as due to human interference the specific traits that nature maybe wanting to wean out of the population are actually able to continue on due to medicine. Humans, like all other animals, are trying to stave off death on a daily basis. Instead of using camouflaged coats of fur, or sharp claws to defend ourselves, we use technology. This is not a natural part of life as instead of using natural tools we create products to help us. Even though we have all these tools, it is important to examine these statements from Alexander Pope’s point of view that just because we have the technology does not mean we should necessarily use it. This does not mean that I am suggesting that we all live in the mud because frankly I am glad that there are these technologies in place. Darwinists would argue that humans have been able to slowly develop traits that gave us expanded mental capacity to develop these technologies, so it is alright to use them.
Humans have been trying for a long time to choose traits they think are advantageous and be able to isolate them. However they have, for the most part been unsuccessful in this endeavor, as traits that humans want do not always arrive. Even though Darwinists might believe that we deserve the advantages we have been given, this is likely not the case. We have to be cautious as to how far we go with technology incase we upset the balance that keeps us alive as a species.

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