Marshall, Sam

Ms. Filbeck
English 91
10/27/14
Technological breakthrough

Technology is defined as the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes,

especially in industry, but could some advances in technology become a hindrance to us as
human beings? Absolutely not. Technology to me is advancement in not only society but in the
world. The Internet being my favorite example has lead to not only advances in communication
for social purposes but has also connected the business world making it easier to contact clients
or employees to conducting long distance business meetings through Skype. Kids now when they
are curious about something can just look it up online a database far greater than most local
libraries. The access of knowledge is literally in palms of millions of people hands. The idea that
you can look up the atomic structure of an atom and have it send you to place that describes in
detail and at the same time look up the weather or even just because you can't remember the
name of that actor in the TV show you are just watching. I believe that technology is a blessing
and will always persist as long as the continuous generations want to exceed their predecessors.
Technology is figuring out what can help people or in some cases, what can help yourself and
this leads to a lot of breakthroughs. Think about if nobody invented the printing press, an item
that revolutionized the old world by making it easy to mass produce works of literature or news.
Without it it took months to get messages across to other neighboring states for that matter. Over
time though more and more people started to improve upon the printing press and printers now
can be found in almost any home or business. A technology that has surely helped countless lives
over the generations. And now even getting to the point of 3D printers that you can buy and put

in your house(Cubify). These advances all stem from the initial printing press idea that was
accessibility. At some point though it can lead to catastrophe if handled the wrong way. Already
people are misusing this technology, as seen by a Japanese man not long ago, He was arrested
in May after posting videos and blueprints of his 3D-printed weapons online. Police reportedly
seized five plastic weapons from his home. A video uploaded to file-sharing websites almost a
year ago, allegedly created by Imura, shows the creation and firing of a 3D-printed Zig Zag
revolver capable of firing six .38 caliber bullets(The Verge, Franzen). The idea that somebody
can now print guns from their homes is terrifying, but at the same time a child that has lost his
legs can simply print out bigger legs as he grows up right from the comfort of his home or if you
are ever missing that one piece to something all you have to do is upload a picture and its yours
again.
This new technology can lead to a whole new era of scholars and entrepreneurs. Business
executives can now do work with men and women overseas from the comfort of their own
office. They can send news updates and alerts to their employees to keep them updated on events
and things that need to be done. You can now organize and keep all of your business
information on one program and some of them even update themselves. With the many
advances in technology making business more accessible it doesn't mean that it is any less hard.
To be a good business man you still need to learn how everything works and functions to do
well. One can not succeed through technology alone. It takes things like perseverance and a
work hard attitude to get things done in any field and that can not be replicated on the internet.
Some people Say that technology is contrary to human nature says Kevin Kelly on the
Harvard Business Review and I dont believe this to be true. I think that as humans we are
always thinking about how to survive. Before technology it was create weapons to defend

yourself from dangerous predators. Then that lead us to if we work together we can fend off
these dangerous predators which lead to the creation of tool to help communicate and fend off
dangerous animals and so on till now. As human I believe we have this evolutionary drive to not
only survive but to adapt to the world around us. And technology is in a way a representation of
one's drive to survive. Because technology is designed for one thing. Happiness. Whether it's a
bomb, a new phone, or sporks it was all designed to make a party or group of parties happy.
When it comes to technology this is where I feel that things get out of hand. With advances in
technology it also brings fear because people do misuse technology whatever the designed
purpose was for. Bath salts for one a technology made for relaxation can be turned into a
destructive and terrible drug. This however should not stop us from advancing technology.
Technology is progression. It's us learning from our mistakes and trying to better it. When
technologies are misused the blame shouldnt go to the creator if it wasn't its intended purpose
but onto the one misusing it. Technology isnt the problem is the jealousy and hatred that human
nature brings that misuses it.
Some of the advances in technology that do help people or make people happy are
created in ways that are very unethical. Such as factories that make various goods that we love
and dont think about living without but these factories have a huge effect on the environment.
Almost to a point where we have to create new advances in technology just to survive through
our old ones. Kevin Kelly states , Technology is in opposition to nature. It is produced at the
expense of nature because it destroys ecological habitats...The scale of technology is simply so
large that almost no matter how environmentally benign it may seem, its sheer size overwhelms
natural cycles. Cities do destroy ecosystems and we do demolish a lot of nature for our own
selfish gain. But a cities is just a different type of ecosystem, one at which humans thrive in. A

monkey can survive deep in the jungle with dangerous predators around but would be much
harder for it to survive in New York City just like how it is much harder for you to survive in the
jungle and you more or less have a better chance of living in a city. That being said I still dont
think that we should be destroying the earth for our own selfish gain. At the rate our technologies
are both advancing and destroying us there might come a time where we have to change planets.
Technology with all of its benefits still has its downside.New and inovative ideas that
used to help people in the wrong hands can be turned into terrible creations. People are selfish
and I think with technology we have been brainwashed into not thinking about the end result
instead of the how things are done step in the process that is progression. I think that if people
did this there would still be advances in technology but in a way that benefits the greater good
and not your wallets .I also think that with these new technologies we can better educate the
future generations, hopefully learning from our mistakes.
Technology is something that is necessary to life. Its not just the bad things but
everything we use today started as an idea. An idea that we can travel long distances in shorter
amounts of time or making pencils that you can refill the possibilities are endless. Technology is
no something that you can get rid of or even limit because technology is as expansive as
creativity itself.