Will Science and Technology Destroy Human Civilisation?

[reggieM]

The arts have very much died over the last hundred years. Today Hollywood is amok in spectacular movies that have plenty of special effects but little soul. Forget music. There are no great composers to speak of. Poetry, drama, and the novel are nearly dead.

It is all science, science, science … and technology, technology, technology. Nothing of any great consequence can come of so unstable a cultural system. What good is curing the cancer of the body when the man has got cancer of the soul?

Excellent points. What happens is that we have many people living to be older than ever, but they are lonely and would prefer to die, except that only means nothingness.

Science cannot cure unhappiness or spiritual emptyness. It can’t fix our economy either.

When people lose their culture, in the way you mention above, then there’s little to bind them together or give them a vision for the future.

 

[MindOverMatter2]

MindOverMatter

I believe, despite the good intentions of human-beings, that science and technology will inevitably spin out of control and give an even more horrific potency to the words “survival of the fittest”.

Yes, this fear is endemic in the human race and began to express itself after Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the rank pessimism that began to pervade the arts and humanities. Even Hollywood in the 50s produced a run of fright-pictures about extra-terrestrials and the dire consequences of our penchant for experimenting with instruments of evil. One could say that Mary Shelly and Robert Louis Stevenson saw it coming in the 1800s when they penned Frankenstein and* Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde*.

The arts have very much died over the last hundred years. Today Hollywood is amok in spectacular movies that have plenty of special effects but little soul. Forget music. There are no great composers to speak of. Poetry, drama, and the novel are nearly dead.

It is all science, science, science … and technology, technology, technology. Nothing of any great consequence can come of so unstable a cultural system. What good is curing the cancer of the body when the man has got cancer of the soul?

These are brilliant points, which reminds me of another issue that plagues us spiritually. Have you noticed that the more technological we become the more compartmentalised and individualist we become? In the past, we had to communicate with each other and be involved in each others well being. Your health was my health. But now, as technology becomes the prominent concern of our lives the very concept of “community” is in my opinion fast becoming a myth depicted only in fantasy films and dramas. It seems as if much of the values that human beings once held have to a great extent been made obsolete, since so long as we have the latest technological entertainment and access to money, we can now buy our happiness and pleasure while remaining cocooned within our own dream world far from the social concerns of the community. Technology and science has been promoted as the key to all happiness. This is truly abnormal behaviour, which is robbing us of the very thing that makes us human…

 

[Vindictive]

Humanity, as a species, is not evolved enough intellectually or morally to predict and understand the consequences of their own behaviors, let alone the impact of technology. People can’t even be expected to handle OBVIOUS choices like texting while driving responsibly… how can anyone realistically believe we’ll make good decisions about the use of double-edged weapons like petro-chemicals, solar energy or dynamite?

 

[reggieM]

These are brilliant points, which reminds me of another issue that plagues us spiritually. Have you noticed that the more technological we become the more compartmentalised and individualist we become? In the past, we had to communicate with each other and be involved in each others well being. Your health was my health. But now, as technology becomes the prominent concern of our lives the very concept of “community” is in my opinion fast becoming a myth depicted only in fantasy films and dramas. It seems as if much of the values that human beings once held have to a great extent been made obsolete, since so long as we have the latest technological entertainment and access to money, we can now buy our happiness and pleasure while remaining cocooned within our own dream world far from the social concerns of the community. Technology and science has been promoted as the key to all happiness. This is truly abnormal behaviour, which is robbing us of the very thing that makes us human…

Great post. Actually an entire book could be written on those ideas, and I wish one would be (from a Catholic perspective). Ok, MOM - time to get started on it.

 

[fulbert4605]

These are brilliant points, which reminds me of another issue that plagues us spiritually. Have you noticed that the more technological we become the more compartmentalised and individualist we become? In the past, we had to communicate with each other and be involved in each others well being. Your health was my health. But now, as technology becomes the prominent concern of our lives the very concept of “community” is in my opinion fast becoming a myth depicted only in fantasy films and dramas. It seems as if much of the values that human beings once held have to a great extent been made obsolete, since so long as we have the latest technological entertainment and access to money, we can now buy our happiness and pleasure while remaining cocooned within our own dream world far from the social concerns of the community. Technology and science has been promoted as the key to all happiness. This is truly abnormal behaviour, which is robbing us of the very thing that makes us human…

Yes, I have noticed that compartmentalization. One of the huge downsides to the invention and mainstreaming of the automobile was that compartmentalization. Before, people used public transportation. There was a regular interaction with people. The television has also done something similar. Programs on TV are fun to watch, but what are we doing? Watching drama for the sake of drama? Or do we watch the TV shows that challenge our intellect? Personally, I like the psychological thrillers in large part because they make me think.

Even as recent as the 1970’s, the kids would organize neighborhood baseball games. Not as much anymore, especially since the takeover of video games in the 1980’s.

Star Trek: The Original Series was a good one for exploring the effects of technology on mankind.

Technology can be used for good or evil. As man is prone to sin, man is prone to use the technology for evil.

Matthew Chapter 24 speaks of the end times. Particularly applicable is 24:22 (Douay-Rheims)-

“And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened.”

 

[reggieM]

Even as recent as the 1970’s, the kids would organize neighborhood baseball games. Not as much anymore, especially since the takeover of video games in the 1980’s.

Here’s an anecdote …

I visited a major secular American university recently here in the Northeast and spent some time walking around the campus. It was around 2 p.m. during school and I saw about 1,000 students here and there, walking various places.

It was the strangest thing, in the midst of all of that student traffic going various places, it was so weirdly quiet. It was actually just about silent. I could hear the light breeze in the trees. Almost nobody was talking to each other. They weren’t even walking in groups – just hundreds of individuals.

There were several iPod wearers and several on cell phones.

I just recall back before the big tech era, when students would walk in bunches and be making jokes or at least being excited about having some company.

What caused this incredible appearance of isolation and individualism among these young students? It really looked to me like the sense of community had totally broken down.