However there is one specific thing that is different about technology in our society ND technology in the sass's. That is the way we question the ethics behind every piece of new technology. People hear stories about how technology was used to accomplish great feats or maybe Just make everyday life a little easier. They think that this word "technology" means the same thing to them as it did to the people they are learning about from the 19th century. Many people only think of technology as the newest, most modern mechanisms and gadgets that are being used In a certain field.
These devices are only a small part of what technology encompasses. Technology Is, In reality, whatever knowledge Is available to our society, whatever knowledge Is the most progressive and modern, on any subject. In other words, technology Is the mechanisms and gadgets because they use the best knowledge available to us right now to operate. However, technology can also be many other things. It can be a new concept or idea, a new way of doing something, or a new way of combining different devices or ideas to achieve something new and different.
Technology can be a new way of looking at objects or animals, a new type of treatment for a disease, or a new route to drive to work. Depending on the available knowledge at the time, technology really has an infinite definition. When one looks back on the 19th century and reads about, maybe even experiences first-hand, the technology that the century exhibited, they gather their own conclusions about the way that people viewed this technology. We have many sources now that tell us how many people felt about technology.We read In our textbooks about how much everyone benefited when the Industrial Revolution came along and how much so many other forms of new technology helped everyone. The only thing is, do we really understand how the whole society felt about technology in general? We can only gather ideas on this question from so many sources.
Of course there are obvious differences between today's technology and that of the sass's. But, the only real difference is the change in our attitude toward technology, and really only one aspect of this attitude. That aspect is, specifically, the questioning of the morality of technology.Then, in the sass's, every new discovery, every new device and idea was accepted, unless deemed idiotic.
No matter what the device did or what the concept promoted, as long as people didn't think It was absurd, new technology was accepted. In contrast to society's attitude toward technology In the 19th century, the ethics and morality of today's technology Is constantly challenged by a great number of people. A good example of how our modern society upholds Its principles and makes sure that every new invention and concept is questioned is found in our doing and think about all the effects that what they do has on the world around them.One example of how students in our society's educational system, in elementary schools all the way up to universities, learn about the different effects that technology can have is found when the environment is discussed. For years owe, we have been learning how to recycle and do all sorts of things to take better care of our planet. Our society has learned from all the past mistakes of technology and now we realize this type of education is so crucial in helping our planet survive.
Another example of today's public teaching people to question certain principles before developing new technology is specifically found in universities.Many colleges now offer, and some require the taking of, classes on ethics in specific fields. At many schools, there are classes on business ethics, engineering ethics, law ethics, medical ethics, all sorts of ethics. People today have realized the importance of exploring all the possibilities and questioning the morality of new ideas, whereas, people in the 19th century did not. A lot of the difference between our views on technology and that of society in the assess has to do with experience.
That is, we, as a society, have witnessed many, many new ideas and devices and seen the downside to many of them. As a society we now have this knowledge of how new technology can go bad and harm humanity, in other words, be immoral or inhumane. With this experience that we as a society have, knowing that we should question every bit of new genealogy, we try, to our fullest ability, to make sure that these new inventions and ideas will have as little negative effect on humanity as possible. In essence, our society is more scared of technology then the people of the 19th century were of their technology.In the sass's everyone always thought that new technology meant progress, and that was the bottom line.
There were many, many, examples of new technology too. Much like today, scientists and other researchers were constantly coming up with new ideas and inventing new things. And much like today, the new genealogy in the sass's covered a wide range of ideas, ranging from factories to vaccines. Every new bit of technology seemed to have a positive effect on life in general. However, nobody ever really questioned whether or not something was right.
They didn't bother figuring out what all the effects of the new technology would be. Dry. Victor Frankincense displays this type of carelessness in Mary Shelley novel Frankincense. In this story, which is based in the sass's, Dry.
Frankincense becomes so obsessed with his new knowledge and new invention that he never stops to question if what he is doing is morally right. AAA kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the horror of my employment; my mind was intently fixed on the sequel of my labor, and my eyes were shut to the horror of my proceedings. "(Volvo.Ill app) This mind-set is exactly the attitude that has brought forth all those pieces of technology that had a negative effect on humanity. Victor didn't have all those outside influences that exist today to question his practices.
Ultimately, Frankincense's invention leaves his control and ends up killing the doctor's family. This story serves as an everlasting metaphor about technology. It expresses the name idea that our society holds after witnessing similar affects from new technology. That is, that we, the creators of this new technology, should always question the morality and ethics of each new idea we conceive.Actually, Victor novel.
When they meet, Victor's monster explains what has happened to him since he left Victor's house. The monster tells of where he went, what he did, and how he learned. Then, the monster delivers an ultimatum: "You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do; and I demand it of you as a right which you must not effuse.
"(Volvo. II IPPP) Victor agrees to do what his invention asks him and eventually begins work on a female version of the monster.It is here, in the novel, where Victor displays the reason that is the difference in attitude between our society and that of the sass's. Before, Victor had been so enthralled by his innovation that he never stopped to question the morality of his work, the common attitude people of the 19th century shared toward technology.
But now, before finishing his second creation, Victor examines the ethics of his fabrication. "Had I a right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations?I had before been moved by the sophism of the being I had created; I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats: but now, for the first time, the wickedness of my promise [to make the second monster] burst upon me; I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price perhaps of the existence of the whole human race. "(Volvo. Ill APP) This solemn question exemplifies the new attitude toward technology that is displayed in our society. We, as a community, have learned from our mistakes, exactly like Dry.
