New Technology and Its Harm to Society

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Technological advances are widely regarded as the foundation of modern society. Through various inventions, people have been able to promote the development of the human civilization and improve standards of living. Technology is essential to the survival of humans in this modern era. Organizations make use of technology to increase their productivity and promote economic growth. Owing to the huge significance of technology, new technology is constantly being developed and implemented with the aim of improving human life even further. However, new technology sometimes may potentially bring harm or even disaster to the society. This paper will set out to discuss the potential negative impacts of technology from an ethical standpoint. The paper will show that sometimes, the risk to society posed by new technology does not justify its implementation.

New technology is capable of causing widespread and catastrophic destruction to the society. While some old technology is dangerous, the scale of destruction that it can cause is normally limited. However, some new technology is capable of causing great destruction at an instance. For example, nuclear power plants have emerged as a feasible method of producing vast amounts of electricity for the world. Proponents of this technology argue that these power plants will enable countries to satisfying the rapidly growing demands for electricity. They also argue that nuclear power plants will help to offset the environmental impacts of some traditional electricity production methods such as fossil fuel use and coal burning. While nuclear technology does provide these benefits, it exposes society to unjustifiable dangers.

In the event that a nuclear power plant is damaged due to natural disasters, the effect to the surrounding region will be catastrophic. McKinney and Schoch document that nuclear accidents can lead to radiation poisoning of thousands of people and in extreme cases, the deaths of up to 100,000 people (122). The reality of the dangers posed by nuclear power plants was brought to the worlds attention following the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011. This disaster was caused by an earthquake, which damaged the power plant leading to the release of radioactive material into the atmosphere. The disaster forced evacuations of people residing inside a 12-mile zone of the power plant. There was significant pollution of seawater leading to the prohibition of fishing in the waters near the power plant. This had a negative impact on the society since fishing is a major source of food for the population. Utilitarian ethics, which assert that ethical actions are those that lead to least harm, would not support the use of nuclear power plants. It is evident that this technology causes enormous harm to the society and the environment.

While new technology can increase the effectiveness of communication, it exposes people to privacy invasion. Over the past decade, advancements in mobile phone technology have led to the prevalence of Smartphone use. These phones have a wide range of capabilities and many people use them to store and access private information (Belanger and Crossler 1018). To increase the consumer confidence in these devices, some companies have developed fingerprint locks. Such biometric security measures protect the information in the phone since only the owner can unlock the phone. However, this new technology can cause major harm to the individual.

With fingerprint security, people are likely to be lured into storing confidential information on their phones. In the event that the Smartphone is compromised, either by a hacker or by a friend who is able to get the owner to unlock the phone, the important information can be leaked with damaging consequences. There have been cases of hackers and journalists obtaining sensitive personal information from the phones of celebrities or government officials. Regular citizens can also have their personal information can also be made public. These cases of invasion of privacy are made possible since the new technology encourages people to store information on their phones. From a rights approach, the new technology is unethical since it leads to the infringement of certain individual rights. People cannot enjoy their lives fully if a violation of their rights occurs.

There is a danger that professionals might lose important skills over time due to the use of new technology. New technology can lead to the loss of important skills among professionals over time. Modern society relies on the specialized skills of some individuals to provide essential services. Surgeons are some of the professionals with specialized skills that are used to save lives. A surgeon undergoes years of practice to develop the expertise needed to carry out complicated procedures and improve the health outcomes of a patient. New technology has introduced robotic surgery, which entails the use self-powered, computer-controlled manipulator that can be programmed to aid in positioning and manipulating surgical instruments (BenMessaoud, Kharrazi and MacDorman 140). Robotic-assisted surgery enables surgeons to carry out core complex tasks with little skill.

With the continuous use of this technology, the dexterity of the individual surgeon will decrease since they will rely more and more on the dexterity and accuracy of the surgical robot. Surgery is not a perfected science and the human element plays a major role. Surgeons are able to make decisions based on what they observe during the surgical procedure. This leads to better outcomes for the patients and even saves lives. If robotic surgery becomes prevalent, the surgeons will lose their skills therefore preventing patients from benefiting from the surgeons. The ethics of this new technology is therefore questionable as it would not be beneficial for the society in the long run. The common good approach to ethics suggests that an ethical technology would be one that contributes to a good life for everyone. By encouraging surgeons to lose their important skills, the robotic surgery technology would prove to be unethical.

Developments in technology can lead to increased armed conflicts between nations by supposedly reducing the human cost of war. War has characterized the human civilization and since pre-historical times, groups engaged in armed warfare against each other. Over the centuries, technology has helped give nations military advantages over their opponents. For this reason, there has been a lot of research into developing novel military technology. New technology such as robot soldiers has the potential to increase the prevalence of war. Military robots are essentially remote controlled or autonomous devices that are made for use in military activities. This technology allows the army to engage the enemy without risking the lives of its human soldiers. While robot technology is yet to reach its full potential, there are a number of military robots already in use by a number of armies. This includes drones, armed robotic vehicles, and robotic sentries. Many developed nations have an interest in this technology since it decreases the number of human soldiers lost.

Geffner reveals that intensive research is been undertaken in artificial intelligence to develop robot soldiers that can operate autonomously in the same way that human soldiers operate (49). In spite of the advantages of military soldiers, they increase the appetite for far by nations such as the US. Since the human cost on the side of the country using the robots is low, there is reduced opposition by the civilian population to war. This view ignores the fact that the robots inflict death to thousands of humans on the enemy side. When robots are used for warfare, the importance of the lives of the enemy soldiers and the civilian population is diminished. This is evident from the manner in which drone attacks are used to indiscriminately kill insurgents and civilians who might happen to be nearby (Sluka 89). This is against virtue ethics which requires people to act in an ideal manner. Values such as respect and consideration are encouraged.

There is a widespread assumption that new technology is always beneficial to the society. This assumption is promoted by the fact that the developers of the new technology often only emphasize on its positive side when presenting the technology to the society. This paper set out to show that technology might be harmful or even disastrous. It began by acknowledging the significance of technology in modern society. The paper then showed how technology such as nuclear power plants, biometric security systems, surgery robots, and military robots can have harmful effects on the society. The paper applied some of the major ethical approaches to demonstrate that the new technologies are unethical. Great care should therefore be taken when adopting new technology. People must be aware of the many dangers they are exposing themselves to when they accept the new technology.

References

Belanger, France and Robert Crossler. Privacy in the digital age: a review of information privacy research in information systems. MIS Quarterly 35.4(2011): 1017-1036.

BenMessaoud, Christine, Hadi Kharrazi and Karl MacDorman. Facilitators and Barriers to Adopting Robotic-Assisted Surgery: Contextualizing the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. PLoS ONE 6.1(2011): 137-155.

Geffner, Hector. Artificial Intelligence: From programs to solvers. AI Communications 27.1 (2014): 45-51.

McKinney, Michael and Robert Schoch. Environmental Science: Systems and Solutions. NY: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2012. Print.

Sluka, Jeffrey. Death from Above: UAVs and Losing Hearts and Minds. Military Review 91.3(2011): 89-95.

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New Technology and Its Harm to Society

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