Debates regarding the use of technology point to both the positive and detrimental consequences. Without a doubt, technology has enabled us to conquer our surroundings, and has simplified our ability to do just about everything. Thus, the question remains: can technology provide solutions to our new woes, that is, resource depletion, just as it has simplified our lives in the past?
Regardless of whether it can provide a solution, it must. Technology is the force behind our generation and we are moving full speed ahead. To abandon technological innovation would be to abandon our ability to be human. We are creators, discoverers, thinkers, and nothing can change our course to continue that tradition. As the Wikipedia page on technology states, technology is meant to encompass the idea of using knowledge to create tools to “to solve a problem or create an artistic perspective.” In this way it is contradictory, an oxymoron of sorts, that by solving one problem, technology is creating new problems. So, what can we do to change this unfortunate by product of our creations?
Perhaps we need to view technology in the way it is meant to be viewed; in terms of knowledge, art, skill, tools, craft, and technique. We need to reevaluate why we are creating and using technology and re-steer the creators. In this way, we can capitalize upon our know how and the resources available to us today to rediscover the purpose of technology.
Thus, we need technology, we need creators, and we need tools to come any where near tackling environmental degradation.
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