Dependent Upon Technology, Essay Example

The extent to which human beings are dependent upon technology can be ascertained through a simple thought experiment: imagine a situation in which there is no Internet access, no mobile phone access, no telecommunications of any kind for a period of months or even years. The impact of technology here is clear: technology operates in our societies as a means which structures our social lives themselves. Without technology, certain types of social arrangements and relationships become impossible: the facility which e-mail allows trans-global communication, the electronic manipulation of the stock market, the access to the Internet. Certainly, these are new developments: but it seems that technology progresses in a manner that radically changes society. Humans are dependent upon technology to the extent that technology itself shapes human society: various forms of human society are determined by technological achievements, such as the way in which the steam train changed transportation or the Internet changed communication and access to information.

This, however, raises an ethical question: is humanity going down an incorrect path by being so dependent upon technology? In one sense, humanity has always been dependent upon technology: technological possibilities give the possibility of certain social arrangements. However, at the same time, it can easily be argued that contemporary society is intertwined with technology in a manner without historical precedent: in this sense, this dependence is radical. This is where an ethical dilemma arises: if increasing dependence on technology defines our relationship to technology, it would be difficult to argue in favor of some supposed bright future for humanity based on this dependence, because precisely what we are losing is our autonomy. The entire structure of human existence is being given over to technology through this dependency: to the extent that dependency curtails human freedom, to the extent that it becomes difficult to imagine a world without technology, it becomes an ethical imperative to minimize this same dependency, lest we lose our autonomy, bound to something that is ever more complex and difficult to fathom.