Class Discussion Question #1

Science is a very complicated thing that even a lifetime of work could not fully grasp. With this amazing form of art comes technology. Technology is a branch of science that will also never be fully understood. Why will neither of these things ever be fully understood? Because they are constantly changing. It seems as though every time you wake up and turn on the TV, there is another discovery being made or each time you turn on the computer, there is another update to be made. Due to these ever changing fields, we experience both extreme negative and positive effects on our society.

From a positive perspective on society, we are able to be in constant communication with one another as a result of technology. Twenty years ago it would take either a wad of money for a phone call or the price of a postage stamp and a few days to come into contact with someone half way around the world. Today, we turn on the computer and can chat (AIM, Skype, E-mail, Web Cam) with anyone in the world at the drop of a hat. Bringing us closer together as a society is a definite positive. It almost makes everyone seem to be in a closer relationship. China doesn’t seem so far away and completely alien to us when we can see what they’re doing on a web cam at any time of the day. New science is constantly having positive effects on our society as whole. For example, the ability to solve crimes much quicker is keeping criminals off of the streets and speeding up the process which uses many tax dollars each day. With the constant advancement of genetics, police are able to solve crimes from a simple computer program with indisputable evidence. Cases that have been “cold” since the sixties and seventies are now being solved. Also, science is helping members of society to stay alive longer—even those with debilitating diseases. For example, in the eighties, the diagnosis of AIDS was considered an imminent death sentence. Today, drugs being developed are helping AIDS patients to stay alive for years longer than in the past. The same is true for many other diseases today.

As with nearly everything, there are also negative aspects of science and technology in society. Technology is both a gift and a curse. This has been understood for many years. Though constantly evolving technology is helping to protect us and our identities, it in turn is also helping predators to reach us more quickly. The most negative aspect of technology that I can think of involves predators. This includes both sexual and “identity” predators. Children in society are becoming more and more proficient at computers. This is both good and bad. With this increased proficiency comes an increased comfort zone. Many children talk to nearly anyone who contacts them and can easily take off the blocks that parents put on their internet accounts. This increased trust results in many children giving predators posing as children their names, ages, looks, and sometimes even locations. This is resulting in an increased amount of child molesters getting their hands on innocent children at home. Also, this increased technology is making it easier for people to steal identities. With a simple program and in a matter of minutes, identity predators can obtain names, social security numbers, credit card numbers, bank accounts, signatures, etc. from those with even the most protective blocks on their information. This is resulting in an increased amount of credit card fraud, identity theft, and debt among innocent members of society. Science may have negative effects on society as well. War and violence is probably the most common misuse of science in society today. Criminals are able to make weapons easily at home with the advancement of society. Also, newly formed weapons in science can wipe out an entire country in a matter of minutes, no matter if they’ve done anything wrong or not. The majority of these weapons will never reach the general public. It is too dangerous. However, should these forms of science ever fall into the wrong hands, as many forms of weapons in science do, the results could be catastrophic.

I, like most college students, am an internet junkie. I love having all of the information in the world at my fingertips with the push of one button. However, I understand that technology and science have both negative and positive effects on my life daily. I have many personal experiences to support these claims. With today’s society and the state of technology and science, it is hard not to feel affected by these tools every day. As far as technology goes, I believe that the good in my life outweighs the bad. Technology helps me daily. I would say that the most positive way it has affected my life is through the quick communication it provides. If I forget what homework I was assigned for the night, I simply turn on the computer and go to Blackboard to find out. Technology is enabling me to get a Clemson class credit this summer while sitting at my home in Charleston, over 200 miles away. Also, this past fall, my best friend of fifteen years and Clemson roommate for two years went to Barcelona, Spain to study abroad. It was the first time we’d been separated for more than a couple of weeks since we met in the first grade. Had it not been for AOL Instant Messenger and Skype (a form of chatting system in which you talk over the computer like you’re taking on the phone-for free!) we would have talked rarely. However, we were able to stay in constant contact and talk regularly because of technology.

Technology also affects me in negative ways. When I was in high school, my father was the victim of identity theft. Someone stole his credit card number, social security number, and name without ever coming into contact with him. The more horrifying thing was that my father had never ordered anything off of the internet—they hacked into a government database (my dad works for the government) and retrieved the information. This crisis caused a lot of hardships for my family. We were getting calls from the IRS claiming that we hadn’t paid certain expenses—this was how we figured it all out since my dad is an accountant. We weren’t able to trust anyone for a while. My dad was told he owed over $100,000 to a New York company. The police would have nothing to do with it since it was unclear who should preside over the case. It was an absolute mess. Everything was eventually worked out but it took a long time for my family to trust any form of technology aside from the bank. My dad wouldn’t even get cable internet (we had dial-up) until last summer because he was convinced it would destroy us. As funny as it all may sound now, it was actually a very serious time in my life that helped me realized how dangerous technology can be.

Science has both negative and positive affects on my life as well. In the positive aspect, science helps to keep me alive. That is always a good thing. I have terrible asthma. I once had an asthma attack as a child and a breathing machine saved my life. The drugs developed by science help keep me alive every day. I take an inhaler every morning, a pill to stifle my allergies which in turn stifles my asthma, and an inhaler as needed. None of these things would be possible without science and I may not be alive or well without these wonderful medicines. From a negative point of view, science once nearly killed my grandfather. He had severe Parkinson’s disease and was required to take many different medicines. The pharmacy once gave him the wrong medicine for the disease. It did not mix well with the other medicines and nearly gave him a coronary. The pharmacist had given him medicine he didn’t even need that could have ended his life. However, in regards to both science and technology, it is my opinion that the good outweighs the bad.