The Technology Tool

Present day technology is something that never ceases to amaze and intrigue me. Yet many times, it also somewhat terrifies me. The things we are able to do today are incredible compared even to just a couple years ago. The rate a which technology is changing is increasing rapidly...

...and so are our environmental problems. Global climate change seems to be more prevalent every day. Pollution and resource depletion is a growing issue. Our technology may be advancing, but it's not helping us save the earth (or ourselves).

That's because technology cannot save us. Technology is inanimate (at least presently it is--as more research goes into robots and artificial intelligence, that could be changing). Technology is simply a tool. Like any tool, whether it is helpful or harmful depends on how it is used.

Let's look at my laptop as an example. My dear macbook has the power to be very beneficial. With it, I could:

• Look up information very quickly to improve my understanding of environmental issues
• Learn news immediately after it happens, including things that will affect the global environment
• Gain access to works by environmental thinkers that I may never have read before
• Run computer programs that could help me quickly model environmental changes
• Get in immediate contact with people across the world in a variety of ways, opening up the door for conversations about environmental issues I never would have had
• Compile information on environmental issues easily and compactly
• Share my thoughts, beliefs, and discoveries with others (like you, reading this blog)

Technologies like my computer have the power to speed up the spread of ideas and make communication easier, perhaps making it easier to teach people about environmental issues and what they can do. Technology has the power to help us do great things.

But with great power, comes great possibility of problems. My computer also:

• Uses valuable resources in it's construction that are very difficult and harmful to extract from the computer in order to be reused
• Is built, as part of our system of consumption, to become obsolete or outdated relatively quickly
• Quickly spread lots of false information about the environment
• Serve as a venue for more consumption, as online shopping explodes
• Waste a lot of valuable time that could be used for coming up with the ideas that could save us

While this is a hugely simplified example, it represents the key idea that we cannot rely on technology to save us. Only we can save ourselves from the mess that we have gotten into. We can only rely on ourselves. Technology can certainly speed up the process and make it easier. Whether the process is helpful or harmful is completely up to us.