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How technology affects our lives 1

In this fast world full of technology, most of the things we do in our daily lives require some sort of technology; and the traditional hobbies that don’t require technology are quickly becoming a smaller part of our lives.

Dr. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) who played a big part in the creation of the atomic bomb came to realize the dangers of technology and science. He thought and wrote about the problems of intellectual ethics and morality. He was also well aware of the future of the world’s global community that the Internet brought well after his death.

Here are some Robert Oppenheimer quotes:

“I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”

“In some sort of crude sense, which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.”

“The open society, the unrestricted access to knowledge, the unplanned and uninhibited association of men for its furtherance – these are what may make a vast, complex, ever growing, ever changing, ever more specialized and expert technological world, nevertheless a world of human community.”

“When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

I would like to know that I still do things that don’t require technology, so I have made a small list of some of the things I do regularly in my life that I could have still done a century ago.

– Walking & Running
– Sex (Mom, If you’re reading this please skip to next line)
– Hockey
– Reading books and writing
– Push-ups and sit ups
– Socializing

During the blackout in 2003, I was in Toronto at the time. The entire city and many other cities across Canada and the US were blacked out for more than 1 day. The blackout brought out the best in most human beings. Ordinary citizens went to the streets to help direct traffic. Neighbors were outside on their front yards talking to each other, something that rarely happens with our fast-paced lives. People were calling their mothers to confirm that they are okay.

Pulling the plug on our technology that summer of 2003 was probably the best thing that could happen to bring our society back to a traditional way of life where people actually appeared to care for one another.
 

One comment on “How technology affects our lives

  1. n.v. Apr 29,2005 1:48 am

    I was wandering around Front and Lower Jarvis in high heels when the blackout happened (was working at George Brown at the time) and had not even noticed the choas around me. I didn’t know something was going on until I tried getting into Quiznos and they had locked the door for “security purposes.” Yeah, I wanted ALL the bread.

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