“Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty and dies with chaos.” -Will Durant. Civilization has always prospered when people create order and liberty. As a matter of fact, our great nation the United States of America was created with these fundamentals in mind; but as we continue to grow in knowledge and wisdom, how much order and liberty are we willing to give up for the sake of security? Benjamin Franklin once said that, “he who gives up a little bit of freedom for security, will not have either nor deserve both.”
Yet, since 2001 that’s exactly what we have done. We have allowed fear to dictate what freedoms we are willing to give up. Even under a democratic president such as Barack Obama allowed for such freedoms to be stripped. As we learned in 2013, thanks to Edward Snowden, a CIA contractor who exposed the NSA on them secretly monitoring it’s people and other nations. Additionally, I might add that the United States did this monitoring not only without the consent of the people, but did so illegally. Continually, by the US government allowing for this illegal act to happen they will be the reason for the chaos that destroys our society. The reason why people were so upset with the fact that the government was spying on them was because they considered this to be a huge invasion of privacy. Additionally, by the US government committing illegal acts such as this they intern were treating law abiding citizens as if they had already committed a crime. I believe that in order for people to follow the law, the people who enforce the law should abide by it as well. In holder for civilization to prosper and grow we must do several things. First and foremost we must abide by our laws that are just and hold accountable people when they breaking the law. Secondly we must never allow for any type of liberty to be given up willingly.
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Agriculture has always gone hand in hand with civilization as far back as in the Egyptian times. No matter where in the world, wherever there was agriculture, there has always been a booming civilization. This is because when people don’t have to worry too much about where food is coming from, then they are able to focus on other matters such as the sciences; and with an increase in the search for knowledge, there is an increase in technology. Tech has always increase from generation to generation. It has even gone as far as to help with agriculture itself. However there are certain dilemmas that come with creating new tech.
For example, in the early 1900’s when trackers were introduced to fields, they tended to do the work of 10 men and thus put some people out of work. Nevertheless, new tech also allowed for some work to be much easier; less stress on the human body would mean that there would be less injury and more productivity. Furthermore, just like people did in the early civilization, allowing for technology to help with agriculture also allowed for people to focus on their attention on other pressing matters such as science, technology, math and engineering. It seems to be that tech in agriculture will continue to expand; with new types of technology being developed every year the work that is being done by some people will ultimately be replaced by a machine. It seems to be that there are always good things and bad things that emerge when using new tech to the world. Additionally, people will tend to be more dependent on large companies to grow their own food for them. Even today, most people would not know where to start when growing their own food. Another potential problem that arises when introducing machines that human beings should be doing is the quality of the food. Because most farm workers are very knowledgeable when it comes to harvest, they know exactly when a fruit or vegetable is prime for the picking; with a machine, this time of knowledge can very. Nevertheless, that is not stopping certain companies from developing the tech to replace the average farm worker. People have never been able to do much when it came to mother nature. For the most part if a tornado was to sweep through your town, all you can really do is just brace for impact and hope for the best that you or your family are unharmed. But today’s technology has started to change the game when dealing with mother nature. For instance about 100 years ago human beings didn’t have the technology to forecast the weather a week in advance; the best that we were able to do was a day at best. Nowadays we can accurately predict the weather down to even how long the conditions would last.
This type of technology allows for people to be not only be more prepared for dangerous conditions but keep them save. However, technology has advanced so quickly that there are even those who suggest we should create technology to control the weather in order that we avoid such catastrophe; and although this might seem like a good idea to some, it could be a dangerous endeavor. The reason i say this is because there are many who would use this type of technology to weaponize against other people. When at its worst, mother nature can do some real damage to some parts of the world. Hurricanes like hurricane sandy would cause many deaths as well as people losing all of their possessions. Additionally, America has several enemies willing to do whatever is necessary to destroy us. This would include investing in some tech that could change weather patterns to give us a draught, tornado and even a hurricane. I believe although it would be great to develop such technology, ultimately it would have negative consequences on the environment. We should let mother nature take a natural course the way that it has for the last thousand years. Furthermore, if some sort of freakish storm was to come our way we are always capable of helping one another survive. Clones have always been an interesting concept; especially when human beings are the ones being cloned. For many years now there have been many scientists who have tried to clone other human beings using many different techniques. Of course there has been some back lash from some communities stating that it would be wrong to bring a life such as a clone for the sole purpose of science. Additionally, I would have to agree with this assessment; however, there are some aspects that would prove to be well worth developing; not to mention the cool factor of it all.
Nevertheless, we human beings should consider all the point of views that may be of great concern. Sure, there are some negatives to creating a clone in a lab but on the other hand t would also be a possibility for us to further our research into new technology that would help advance civilization. For example, if by some miracle we humans were able to perfect the cloning process of a living being, we would also be able to create grow limbs for the people who might need the spare. People with long life disabilities would benefit greatly from the new technology. Along with being able to grow or create limbs in the lab, it would also be useful to grow organs or even blood for the people with rare blood types in order that they get the treatment that they deserve. All of the possibilities that we are capable with, if only we were not to focused on all the negative of cloning. Here in the United States there are currently laws in place that actually bad to use or attempt at creating a human clone. However, in the United Kingdom, their laws are a bit more flexible when it comes to cloning and in fact have the leading scientist doing plenty of research. The top leading scientist have even been able to clone an exact living replica of a sheep; every part of the sheep is the same from the original, down to the last spot. Because of this, we know that cloning is indeed possible, however the real question that we should be asking is not whether it is possible but whether we as human being should be allowed to do so. Additionally we still have a lot of research to do in order that we can experiment safely. Doctors have always been viewed by many as good people because they are healers; people who seek to do good for others. Of course, with time doctors seem to learn more and more for cures that would otherwise we would have no idea how to cure. In addition, doctors, in the past century have greatly increased their knowledge with new and evolving technology. Technology like the microscope, x-ray, or even simple blood work has helped doctors to save even more lives.
Even now, there exist technologies in which machines are able to operate on people, without the need for so many doctors. By using such technology to operate on people doctors don’t need to worry so much about having such steady hands; mainly because the machines that are operating on people are extremely accurate. The only downside to using such technology is the cost to use and maintain such a life-saving machinery, that and the fact that there might be people who could hack the computers to the machinery and potentially put someone’s life at risk. For the most part, however, there haven’t been reports of people doing such things (thankfully). Yet when it comes to computers, we must always be careful on not lacking any type of security. The FBI report that every year there are millions upon millions of hacks of people’s accounts and personal information that it is hard to keep track. Additionally, the FBI report that there are also millions of unreported incidents and go unnoticed by some. And even with the increasing efforts by so many companies, hackers grow in knowledge as well and learn to by pass most of security that is created. In the future technology will continue to grow and expand our knowledge of the world around; it will help to save more and more life and more likely than not, technology will increase our life span even longer than normal. For example, several decades ago people would only live to be about 60 years of age. However, nowadays people tend to live about 85 to 90 years old because of the amount of knowledge and medicine that we now hold. Today I saw an interesting video on Youtube that really caught my attention. It was of new technology being used on the battlefield that helped to save many of our US soldier lives. For example, many planes that where once manned by people are now being flown by computers; and even though the cost for that sort of technology is quite pricey, the fact that these unmanned planes can help save at least one life is worth every single penny.
Back in the day, wars had to be fought with brave men who stormed beaches and what not but usually resulted in many casualties. Now that we have technology that can ultimately replace the human being, soldiers could end a threat a lot sooner and without much blood shed. Of course the only down fall to adopting such technology is the cost to not only produce and maintain the equipment but also the cost to operate the machinery. There is no doubt about it, that the US military is on the forefront of new and innovative technology; after all if it wasn’t for the military, the internet may never have been created (or at least been delayed for several years). But with such technology the question arises of what happens when we take a soldier off of the battlefield? I mean other than the fact that we might save that soldiers life. It is said from speaking to soldiers when asked of what they would do in the moment of a situation, that it depends on what is occurring and “trusting your gut” tends to help. However, if we were to remove the soldier from the battlefield how would we “trust your gut” in a situation in which you are not truly apart of. Would a soldier think twice about launching an attack if he or she knew that they so called target in which they are ordered to kill is not a threat to them at all? Do we really want to replace the emotions of human being with that of an emotionless machine? This question is very difficult to answer because on the one hand you are in favor as saving as many soldiers as possible, but on the other hand your instinct to save lives is essentially nullified. But for the most part unmanned robots seem to be a good idea in the sense that they do in fact save lives. Since its creation, drones have played a huge rule in military operations around the world helping to keep people save. Nevertheless, war will always be an ugly reality that humans may never see the end of. Capitalism has always been viewed from some as a good thing for the people; and there are others that would suggest the opposite. For the most part when it comes to technology capitalism has changed the world dramatically, in the sense that people want to invent something that would make them into billionaires. However, what would happen if someone was to try to capitalize on someone else’s job; by this I mean that someone would invent a machine that would ultimately replace an employee.
Although this might seem pretty great for employers that would get efficient employees it wouldn’t be so great for the people being replaced by robots. Even today there are thousands of jobs being lost to automated systems. For example, just a couple years ago, McDonald’s started to replace some of their employees with robots because of the fact that the state of New York was raising the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour. Now, although some people might not think that this is a lot of money (which I would also agree, being that McDonalds is a multibillion dollar company) but as far as business goes it would impact the overall income of the company. From a business perspective having to provide not only a minimum wage but also health insurance, workers comp and all the benefits that come with working for such a company means less income and more liability. Having robots to work for you is almost like having free labor in reality. This is because not only can you have machines running 24/7 but the company would not have to provides benefits to machines like you would if you had a human being doing the same job. Furthermore, you wouldn’t really have to worry about the performance of the machine being that they are always at optimal efficiency. The same cannot be said about the human doing the same job; additionally, machines would not be able to sue a company for the way that they are treated. On the other hand, when you replace a human being with a machine, you take away the income of the human employee that depended on that source of income. Thousands, if not millions of people would be out of work and looking for some way to get buy. This alone proves to be a huge dilemma. I believe that there should be a comfortable medium between using machines and human beings to do a certain job. For examples before fork lifts were invented people would work on the docks living crates and injuring themselves. Now, however, people would do the work of 10 men with the help of fork lifts and help to increase productivity. If you had the opportunity to create the perfect child before he or she was ever born, would you? Would you give your child great hair or blue eyes or even be taller than you expected them to be? I know for myself, I Probably would have liked to change something’s here and there in which I didn’t find so flattering; however, with a child I think it might be a little different. To create a child in your own image sounds like something straight out of a modern day Frankenstein movie; and although it might sound amazing to alter your child’s features in the womb it might not be as great as it sounds.
For instance, to genetically engineer a child to the parent’s ideal image is not a 100 percent guarantee that altering the child’s features would even work. In fact, any unnatural alteration to a child’s DNA would be considered a type of mutation, some of which could be extremely harmful in some cases. So the real question is how far would you go just to change some of your child’s features that you yourself find unflattering? Would you go as far as to risk their lives for such a small defect? On the other hand, if such a procedure were effective it would indeed be a great benefactor for today’s society. For example, if genetically engineering a child was safer than it is now, it would be a great first step to curing some diseases that would otherwise have no cure. Such diseases would include cancer, Down syndrome and even ADD. In which case there would be almost zero to none who would oppose such procedures that would otherwise be harmful to human beings. However, that is not the case being that here in the United States genetically engineering a child was considered unlawful. Nevertheless, that has not stopped the UK from continuing research that helps to create a child who has been genetically engineered. Another reason why genetically engineering a child might be frowned upon would be that if enough people did it, would we as human beings still have diversity with other cultures? Or would we all be generally the same? Furthermore, to alter someone’s features is technically to alter a part of themselves in which their ancestors have passed down their genes from one generation to the next. And of course there is always the possibility that there would be those who use genetic engineering for malicious intent. One such case, in particular would be that of the 1940’s German Nazi party. Throughout World War 2 Hitler and his leaders would have done whatever is necessary to not only win the war against the allies but to wipe out different races solely on the fact that they were not of the Arian race. Additionally, Hitler could have just changed the average Jewish person to resemble more of what the Nazis intended, furthering their cause of evil. Nevertheless, we has a society should continue to research ways in which we could be able to help one another. Have you ever thought of what it would be like to be fully submerged inside a virtual reality? You know, kind of like the one that the robots made for the humans in the movie the matrix. Well, you don’t need to wait that long, already there are many companies out on the market who are trying to do just that. Companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft are all spending millions upon millions of dollars in researching and developing the technology that would one day allow us to fully interact in a virtual world.
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