It Really Doesn't Bother Me.
 

Technology.

I have to be honest and say I don't think I really care about the progress of technology and science if it's at the sacrifice of the earth's resources, it's people and basic ethics. I don't really care if we can build supercomputers that can calculate complex algorithms, I don't really mind if we never discover how gravity works, whether the mysteries of black holes remain just that, if the theories of multi-dimensions will ever be proven.

Do we really need to plough so much into finding ways to get (comparitively) useless knowledge when we know very little about our own planet or how to keep it alive?

People say "knowledge is power" but are we just trying to gain too much power at the expense of everything else?

Yeah. I think so.

You see, humans are curious animals. We've got to know: know how the Universe is, know if there's something else outside, know how to work our resources so we can supply our needs and desires,...

Most knowledge is completely useless most of the times, I agree. Who does need to know quantum physics when you're starving, or who was Admiral Nelson while you're paying for some meat at the supermarket? Who has ever used his maths equations while watching the TV?

Well, let's see why it's useless. Knowledge is meant to be used; since this is a large society, every individual by itself has a limited function in which he has to apply very little knowledge compared to the amount of knowledge acquired throughout the education period. EG an engineer does not need to know the Constitutional rights of the citizen, whereas a lawyer does.

But for what would we need to spend a large amount of money on observatories and space shuttles to do spatial research, for example? Shouldn't we firstly get rid of Terran problems before moving to other planets? Or, how about cloning? Do we really need to duplicate ourselves?

The problem is that we are curious, our instincts tell us to know.

And that's something that even though being practical beings, we cannot control. Thus we constantly seek answers for matters that aren't actually of our concern, or which we cannot modify at all. And we do so, even risking the life of this planet.

See how pointless is to know that the star XHA90173 is following a strange pattern of which you have written a theory when you ask yourself "And now, what?"

I say, pick a razor and cut out everything we strictly don't need now. If we needed it later, then let our sons do the work for us; it's their concern, not ours.

i think that tech is good, BUT to a certain degree! we have imo surpassed that border a looooooong time ago... :/

I agree with Loverofnature. I mean i love technology is gave me the internet and videogames but somethings should be left undiscovered. Zenit I know exactly what you mean about being curious XD Im a very curious person I'm always going into a store and trying to figure out how things work and i love to take things apart =D Usually I cant put it back together...but thats what dads are for XD.

Knowledge itself is a goal in it's own right, and an excellent one, there just has to be a balance when developing.

O_O I find this very ironic, as just a day ago I added to my signature that exact quote...

That's a little creepy...

The way I look at it, if every generation said, "well we don't need this now, let some other generation mess around with it." We'd still be living in the dark ages. Invention "just for the hell of it" helps solve problems before they even develop. As does invention without any real goals. (take Penicillin for example, that was an accident that created it.)

pffff, whales

Whales are cool.

>.>


<.<





Why are we talking about whales again?

Unfortunately, invention "just for the hell of it" is not impact-free. It consumes resources. And in technology's case, these resources are precious little ones and ones that are very, very harmful to come by.

Increasingly, it seems now we're creating issues to justify pre-emptive solutions.

"We've created a new technology... now we have to find a reason for it to exist."
"We've discovered you can manufacture cells... It COULD possibly be used to cure Cancer."
"We've built the world's largest particle collider. It MIGHT be used to find other dimensions."

You could indeed argue that this is the very nature of discovery. You have to try and fail. But do the rewards outweigh the impact of the discovery process? Say we do find there's another dimension. What to do with that knowledge? Try and harness it's power? That just starts another 'discovery' ball rolling and, in turn, as the demands for discovery become ever higher, there is ever-increasing consumption of precious resources and damage.

Advancement for advancement's sake. And it's all at the cost of - well - us and the planet we live on.

The question is do we really need all this relatively useless, virtually unapplicable 'knowledge' and technology or can we get by without it?

You can never have enough knowledge. EVER.

lol its a joke between me n fk aihwa lol

Why not?

I'm asking because I feel this is one of the "reflex arguments" people tend to shout out when a certain point is made.

Simile: there's adifference between having a huge lake and being thirsty enough to drink it all.

But can you have too much power?

yes, 'nuff sad

Not really. If we stop attempting to acquire knowledge and power, we really don't have a reason to exist.