What comes to mind when one sees the word “technology”?

It could be ideas and

notions ranging from Artificial Intelligence to genetic engineering, and the
reality is that the associations people make with the word “technology”, are
usually ideas relating to the technology advances made in society. Looking at past
successes, it is not hard to see why many people portray technology in a positive
light. However, the power of technology has made us forget that it can both help
and harm (the classic double-edged sword). Humans tend to either overestimate
technology’s power or underestimate the damage it can do. Optimists would argue
that the protection technology provides humans with largely outweighs the
vulnerabilities it exposes us to. Yet pessimists would maintain that in the Digital
Age, as a result of technology’s prevalence, the enormity and scale of how
technology puts us at risk to outside dangers makes it such that it is impossible
to ignore and not address them. Hence, my viewpoint is that I largely agree with
the statement that technology makes us vulnerable due to a multitude of factors.

Optimists would make the case that advances made in technology further enhance its
ability to protect us from unforeseen dangers, instead of making us vulnerable.
This is so as the many aspects of society that utilise technology as a key
component, such as military and healthcare, wields technology in such a way that it
protects citizens from both domestic and international threats. For example, COVID-
19 is a notable example of how technology was made use of to limit the impacts the
disease has on our societies. Applications and tools such as “Trace Together” and
“Safe Entry” were used for contact tracing purposes so as to ensure that in light
of a possible community outbreak, the government is able to make use of those tools
to single out those who pose the greatest risk of contracting COVID-19.
Furthermore, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines which were developed to
immunize against the virus, have an efficacy rate of over 94 percent in protecting
individuals across a wide range of ages from Sars CoV-2 symptomatic infection.
Going forward, mRNA vaccines could potentially revolutionize vaccinology. As such,
these kinds of technology ensures that the citizens’ protection against the
epidemic is highly enhanced, alleviating the impacts COVID-19 has on their daily
lives, maintaining a sense of normalcy in society. On a global level, climate
change is one of the greatest threats posed to humanity in recent years, with the
ice caps melting in the North and South Poles to forest fires in Australia. Ask any
local fishermen in the Philippines or citizens in gradually sinking Bangladesh, and
they will be able to tell you first hand, the disastrous consequences climate
change has on their lives. And this is where green technology comes in. With the
ability to achieve the required emissions reduction rapidly enough, green
technology appears to be humanity's best hope to protect them from the more
insidious ramifications of climate change. From electric cars like the Tesla Model
S, energy efficient lighting and smart grids, green technology’s effectiveness in
reducing the impacts has played a consequential role in protecting humans from the
deleterious and pernicious effects climate change has on our societies. Henceforth,
optimists would assert that technological advancements have protected humans more
than it has made them vulnerable.

However, optimism must be tempered with realism. The reason why people would
dispute that point is not due to callousness. Instead, it is often driven by hard-
headed pragmatism. Pragmatists would counter that point by arguing that technology
makes people all the more vulnerable to inequality. One one hand, technological
advances drive economic growth, and improve the quality of healthcare, education,
communication and productivity. On the other hand, it can also expose more people
to wage inequality since it disproportionately raises the demand for capital and
skilled labour. Middle- and low-income jobs have been rendered obsolete by
automation and suffer from depressed wages as the ability to work with machines and
computers become highly valued and compensated. This further perpetuates the
growing gap between white collar and blue collar jobs as white collar workers are
able to afford the luxury of investing in technology to improve their skills,
while blue collar workers are not able to do so. As a result, rather than
protecting people from inequality, technology ends up widening the wage inequality
gap, leaving more people to suffer from inequality. Furthemore, technology leaves
females at the mercy of gender inequality. This is so as in the Digital Age, it is
expected that the science and technology industry is flourishing. However, owing to
the preconceived notions that females’ area of expertise is simply just not that of
science and technology, only a mere 15% of the workforce is made up of females.
This is a self perpetuating process whereby society’s expectations of women’s
abilities to work in the science and technology sector also reinforces the mindsets
within females that they do not have the necessary skills to work in that industry.
Consequently, technology further perpetuates gender inequality in the workforce as
women’s potentials and abilities to work with technology becomes limited by
societal expectations. Therefore, technology exposes people, especially the
marginalised, to inequality in society, and sometimes may even amplify the
inequalities already faced by the underprivileged.

Technology, in the form of social media platforms, makes people vulnerable to

online falsehoods. On one hand, constant innovations in telecommunications have
created a global village. Social media feeds have synced the world by providing
individuals from diverse countries with common ground on topics ranging from pop
culture to politics. However, it also poses heightened risks of people misusing
these social networking platforms to spread misinformation, which would potentially
result in incitement of mass panic. What may have started off as an intentional or
unintentional little prank, may rapidly turn into a national scale incident, such
as that of the Pizzagate incident. This incident happened because somebody claimed
that Hillary Clinton was a pedophile in a Facebook post, and later on spread to
Twitter and then went viral with the help of far-right platforms like Breitbart and
Info-Wars. In response, a man from North Carolina traveled to Comet Ping Pong to
investigate the conspiracy and fired a rifle inside the restaurant to break the
lock on a door to a storage room during his search. The restaurant owner and staff
also received death threats from conspiracy theorists. This incident showcased the
terrifying power of conspiracy theories and false news, and could have been
prevented if people were more cautious of the content they post and spread online.
Furthermore, vaccine misinformation was a common sight during the pandemic.
Misinformation and unfounded fears about the dangers of COVID-19 vaccinations have
permeated chat groups and social media. For example, one message described how
several thousand people were left unable to perform normal activities or to work
after being vaccinated; another alleged that more than 200 Israeli citizens were
diagnosed with COVID-19 days after getting the vaccine. Such misinformation causes
resistance to participation in vaccination drives, potentially derailing the global
and economic recovery, and also makes people more vulnerable to contracting the
disease. As such, technology leaves people unguarded against online falsehoods.

Lastly, technology changes the way people are vulnerable to possibilities of

domestic and international conflicts. Technology could be used to create weapons of
mass destruction, which in turn could be used to threaten countries into submission
or to benefit themselves. This undermines and threatens world peace and stability
as people are constantly worrying about their safety and lives. A key example would
be the nuclear weapons wielded by various countries such as North Korean and Iran.
Russia is also developing nuclear-armed underwater drones, nuclear-powered cruise
missiles and other destabilizing weapons designed to penetrate U.S. missile
defenses. China is ramping up its missile force and building out its nuclear
capabilities with new nuclear submarines. There have been multiple instances in the
past where those countries, especially North Korea, have threatened to use its
nuclear weapons against other countries. Other than the creation of physical
weapons, a new world war over technology has also emerged between China and the
U.S., where the two countries are competing over artificial intelligence, super-
fast 5G mobile networks and other technology. This has led to a rise in global
tensions and international relations, plausibly threatening world peace. Therefore,
technology, when weaponised, makes people vulnerable to the possibilities of war,
threatening their lives.

All in all, while it is indeed a Sisyphean task to overcome the vulnerabilities

technology exposes people to, it is not impossible with time and effort.
Technology, despite being a double-edged sword, could have its benefits outweigh
its disadvantages when used properly and meaningfully.