TECHNOLOGY AS

A DOUBLE-EDGED
SWORD
JAKARTA GEOPOLITICAL FORUM, OCTOBER 21-22, 2021
INTRODUCTION
(1) Geopolitics and the “Geo” (the Earth) Itself
 PLANET EARTH, OUR BIG, BLUE
AND BEAUTIFUL COMMON HOME
US AND OUR “NEIGHBORS”
 PLANET EARTH IN
COMPARISON TO OTHER
PLANETS
 PLANET
EARTH SEEN
FROM MARS
(2) A Short History of Technology
 FLORENCE, ITALY

• Florence (ca. 1300): prosperous

thanks to its commerce;
• Around 1350s: The rise of the
Medici family;
• The role of Cassimo de Medici;
• Encouraging people to study texts
from the classical Greece and the
Rome.
RENAISSANCE

• The “rebirth” of the classical Greek and Rome.

• The fields of arts, law and government.
• Preceded the birth of the Enlightenment.
• From Theocentric to Anthropocentric.
• Humanism as the new trend.
• Helped the development of Science and
Technology.
• Ushered the birth of the Industrial Revolution.
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

• The manual mode of production

was being replaced by the
mechanical mode of
production→ the use of
machines.

• The Positive Side: making it

easier for people to produce
necessary goods (food, clothing,
shelters).
• The Negative Side: enhanced
the harshness (if not brutality)
of capitalism, colonialism and
imperialism:
+ in Europe;
+ among the colonized
people.
 TECHNOLOGY

All along, technology continues to advance.

Like a double-edge sword, it has two sides: positive and

negative sides.

On the one side, it helps produce many products that are
needed by humanity.

On the other side, it also results in many negative impact

that could harm human life.

It is therefore the two sides need to be re-evaluated

and re-considered.
DISCUSSION
SOME HISTORICAL BACKGROUND…

• The Enlightenment (Aufklarung): the

emergence of prominent thinkers along with
promulgation of new ideas.

• E.g.: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David

Hume, Adam Smith (England); Rene
Descartes, Diderot, Voltaire, Jacques Turgot,
Marquis de Condorcet, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau (France); Johan Gottfried Herder,
Emmanuel Kant (Germany).

• Then there was “scientific revolution”: Galileo

Galilei, Johannes Kepler, Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz.
• The Enlightenment foregrounds many new
ideas pertaining to:

• Governmental system that is against

absolute form of government (Locke);

• Civilization as a corrupting factor in

human natural life, and therefore we
need to go “back to nature”
(Rousseau);

• A certain race as the pinnacle of the

history of human civilization (Herder);

• Civilization should be viewed from a

cosmopolitan perspective (Kant).
• The modern technology then
spread to many parts of the
world and practically
touches almost every human
need.

• From the mode of food

production to
communication, from the
transportation system to daily
financial transaction—almost
all involved the benefits of
technology.
UNFORTUNATELY NOT EVERYTHING WAS FINE WITH
TECHNOLOGY….

• At the beginning of the 20th century, for instance,

advanced technology had shown its ugly face in
the form of World War I (1914-1918), which caused
much suffering and the loss of millions of life.

• It was also due to further advance of technology

that roughly 20 years after WW I, another global
war occurred, in the form of the Second World War
(1939-1945); it also caused much suffering and the
loss of many more millions of life—just like the life
that you and I have today.

• More specifically, the advances of technology

(along with human ambition and cruelty) resulted
in the Holocaust with all its unimaginable horrors.
• During the Cold War period (1945-1990)
there was no direct military conflict
between the two chief opposing sides.

• However, the potential for a global and

total destruction was real, as its was
expressed in the military theory of MAD
(Mutual Assured Destruction).

• The technological advances in the

production of the nuclear bombs made
such a global and total destruction
absolutely possible.

• In the case of a nuclear war, the victims

would not be limited to the nations
involved, but also almost any living
thing on this planet.
A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL???

• Since the beginning of the 21st

century, in part thanks to technology,
humanity enters a period that seems
to be different from any previous
periods.

• Since the beginning of this century, for

instance, technology has made it
possible for humans to reduce:
• The threat of hunger,
• The spread of plagues,
• The recurrence of an open wars
(Harari 2018).
• Thanks to technological advances we can now produce
food that is needed by most of the world’s population; today
perhaps the number of people who die because of the
availability of food, are more than the number of people
who die because of hunger.

• In the past plagues had kept recurring and in its long period
caused millions of deaths; today plagues are increasingly
manageable; for example, Covid-19 pandemic, which in its
early stage consumed many lives, becomes almost
manageable only within two years since it started.

• Wars, which had haunted humans since their early history,

beginning in the 21st century begin to disappear although
the possibility is still there; today perhaps more people die at
home or at the hospital beds rather than at war fronts.
IN SHORT……

• Technology has helped us to

live a relatively more secure
and enjoyable life.
IN OTHER WORDS…

• Technology has produced many benefits to

humans, from the most advanced programs
(such as the space programs) to the most
mundane needs of daily life.

• Technological advances in neuroscience and

nanotechnology, for instance, has made us
able to observe the smallest dynamics of the
neurons within the cells of the human brain or
other organs of the human body.

• The internet technology has helped us in many

daily chores from chatting with close friends
and listening to music, to knowledge
acquirement and hosting virtual international
forum.
AT THE SAME TIME……

• There are many sides of technology that could

harm human life.

• We need to identify and evaluate them.

• Greed and pride: often entice certain people to

use technological advances not only to
produce goods that we all need, but also to
maximize their own gains and benefits.

• This situation has made humanity stands at the

crossroad of civilization and considers which
way to take.
BACK TO HISTORY….

• Renaissance: a shift from being Theocentric to

anthropocentric.

• The birth of technology was connected to the birth of

anthropocentrism→ a view that everything should be
centered on humans.

• Humanism then becomes a new “religion”: everything is

measured against human needs; what is good for humans
must be good in itself.

• Humanism: celebrating freedom; putting the individual on

the pedestal.

• While in the Theo-centrism humans glorify God, in

humanism humans glorify themselves.
THE CONSEQUENCES….
• The marginalization of other species, the marginalization of
planet earth itself.

• Technology is often used to exploit natural resources without

considering that such acts could endanger the common home
of humanity.

• Certain strong individuals could implement their own rule,

which would benefit themselves.

• These strong individuals will win, while the weak (read: those
who do not master technology) will become the losers.

• Note: Those who are marginalized would have to be happy

with a “placebo” called Corporate Social Responsibilities
(CSR).
• The internet which initially was used just for helping
people in long-distance communication, it now has
become a central tool in many human activities:
education, transportation, entertainment, even religious
practices.

• However, for the sake of practicality, in many cases

people happily surrender their personal data to the
unknown application or internet providers.

• AS a result, a growing number of personal data are being

acquired by those who have control over communication
technology; in a further step these people would collect
and use the data to serve their own network of global
interests.

• It is sad to say that technology which has helped the

celebration of freedom and the glorification of human
individuals, today becomes a threat to the same freedom
and individuality.
SOME EXAMPLES….

• Artificial intelligence (algorithm):

increasingly capable of recording and
predicting human choices and behavior;

• Nanotechnology in health sciences:

increasingly capable of identifying and
“stealing” one’s most personal biological
data;

• Nuclear weapons: increasingly capable of

destroying humanity and planet earth in
minutes, if not seconds.
JUST A LITTLE REMINDER …

• Left alone, technology is

capable of not only destroying
humanity, but is also of
gradually destroying every
single individual person as a
unique human being with
his/her fundamental value and
dignity.
AGAIN…

• In the spirit of humanism, people who control the

communication or social media technology can think
that what is good for them must be good in itself.

• For them, other human beings are worthy as long as

they are useful for their global network of interests.

• In that case, technology has the potentials to threat, to

seize and to tear apart humanity itself.

• There is a possibility that because of technological

advances that humans have acquired, humanity is
waiting for its own collective collapse.
CLOSING NOTES
• We need to stop the
potentials of technology to
destroy human life and the
life of fellow occupants of
planet earth.

• We need to stop the

possibility of technology to
exploit human individuality
for personal gains or
benefits.

• Practical steps need to be

taken immediately.
RECOMMENDATION
• In the field of education for young
people: we should provide them with
study materials that show them universal
human values—values that transcend
primordial boundaries, values that will
encourage them to consider the
common problems of humanity.

• These materials should promote the

awareness of the impact of technology
on:

• climate change;
• a person’s individuality and being part
of the global human community;
• the survival of homo sapiens as one of
the species that live on planet earth.
• On the state level: state institutions such as
LEMHANNAS (the Indonesian National Resilience
Institute) should provide more opportunities for
collaboration on the local, national, regional and
international levels to address issues pertaining to
the common interests of humanity.

• The issues of “national resilience” should not be

limited to issues on how to defend a nation from
possible external or domestic military attack.

• National resilience should also include

collaboration among nations as members of the
same global human community in the face of
possible collective failure due to the unstoppable
advances in technology.
• In the mean time,
let us continue to
join hands and
work together to
protect that little
planet floating in
there….
 THANK YOU,
TERIMA KASIH