CHAPTER 4: WHEN TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY CROSS

INTRODUCTION:

Anybody can visualize the

convergence of technology and
humanity through the effectively
produced science-fiction movies. Sci-fi
contains a lot of prediction about how
technology can change the landscape
of humanity.
Technology appeared in close contact with humans in various sci-fi movies. For some scenes,
there seems to have a harmonious link between the two but in many cases, they bring
distructions. ty

THE ETYMOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY:

The word technology comes from two Greek words techne and logos. Techne means arts and
craft. Logos means word or utterance being expressed by a person.

THE DEFINITION OF TECHNOLOGY HAS EVOLVED OVER TIME, AND THE

VARIOUS DEFINITIONS ARE AS FOLLOWS:
1. Technology is the sensible process of changing matter, energy, and transformation into
an operational material with certain values to humanity.
2. Technology is the set of tools like toothbrush, devices like cellphone, and system like
transformation system.
3. Technology is the knowledge, facts, and methods necessary to discover means of
material transformation.
Business technology define technology as “the purposeful application of information in the
design, production, and utilization of goods and services, and in the organization of human
activities
1. Technology is as tangible as blueprints and models. \
2. At times, it is also tangible when reffered to the problem solving, technological concept,
and method.
3. There is also technology that is called intermediate technology, which is semi-
automated and semi-intelligent.
4. Low tech, is a labor-intensive technology that uses weaker forces and manipulate gross
matter only.
Unquestionably, the common denotation of technology is a product or a process of being used
to make a task easier. To review there are six basic simple machines, and these are the
following.
1. Lever - It is a long pole or a rod put under a
fulcrum that braces and lifts it.

2. Wheel and axle – wheels have been considered as

a great invention, in history but they would not
work efficiently without axle. The wheel and axle
is used to transport heavy materials easily.

3. Inclined plane – it allows materials to

vertically move swiftly.
4. Wedge is used to separate to object apart, as
in to cut, tear or break something.

5. Pulley is used to lift a huge amount of weight in a back-

and-forth manner.

6. Screw is a twisted incline plane moving in a a circel. It is

usually used to hold things together.

THE EVOLUTION OF TELEVESION:

Television is one of the most commonly used technologies inside every household.
Televesion programs are being consumed by the Filipino household members for an
estimated average of 8 hours a day.
Here are some interesting facts about the evolution of televesion

1. Television was not really meant for household. A Scotsman, John Logie Baird,
transmitted the first television picture using a ventriloquist’s dummy on October 2,
1925 for the promotion of a product in a store.
2. The first television set was actually electromechanical.

3. Baird’s television set, which was the first of its kind, used an old hat box, few bicycles
lenses, darning needles, darning scissors, used tea chest, glue, and a wax.
4. In 1940, the black and white TV was replaced by the first colored television invented
by Peter Goldmark.
5. The first cable television was introduced in Pennyslavia in 1948
6. In 1956, the first remote controlled television set was produced.
7. In 1992, the first 21-inch full color plasma TV was introduced in the market,
8. The first 3-D television set was introduced in 2010
9. Smart Tv that has been introduced in 2008 has continously been improving in the past
years.
FROM TELEPHONE TO MOBILE PHONES
If there is one technological invention that has greatly influenced human life in the modern
society, which is the telephone or mobile phones. Mobile phone is used by the people for
enormous purposes, from personal information to running a big business. In fact, surveyed
showed results that most of the young Filipinos cannot live without it.

A “cellular revolution” was born with the following improvements.

1994– IBM was introduced. It is considered as the world’s first smart phone, the first touch
screen mobile phone, and the first phone with a software apps.
1996 – The motorola StarTac, the world’s first flip phone was introduced.
2002 – The first blackberry phone model BlackBerry 5810 was made available in the market.
2002 – in the same year, the bestselling phone was Nokia 1100
2004 – Motorola Razr V3 was introduced

ETHICAL DILEMNAS ON TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT

Dilemna means a situation wherein a person or a group of individuals are facing difficult
choices in accepting whether a phenomenon is acceptable or not. Ethics, on the other hand
refers to moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or activity, Therefore ethical dilemna
means a tough choice whether a phenomenon is acceptable, which in this case is, the various
technological advancements.

THREE ETHICAL DECISION CRITERIA:

1. Ultirarian criterion – is solely based on their outcomes and consequences.
2. Criterion based on “Rights” – this criterion urges an inidividual to decide based on the
fundamentals of liberties and privilleges.
3. Criterion based on “Justice” – this criterion requires individuals to impose and enforce
rules fairly with no exception to anybody ro ensure equitable distribution of benefits
and cost
This country believes that concerns on ethics of technological advancement in the Philippines:

THE DECLINING CONCEPT OF COMMON GOOD AS AN ETHICAL DILEMNA

A DISEASE OF “FEELING SAD” IN THE MODERN SOCIETY.

The United Nations Development Report showed an increasing numbers of
unhappy people over the last two decades. One of the suspected reasons for
this phenomenon is the concept of “praise cult” influenced by social media
brought by technological advancement.
Praise cult is simply, about the people’s obsession to praise.
ETHICAL DILEMNAS IN SOCIETY AND TECHNOLOGY
Since 2013, the University of Notre Dame through the Reilly Center has been releasing a list of
emerging ethical dilemnas and policy issues in science and society. Its main goal is to make the society
aware of some ethically challenged inventions of the world.
There have been already six lists produced by the university of Notre Dame, amd thischose the
following interesting technological advancements:
1. 3D Printing – it creates almost everything from
architectural to human organ model.

2. Driverless Zipcars – its goal is to create a futuristic road with

safer and more efficient transportation system.

3. Human-animal hybrids (Chimeras) – merging two species into one is out of nature’s design,
and is the main ethical dilemma for this technological advancement.

4. Data chip implants – would like to solve the

problem on the chaos of having so many people.

5. Sexbots – it is a robot with synthetic skin and artificial intelligence capable of learning owner’s
preferences.
 6. Virtual currency is used to purchase and exchange
money without the intervention of a bank.

7. Real time satellite suirveillance video

Here are the other ethical dilemnas and policy issues presented by Reilly Centre for Science and
Technology values:
1. CRISPR/Cas9 – this is used to edit a portion of an organism’s DNA
2. Head transplant – This has been experimented by one doctor and the possibility was proven
in a lower animal. Imagine the future with changed identity caused by replaced head.
3. Disappearing drones – a drone that will deliver something to a person and will instantly
vanish after it hands the delivery to you.
4. Artificial womb
5. Bone conduction for marketing – This the technology that will transmit advertisement to
your brain through your bones.
6. Lethal cyber weapons
7. Exoskeleton for the elderly – The aim of this technology is to postpone retirement.