Basically, I would have to say that the more changes humans make technologically the more out of balance Earth's ecology tends to get. So, the more sophisticated human technologies become the more harmful to Earth's ecology and the more harmful to human physiology and psychology they are likely to become over time.
For example, in Native American religious thought often a wheel was considered to be sacred and not to be used for ANY profane use. I have often thought that this was mostly about potential harm to the environment. So, advanced human technologies tend to destroy the environments and health of all life including humans to a greater or lesser degree. So, looking at human technology in this way it is sort of like being an alcoholic or drug addict in it's effects long term on all beings who live on earth. So, the short term benefits must be counterbalanced with the extinction of all life forms eventually by throwing the ecosystem earth too out of balance over the long haul.
So, in the future human technology must find a way to interface more with nature rather than to unbalance it in a way that eventually causes the extinction of all life forms on earth.
Technology
The applications of technology often result in unavoidable environmental impacts, which according to the I=PAT equation is measured as resource use or pollution generated per unit GDP. Environmental impacts caused by the application of technology are often perceived as unavoidable for several reasons. First, given that the purpose of many technologies is to exploit, control, or otherwise “improve” upon nature for the perceived benefit of humanity while at the same time the myriad of processes in nature have been optimized and are continually adjusted by evolution, any disturbance of these natural processes by technology is likely to result in negative environmental consequences.[6] Second, the conservation of mass principle and the first law of thermodynamics (i.e., conservation of energy) dictate that whenever material resources or energy are moved around or manipulated by technology, environmental consequences are inescapable. Third, according to the second law of thermodynamics, order can be increased within a system (such as the human economy) only by increasing disorder or entropy outside the system (i.e., the environment). Thus, technologies can create “order” in the human economy (i.e., order as manifested in buildings, factories, transportation networks, communication systems, etc.) only at the expense of increasing “disorder” in the environment. According to a number of studies, increased entropy is likely to be correlated to negative environmental impacts..[7][8][9][10]end quote from:
No comments:
Post a Comment