Do you think science and technology has done more good than bad?

The tremendous progress in science and technology has improved our lives drastically. People nowadays are able to enjoy high accessibility of information. Also, science and technology contributes to increasing level of interaction between people of different cultural and religious backgrounds, leading to people’s being more understanding towards each other. Moreover, our health has seen unprecedented improvements because of advancement in science and technology, which, in addition, plays an indispensable role in combating various environmental problems. It is certain that science and technology has done more good than bad.

Let’s start by taking a closer look at our daily lives. Science and technology has made our lives much easier. True enough, with the invention of various machineries such as washing machines and vacuum cleaners, we are happily freed from various drudgeries of having to accomplish chores directly with our bare hands. In factories, machines usually handle laborious works. Workers’ lives are thus made much easier and more comfortable. As a result, we are left with more leisure time to enjoy life and more time to pursue other goals and achievements in life. With improvement in science and technology, our lives have become more meaningful and comfortable than before.

Moreover, with the advancement in information technology, people are enabled to access greater sources of useful information to improve their lives. With computers, radios, televisions and other information dissemination devices, various data can be shared, such as teaching materials as well as knowledge in different fields. This helps increase our educational levels as we learn more things. Also, our understanding of events happening in the world is enhanced simply because there is a reservoir of relevant information available to us. Our frame of reference has also been significantly increased. We are readily informed about changes that are occurring around our world, enabling us to make more appropriate and beneficial decisions in lives. For example, many people in rural India experienced improving livelihood due to availability of Internet services. Farmers are allowed to follow news, check on the weather conditions and make spot market offers on their produce, thus reducing cost. Moreover, farmers are able to learn soil-testing techniques and other expert knowledge that helps increases productivity. As a result, earnings of rural farmers have increased greatly. Science and technology have enabled many farmers to become educated and their standard of living to be improved drastically.

Critics argue that technology makes people less gregarious as they interact less and tend to spend a lot of time on net, chatting with visual friends, immersing oneself in visual world, and reducing the need to physically interact with people around him. Their assumption is that human beings are after all gregarious in nature and anything that alters this nature is bad. They are right in the sense that nowadays, people spend a great deal of times on Internet. This is indeed a shortcoming of computer technology as the time one spends with family members and friends is likely to be compromised. However, people who are obsessed with the Internet are really the minority. In addition, one cannot deny the fact that via the Internet, one is able to meet even more people from different cultural and religious backgrounds. He is also able to understand others better, leading to better interaction between people. Also, Internet helps to strengthen bond between people who are separated by long distance. With the availability of video telephones, people are able to communicate face to face despite the fact that they are distant from one another. Relationships can be continued and connections are prevented from being lost. With advancement in technology, barriers between places are simply reduced to checkpoints at the airports or ports. With inventions of powerboats and airplanes, traveling has been made easier and again, people are enabled to interact with people from outside their own communities. Our gregariousness is even further manifested and enhanced. Thus, I believe that science and technology has done more good than bad.


In addition, science and technology have been bringing about unprecedented improvements to our healthcare system. The high standard of medical care system and sophisticated healthcare facilities enable us to enjoy good health and longevity. Also, they play a vital role in combating tough diseases like cancers. The availability of various forms of therapies, together with sophisticated medical instruments and devices, patients’ survival rate has been enhanced dramatically. Operations are conducted in a more effective and safer way, reducing patients’ sufferings. Currently, scientists from all around the world are focusing on stem cell research. Stem cell has been broadly regarded as a potential cure for diseases like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. It can also be developed into various organs for transplantation to save lives. If not for the improvements in science and technology, this asset of Man would not have been discovered. In Singapore, scientists have developed safer and improved method to coax adult stem cells found in fornix to grow into sheets of eye tissue that can be implanted back to the patients’ eyes to treat many eye diseases. The role of science and technology is indispensable in the exploration of frontiers in the medical field. For example, with invented electron microscope in 1930s, bacteria that cause smallpox, malaria and polio were identified and hence, leading to the development of vaccines of these diseases, saving lives of many people. Science and technology have done us great good.

On the other hand, we sometimes do find flaws in scientific researches. There are scientists who are so enchanted with finding cures for some diseases that they breach ethical regulations and even go to the extent of committing crimes, harming others’ lives. For example, in Singapore, an independent panel has found that the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) director Dr. Simon Shorvon committed serous ethical breaches by treating patients like experimental subjects without rights. He administered unauthorized drugs to 127 Parkinson’s patients without their consent or their doctors’ knowledge and jeopardized their safety and well-being. His act was broadly condemned in Singapore. The doctor was severely obsessed with looking for cures for the disease that he overlooked the ethical regulations and disregarded others’ lives. The power of science and technology has tempted many great scientists to go extreme and challenge laws. This is negative impact of science and technology. However, we must not be so hasty to conclude that science and technology is harmful. Considering the huge number of people who have benefited from improvement in science and technology, their good impacts certainly outweigh the bad ones.

What is more, we have been hearing criticisms from environmentalists that science and technology have devastated the Earth. Well, it is true that they gave rise to invention of machineries that produce lots of pollutants, such as carbon dioxide. However, no one can predicted that the industrial revolution in many countries between 18th and 19th century would have such a great impact on global temperature and environment. No one then was able to discover that the manufacturing of early refrigerators would deplete the ozone layer. Only when sophisticated technologies were invented were we able to detect and realize the impacts our actions had on the environments. Critics may argue that the utilization of science and technology in tackling environmental problems is not an indication to their contribution to human kind because they are just solving problems created by them. However, they fail to realize that without science and technology, our Earth may be destroyed to a greater extent. We are dependent on science and technology to solve majority of environmental problems, like oil spillage and global warming. To treat sewage, we need sewage treatment plants. To make reforestation more effective, we need better seeds of trees that can grow faster to protect soils. Global warming is the greatest challenge of this century. Again, without technology, it will not be tackled successfully. Burning of fuel is inevitable in all societies, as all nations need economic developments to enhance standard of living of their people and to make countries economically powerful. Thus we need science and technology to come out with more efficient fuel so that the harm done to the environment is minimized or even nil. The development of bio-fuels, a kind of fuel that is produced from organic products and combusts more efficiently and produces less carbon dioxide, would be a good example to prove science and technology’s contribution to Man. May nations are switching to bio-fuels. For example, the Brazilian government encourages wide use of ethanol produced from sugarcane—a traditional crop in the country—as fuel to replace gasoline. Brazil is therefore able to replace half of the gasoline used by automobiles in the countries. The same in occurring in China, USA, Germany, Austria and many other countries in response to oil shortage problems and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emission. It is estimated that without too much effort, producing ethanol from just Brazil and India would reduce the burning of gasoline fuel by 10%. With advancement in science and technology, global warming problem is alleviated without having the nation’s economic development compromised. This would not have been possible without science and technology. Thus, I strongly believe that science and technology has done more good than bad.

Science and technology has improved our lives tremendously. It makes our life more colorful and meaningful. It makes people more informed and educated and improves people’s health. Moreover, it plays an indispensable role in tackling some of the thorniest environmental problems. Although it creates problems along its progressive path, its benefits tend to outweigh its negative impacts. Thus, I strongly believe that science and technology has done more good than bad.


Articles of Reference

--“Internet reaching the remote and poor.” Straits Times, 23/11/2005

--“Cultivating a scientific culture.” Straits Times, 22/09/2005

--“What is the role of science in developing countries.” AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

--“The next petroleum” Newsweek International, 08/08/2005

--“$10m research was unethical and uncivilised” Straits Times, 13/05/2005