Technology: For “Good” or “Evil”?
Contributed by Doug Ferguson
I recently had a life changing medical experience that, among other things, required my receiving a state-of-the-art electronic pacemaker right here in Alaska. Without going into the details, this is beginning to return much of my health life back to normal.
Back in December of 2020 I published an article here titled “Modern Media Technology: Good or Evil?” where I addressed this question specifically to the communication world. At the beginning of that article I said:
There has always been a concept of “Good” and “Evil” in the history of the human race. “Good” being defined as those actions by humans that are intended to help other humans to experience reasonable levels of freedom, joy and happiness. “Evil” being defined as those intended human actions that do the opposite for self-serving purposes. There are more secular terms like “Beneficial” vs. Non-Beneficial”, but they don’t address the moral aspects of these actions based on the traditional values of our country. There have always been debates over whether or not gun powder, the atomic bomb, and similar inventions have favored “Good” or “Evil” in history. The same holds true for most forms of technology development.
I then made the case for the “Evil” side in the communication arena where a few people and organizations can control the information and/or propaganda sent to millions of people overnightand thus affect election outcomes. I didn’t even mention the potential terrible human destruction that modern nuclear technology can achieve if some humans decide to use it.
My health being the recent beneficiary of modern technology, once more this has caused me to reflect on the controversial subject of human’s development and use of technology: Is it for good or evil? Clearly for my health, and many others like me around the world, electronic pacemaker technology has been “good”. Without addressing the question: has everyone’s receiving one extended quality of life been “good” or not, from a health point of view, the case for “good” is overwhelming.
Has everyone who has had their life extended by medical technology actually had an improved quality of life? Or did their misery, real or imagined, just continue? It would be interesting to see data on this. Certainly those with extreme pain or physical discomfort might not. However those with a sense of continued purpose in life would value the extension. Thus an individual’s situation and/or mental state would determine whether the extension of life was “Good” or “Evil”.
As a retired electrical engineer who was been involved and close to the electronic technology industry for most of my forty year career, I sometimes find it hard to believe how fast the electronic technology that is the basis for pacemakers and other health devices has progressed.
For example, early computers using solid state technology (as opposed to relays and vacuum tubes) contained transistors measuring in the thousands for the entire computer. Now a single silicon chip in a pacemaker can contain millions! The 2-chip package in Apple’s latest microprocessor used in Mac products released last year contains over 120 billion transistors!
Medtronics and some others have recently developed micro pacemakers the size of a vitamin capsule for some conditions that is installed directly in the heart chamber, doesn’t require leads threaded through blood vessels and has a battery life of more than 17 years!
For those of us graduating in the late 50’s and early 60’s, this advancement of “good” technology was what most of us young and idealistic engineers thought we were doing to improve the world! Certainly in the medical field this has been the case and provides a counterpoint to the “Evil” use of advanced technology my previous article featured.
Reflecting on both “Good” and “Evil” scenarios, it remains to be seen whether humans can advance technology for the benefit of the human race or whether that advance destroys it. We can hope and pray for the former.
Doug Ferguson is a retired engineer living in Palmer with interests in nature, gardening, technology, history and human nature.
