Idea of progress : should we fear progress by seeing both positive and negative aspects of it ?

Idea of progress:

I’m going to talk about the notion of idea of progress. So first, I would like to give a definition of it: progress is the idea that the world and the society can evolve in therms of science, technology, modernization, social life, etc. But the idea of progress is still a debate between those considering it's beneficial and those who think it's harmful. So we're going to wonder if we should fear progress by seeing both positive and negative aspects of it.

So, to start, what kinds of progress exist? Well, let's start with the medical advances. Since a few years now, a technique called graft exists. It enables to save human lives like ill people who are condemned as Jamie who saved her brother with stem cells in “Saviour sibling”. But to take another example, Anna, in “Designer baby” went to see a lawyer because she refused to give her sister a kidney even if she'll die. We can say that the two authors share different points of view. Then, there are the technology advances. I take for example Internet. It was created in the seventies and has revolutionized the world. Indeed, almost everything we do in our life today, from communication to work, needs the Internet. Moreover, it's fast and simple to use. Now we even have Internet on our phones. And more than 75% of American people said they couldn't live without it. Furthermore, there are the social progress. Since the beginning of humankind, there has always been inequality in the society like between men and women, blacks and whites, countries, etc. Therefore, blacks now have rights thanks to people like Martin Luther King or Rosa Park, and women now have the right to vote.

Then, what are the consequences to the idea of progress? Well, there's the embryo screening technology explained in “A boy or a girl”. It allows us to choose the sex of a baby. It could be dangerous for the balance of humankind. Indeed, there's the risk of not having enough potential mothers for the survival of humankind, as it is the case in India in “India's girls go missing”. Moreover, the New York Times has reported on a problem that many of us have but are not aware of, which is the internet addiction. Technology is changing people. People become more forgetful and impatient because of internet. It affects negatively our real life relationships. To take another example, there's Steve Jobs, who has invented new products that had also revolutionized the technology. He created a lot of internet products which can be transported everywhere. As a result, new technologies are the most powerful potential source of enlightenment ever created, yet we must use them with moderation.

In the end, the final question remains should we fear progress? As we just saw, progress can be as beneficial as it can be harmful. Indeed, it can help people in a lot of ways, like my boyfriend and I for example, he lives 380 km away from me, and without technology like phones, we couldn't be able to communicate and we probably wouldn't even have met. But we also saw that it could be addictive: we spend more time on our phones or computers than with our own families and friends.

In conclusion, I would like to give my honest opinion. I think that we shouldn't fear progress but fear what people can and will do with it, like cloning an army or something. I'm well aware that progress will never stop improving but I believe that science evolves much faster than the mentalities do and that's kind of sad when you think about it. Anyway, I think I was born in the wrong generation.

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