The idea of progress: how technological progress and social progress become too influential in our daily lives?

In order to begin my presentation about progress. It will be necessary to define what progress means. It is defined as an improvement, a technical, scientific or social advance which contributes to making the world a better place. In fact, progress is all about taking a step forward, but it has its advantages and disadvantages. People can see progress in different aspects of life, such as technological progress, social progress; which I’m going to talk about. How do these types of progress become too influential in our daily lives?

Nowadays, there are many technological developments such as artificial intelligence. The term “Artificial Intelligence” or “AI” is applied when a machine mimics "rational" actions that humans do, such as "learning" and "problem solving". It clearly represents a progress in the technological field, and AI applications have been used in a wide range of arenas, most common in the mobile world. For example, in David Von’s text, leading companies (such as Apple, Facebook, Amazon and others…) “are investing fortunes and countless hours in artificial intelligence” and AI machines such as Siri (Apple), Cortana (Microsoft) or Bixby (Samsung) are the results of these investments and the technological progress. It also took a place in the medicine field, in fact BBC interviewed the famous physician Stephen Hawking, and he relies on technology to communicate and live, after medicine failed to help him. This is a clear example of the beneficial sides of AI and how it has transformed our lives. While artificial intelligence has its advantages, it also has its drawbacks as machines involved can be programmed to do dangerous actions like weapons that are programmed to kill, and in the hands of the wrong person, these machines can be deadly dangerous. Another fear is that AI will self-taught themselves and could lead to the end of the human race.

An alternate technological development is self-driving cars. They have found their way into the streets, as Matt Vella said in her text: “Four US states have legalized self-driving cars.” In fact, self-driving cars “are going to change everything”. Their goal is to reduce accidents and provide an overall better “driving” experience. With no designated drivers, accidents caused by distraction or drinking alcohol should decrease significantly, and improve drastically traffic conditions. Disabled people can also benefit from these cars, as they need no physical contact to work. Although self-driving cars is an impressive progress in technology, putting people’s lives at the hands of technology is a big risk, especially when software or hardware malfunctions can occur frequently, and a single misinterpretation can lead other self-driving cars into confusion, creating an accident much bigger than expected with normal cars.

In addition, since the beginning of mankind, there has always been inequality in the society. 
For example, between men and women, blacks and whites, countries, etc. Therefore, there has been an evolution in the social status of Blacks and of human rights. Emma Watson calls for equality during a UN speech: British actress and goodwill ambassador for the UN, she gave a smart, important and moving speech about gender inequality and how to fight it. In doing so, she launched the ‘He for She’ initiative, which aims to get men and boys to join the feminist fight for gender equality. In the speech, Mrs. Watson made the important point that in order for gender equality to be achieved, harmful and destructive stereotypes of masculinity and behavioral expectations for boys and men have got to change: ‘Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too.” Barrack Obama also mentioned the notion of racial differentiation. In his speech he said “They (talking about his daughters) don’t see each of us first and foremost as black or white, Asian or Latino, gay or straight […] In many ways, their generation is already pushing the rest of us toward change”, referring to progress in social issues and problems around the world, especially when you are the first black American president of your nation. Moreover, one of the most famous revolution in America, is the accessibility of civil rights for black people with the help of Martin Luther King. Revolutions, speeches, marches and many other rebellions movements were aimed at raising awareness of these kinds of social problems, and this a step forward, a progress that is made.

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