General Education Subject: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

Lesson 5 - TECHNOLOGY AND THE • Modern Technology Revolutionizing the Energy

FUTURE OF HUMANITY Sector
OBJECTIVES • Modern Technology Improves Our Security
• Explain the implications of humanity’s growing • Online Banking and Transactions
dependence on technology; NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGY
• Evaluate contemporary human experience in • Addiction to Using Technology
the midst of modern technology • People’s Dependency on Technology
WHEN TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY CROSS • Modern Technology Causes Distraction
• Science and technology can lead humanity to • Technology Causes Health Problems in People
either prosperity or degradation. • Family and Relationship Problems Caused by
• It improves efficiency and productivity, Technology
promotes competition and innovation, and • Negative Effects of Technology on the
provides opportunities for employment Environment
generation to millions of people worldwide • Modern Technology’s Influence on Climate
• Many technologies can harm the environment: Change
Pollution - Air, water, heat and noise pollution • Modern Technology Negatively Effects on
can all be caused by producing and using Education and Learning
technology. Consuming resources - Non- • Modern Technology is Architecting Warfare
renewable resources, including precious metals • Modern Technology Wasting Time of the People
like gold, are used to make technology. “The year 2000” PUBLISHED IN 1967 BY HERMAN
TECHNOLOGICAL OPTIMISM KAHN AND ANTHONY WINER
• Techno-optimism is the belief that technology • Listed 100 technological innovations that are
will produce more good than bad likely to occur in the last quarter of the 20th
• The view that technological improvements will century. This include
sustain life as human population continues to - new medical technologies that may detect hereditary
increase. and congenital disease
• Because of some helpful inventions, a - the use of cyborg techniques that may substitute
widespread misconception of technological human organs or limbs,
optimism arises. - new biological or chemical methods to improve
• One example would be medicine. Generally, memory and learning
people usually care about not dying. - multimedia systems
• While it is not wrong to be hopeful in terms of - advanced military
technological advancements, it is important to - commercial airborne vehicles
be aware of the negative effects that some - internet
innovations come with.
• It is expected that through technological Genetics and its threat to ethics
breakthroughs, pressing social issues would be • The scientists who launched the HUMAN
addressed, thus improving the future conditions GENOME PROJECT believed in the power of
of society. genetic information to transform health care
• What are some positive and negative effects of • The Human Genome Project (HGP) is one of the
technology? greatest scientific feats in history.
POSITIVE EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGY • The project was a voyage of biological discovery
• Modern Technology Improved Connectivity and led by an international group of researchers
Communication looking to comprehensively study all of the DNA
• Modern Technology Made Our Society More (known as a genome) of a select set of
Efficient organisms.
• Modern Technology Has Improved Learning • Launched in October 1990 and completed in
Process and Education April 2003, the Human Genome Project’s
• Modern Technology Improved Healthcare signature accomplishment – generating the first
• Technology Helps in Transportation sequence of the human genome – provided
• Modern Technology Changing Agriculture fundamental information about the human
blueprint, which has since accelerated the study
General Education Subject: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
of human biology and improved the practice of the suspect, or even manipulate data to
medicine. incriminate some one else.
• Presently, the public is concerned about
Pharmacogenetics whether the technology is ready to be handled
• Pharmacogenetics (sometimes called by authorities or not.
pharmacogenomics) is a field of research that • Since technology is highly advanced, great
studies how a person's genes affect how he or responsibility lies within those who maneuver it
she responds to medications. Its long-term goal
is to help doctors select the drugs and doses The growth of science and technology challenges
best suited for each person. society’s ability to understand and control its effects on
• Has also become controversial in terms of its everyday life. Its implementation is carried out so
ethical use. rapidly that adverse effects are unavoidable. People
• It raises several questions regarding its necessity continue to use diesel-powered automobiles and coal-
methodologies and accessibility powered energy plants that release toxic fumes and
greenhouse gases that are detrimental to human and
• In the future, doctors will be capable of environmental health.
providing patients with genetic report cards that
will spell out each patient’s risks of developing a Water reservoirs (dams)
variety of diseases • Dams are constructed for irrigation, flood
• The social and ethical implications come into control and power production.
question, including how will it affect lives, • However they also disrupt the natural
families and the entire society ecosystem and displace local communities
Advanced DNA Testing 1. Chico River Dam Project in Cordillera
• Also poses both advantages disadvantages, as • First drawn up in 1965 and was deemed
the practice may be misused or abused by achievable to construct in 1973 only to be
authorities suspended in 1980’s.
• A recent technology that is used in police • The local tribes opposed the construction of the
investigations surfaced, which potentially dam because it would displace local
quickens the acquisition of results of evidence communities.
for the efficient conviction of criminals. • At the forefront of the opposition against the
dam was tribal leader Macli-ing Dulag who was
murdered by unidentified assailants to silence
him, which cause a large public outcry on both
national and international scales that
terminated the project.
2. Kaliwa Low Dam
• Project in Rizal proposed in 2012 not only
threatened the displacement of local tribes and
the grabbing of ancestral lands, it also posed
severe environmental destruction.
• Initially approved under the administration of
former President Benigno S. Aquino III, the
project was cancelled only to be revamped by
bigger Chinese-funded project under the
administration of former President Rodrigo
Duterte
Agent orange
• An invention that illustrates how technology can
be purposively used to inflict damage on others.
• However some police personnel may misuse the • It is a herbicide and defoliant chemical.
technology and use it without the knowledge of
General Education Subject: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
• It was used during the Vietnam war by the US ALDOUS HUXLEY
military in order to destroy plant-based food • stated that his envisioned reality is coming
production. faster than he had originally foreseen and that
• Laboratory tests had shown that Agent Orange “the horror might be upon us within a single
also damaged the genes of humans exposed to century”
it. Resulting to genetic deformities developed by • Our most powerful 21st century technologies –
offsprings of the exposed victims. robotics, genetic engineering, and
• The chemical also made the regeneration of nanotechnology – are threatening to make
forests difficult and almost impossible. humans an endangered species
Computer and electronic surveillance systems • It is expected that in near future, computers
• Provide personal, institutional and homeland will have the capacity to lead a so-called robot
security but can also pose threats to human rebellion. Genetic engineering is capable of
privacy. creating new crops and potentially new species.
• Personal correspondence that allows the
exchange of information ca be put under • Nanotechnology may be used in developing
surveillance by high tech systems. more efficient medicine and water treatment;
• As businesses and organizations around the however, they may also be hazardous to one’s
world depend on computers and the internet to health.
exchange data, they become more vulnerable to • Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter
cyberattacks. on a near-atomic scale to produce new
CCTV structures, materials and devices
• It is also known as video surveillance. Closed
circuit means that the cameras transmit footage HUMANS USE TECHNOLOGY TO TRAVEL, TO
to a closed audience, as opposed to regular COMMUNICATE, TO LEARN, TO DO BUSINESS AND TO
television, which broadcasts to the public. LIVE IN COMFORT.
Computer virus • Technology has made our lives easy.
• The infamous ILOVEYOU virus infected millions • It is unimaginable to explore how each new
of computers worldwide – including systems of advanced technology has impacted our lives
the Pentagon and the British Parliament. and how it will impact the future.
• This virus, reportedly created by Filipino IT • While technology has made it easier to connect
students, destroyed files, stole user passwords with others, access information, and improve
and compromised confidential data from medical care, it has also led to job loss,
government agencies and private companies. cyberbullying, and technology addiction
Hackers • Technology plays an important role in society
• In another instance, hackers illegally accessed today. It has positive and negative effects on the
the network portal of the Central Bank in world and it impacts daily lives.
Bangladesh in February 2016, eighty-one million
dollars ($81M) was stolen, sent to the Book Reference:
Philippines and funneled into a leading Casas, John Miller et.al (2020). Science, Technology and
commercial bank’s foreign currency accounts Society. C&E Publishing, Inc.
and three major casinos

While science and technology provide society higher

standards of living, these are accompanied by adverse
effects such as depletion of resources and biological
and environmental hazards Humanity’s ability to
survive as species will be determined by how rapidly
they can adapt to these technological changes.
Consequently, these technological innovations will affect
the future generations and their outlook towards the
fast-paced development of machines