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Technology (Defence/Safety (Radicalisation
social media can be exploited…
Technology
Defence/Safety
Radicalisation
- social media can be exploited as a platform to propagate radical viewpoints and beliefs --> users are vulnerable to self-radicalisation
- widely accessible to masses: platform for terrorists/extremists to exploit and spread their ideals to a wider segment of the population easily, made easier to commit with the difficulty in censorship of social media + anonymity
- susceptible to misinformation
- Islamic State takes advantage of the unregulated and widely accessible characteristics of social edia to propagate their extremist Islamic beliefs to global viewers, by portraying the good lives of the Islamic state's militants and the glorified ideals they are working towards
Increased security and defence
- tech serves as a deterrent towards antagonists
- high-tech equipment used by military
- destructive force of nature, though uncontrollable by mankind, can be avoided with the use of tech --> enables govt to evacuate the people in affected regions, minimising damage caused
- possibly stemming the growth of terrorism: developments in computer science to improve intelligence gathering capabilities and more effective remote controlled drones
- enables NSmen to be deployed for leadership and specialist roles
COUNTER: Tech advancements make us more susceptible to the damages that may be inflicted with newer advancements
- advancement of chemical weapons: citizens are undefended against hazardous chemical elements
- powerful, highly destructive weapons that can be mass-produced --> usage of tech for violence
- underwater technology is able to detect shifts in tectonic plates and alert the arrival of an incoming earthquake
- China police are sporting high-tech sunglasses that can identify suspects in a crowded area, through usage of facial recognition technology
Singapore
- Police patrol vehicles are installed with in-vehicle video recording systems which have automated number plate recognition capabilities to help police identify vehicles of interest promptly
COUNTER
- killer robots have surfaced in Japan
- Syria: Sarin gas was allegedly used by Al-Assad against his civillians
- nuclear tech was seen as an alternative energy solution to meet the demands of the world's energy consumption --> resulted in creation of atomic bombs which is a potential warfare tool (North Korea and Iraq stockpile on nuclear weapons)
Social Interaction
Digital divide
- Tech exacerbates the psychological disconnect between the generations
- as the rate of tech change increases, the discrepancy between old and young becomes ever more apparent
- today's digital culture revolves around education, socialisation and leisure --> older generation may pathologies this behaviour (call it abnormal)
Breaks societal bonds
- with the advent of internet communication ever prevalent in social networks such as Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter, the need for face-to-face communication has diminished
- ability to absorb hours of our time and attention, leaving less of this stuff for non-digital activities
- genuine addiction to tech: overuse new communications technology --> disrupt existing social norms and people regress in their ability to socialise
- fail to develop appropriate body language and may give the wrong impression to other: teenagers with poor body postures --> portraying themselves as reclusive individuals
- erode inter-personal communication skills essential in the working society
COUNTER: Impact of tech depends on an individual's level of control and awareness on the usage of it
Widens scale of human social interaction
- online communications acts as an accelerant to social change --> creates an environment where large groups of people are mobilised by the knowledge that others share
-expressiveness of global social media adds to human social interaction
- blazing speed with which information can travel via digital networks enables a sense of mutuality to be developed between individuals and communities faster than ever
- enhanced social experience makes digital technologies transformative in a way that differs to the communications and media tech of previous eras
- physical communication can never be replaced: online communication merely supplements but does not displace offline communication
- "Voice Over Internet Protocol" technologies, as used in Skype allows people to communicate face-to-face, albeit in front of a computer screen --> offers a degree of intimacy
- many foreign workers in SG utilise web-cameras to communicate with family as they lack the financial means to fly home regularly
Education
potential to eradicate the need for the culturally-respected profession of teaching
- a plethora of platforms exist for students to learn from
- Millennial Generation is considered to be the most interconnected and equipped with a global outlook on life
- ubiquity of tech: students are able to retrieve info online easily, surfacing an alternative platform for education, other than their teachers
COUNTER:
- inaccuracy (credibility and quality) of online resources creates an inherent need for teachers to convey accurate knowledge
- values-based teaching
Higher accessibility to quality education
- tech open new doors of opportunities to upgrade oneself
- India: developed tablet that costs below $50 --> key to a pool of information
- Khan academy offer excellent courses in Math and English free-of-charge
Privacy and Security
tech is an imminent threat to privacy
- digitisation of various essential commodities eg online banking --> store essential details and personal info online without hesitation --> put themselves at potential risk of being cheated of financial wealth
- hackers have been known to disrupt the services of online banking and crime syndicates solicit large amts of personal info and private data of unsuspecting users
- even with security settings, personal info is not fully secured
- rapid developments in surveillance tech: tracking of every move through sophisticated closed-circuit cameras with face-recognition ability and wire-tapping devices --> violate the basic human right to privacy
- the sheer impossibility of our withdrawal from tech makes us vulnerable to judgement, control and violation by other people though the collection of our personal data such as web browsing history and email
COUNTER: benefits of surveillance tech
- mass surveillance programs can be used to root out terrorists or other subversive groups and eliminate them before society is harmed --> boost national defence
- such tech tips domestic security forces to bring down terror cells
- developments are highly intrusive, but a small price to pay for our safety
- Lehman Brothers: thousands of people were cheated of their money because they unsuspectingly invested their savings online
- Jennifer Lawrence's naked pictures were leaked from iCloud
- USA was revealed to have spied on their citizens in the form of mini-cameras in rubbish bins, tracking GPS signals on phone and telecommunication interference --> infringes on privacy of unknowing Americans
- On social media platforms, research has shown a 70% success rate of the stealing of personal info
- China's digital surveillance system have drawn fierce criticism from human rights organisation as it enables the police to keep close tabs on the movements of the entire population, leading to high potential for abuse
COUNTER
- full body scanners at airports are able to detect bombs made of plastics and increasingly smaller --> airplane flights kept safe
Medical Advancements
Protection of individual health
- advancements in medical field only made possible by the extensive use of modern equipment and pool of medical knowledge shared by medical professionals through tech
- tech creates an information archive that enables pieces of information to be pieced together
- increased understanding of diseases and thus create more effective vaccines and medications against them
- allows higher accessibility and efficiency of medical aid
- increased longevity
- Artificial intelligence can be employed for diagnostic assistance, esp where a patient's case is rare or complex, by quickly suggesting a diagnosis based on the patient's data (leveraging on big data -- unprecedented continual collection of information).
- AI can warn of changes in a patient's condition in real time as it tracks data generated from sensors that are being worn by patients
- AI can assist doctors in terms of image screening and interpretation (rapid analysis of medical images eg Xrays and MRI scans)
- Biomedical tech can enable treatment of thousands of patients anywhere and at any one time whereas a doctor can only treat one patient anywhere at any one time --> in face of ageing population (shrinking workforce and higher demand for healthcare), biomedical tech will form an integral part of the healthcare solution
COUNTER
- insufficient research: advanced medicines may inadvertently cause viruses to undergo mutation and result in new strains of viruses being formed, the consequences of which we are unsure and unready to tackle with
- the process of scientific development has moved at such breakneck speed that products can be introduced before observations of the long-term effects of new inventions could be carried out
- Ebola pandemic: scientists recognise the deadly virus strain in a short period of time after the outbreak of disease in West Africa --> create vaccines to prevent people in the region from suffering from the same viral infections
- As compared to the SARS epidemic around the world in 2003, the Ebola crisis has been largely contained in West Africa due to the rapid transportation and availability of vaccines
- Invention of 3D printing: ability to make new organs with a few stem cells --> minimise patients' waiting time
- Google's "Project Wing" is currently developing aerial drones to dose out medical aid in emergency situations
- widespread implementation of polio vaccine schedule: reduced the no. of polio cases from hundreds of thousands centuries ago to under a thousand today...
COUNTER
- Genetically-modified foods
- H1W1 virus has evolved into H10W3
Environment
- alternative forms of energy to combat our depleting resources
- tech helps raise awareness of environmental concerns due to its reach and blazing speed
- directly providing solutions or helping to educate the masses and rallying support and manpower to tackle our issues
COUNTER
- solutions lead to other problems
COUNTER
- Usage of crops to replace coals in the form of biofuels --> large amts of energy are needed to operate machines to extract essential products from biofuel crops + usage of biofuel increases pressure on food supplies in a country which increases likelihood of food shortage
Ethical concerns
- certain fields of research may result in ethical problems and moral ramifications as scientists fail to consider the interests of other stakeholders and make grave mistakes at time
- myopic: focused on scientific progress attainable from research and neglect the ethical considerations that society may strongly oppose
- genetic modifications are immoral as innocent animals are manipulated for man's welfare --> self-centred
- use of animals (dogs/chimpanzees) in the testing of drugs have come to the attention of human rights activists who protest against such cruel methods of research
- where creation of newer medicines are involved: human test subject req to test for effectiveness and side-effects of the cure --> infringe upon moral lines
- use of embryonic stem cells, which are hailed as the miracle treatment for a wide range of afflictions including cancer, dementia and organ failure --> moral outcry due to the use of human embryos --> dilemma of whether an unborn life should be valued above saving an existing one
- Belgian Blue cattle which provides more meat and muscles // 'super salmon' which grows all year round and 4-6 times faster // 'enviropigs' which produce less phosphorus in their manure
- Early detection of foetal abnormalities: married couple faces a complicated moral dilemma - to abort of live with the burden of caring for a child
- Talking barbie: doll programmed to respond to children for socialising and companionship purposes --> poor quality of socialisation due to limited diversity of conversation
- Head transplants: bring about hope for brain-dead patients --> confusion of identity + subject to exploitation + manipulation of life and death as head transplants are very unnatural
Economic development
harms economic wellbeing of labourers and low-skilled workers in less developed societies
- cutting-edge tech eliminates the need for human input, displacting human labour
- esp threatening the livelihood of cottage industries due to rapid industrialisation
- several traditional occupations which once heralded centuries of refinement and perfection have been culled due to more efficient tech methods that are less prone to error
- long unemployment period as the people previously working in cottage industries lack the req skills set for new sunrise industries eg biomedical science
COUNTER: impact is disproportionate in the world
- developing countries which continue to struggle to stay competitive in the global market continue on with traditional agricultural practices
- developed countries which demand proficiency and efficiency have long eroded the need for human input
COUNTER: necessitates skills-upgrading
- machine harvestor, harvests and threshes crops all at once within a matter of hours whereas manual labour would require weeks to complete the same task
- many rural Indians are stuck in poverty trap as their clay-potting techniques have been rendered obsolete by machines
Cultural Entertainment
Decline of traditional entertainment
- tech has presented various alternatives form of entertainment
- accredited to the pervasive effects of tech as the young today become increasingly entrenched by the creation of online entertainment and video games
COUNTER: far reaching effects of tech can be counted upon to raise awareness about such diminishing cultures