Morality and Technology
“New technology is not good or evil in and of itself. It’s all about how people choose to use it” – David Wong
Morality at the very outset is a very relative phenomenon and it can’t be measured in absolute terms.
An act which is moral under one set of circumstances becomes immoral under the other set of circumstances. Again an act which is moral at one point of time becomes immoral at another. So one thing should be clear that morality is time and space specific.
Now the question under consideration should be whether any technology can be moral or immoral?
Before going into those details, let us examine what can be a general definition of morality?
In my view what is beneficial for all living beings is moral and any act performed for welfare of living creatures can be brought under the preview of morality. Now the next point to ponder is whether technology can do that? The answer is a big No. This is because technology is just a tool in the hands of human beings and it can’t do anything on its own.
Now one thing must be made very clear that morality is an attribute of human beings only. Only they can use a technology morally or immorally. For example social media sites which are latest advents of technology can be used to abuse somebody or praise somebody. In the same way atomic energy can be used both ways i.e it can not only serve humanity it can also annihilate it. So Technology too is a paradox as the other phenomenon of this universe are, as is with every technology.
Going by the aforementioned discussion it is very clear that we can’t create a moral technology but we can strive to become relatively moral human beings so that we can use any technology to the best of our service in relatively moral way as there can’t be an absolute measure of morality.
“Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them”- Steve Jobs
-Mr. R.S. Mishra, HOD Civil
