Page 71 - ISLA 240 REVIEW PACKET

11. The important thing to remember about technology is that it is just a tool, nothing more, nothing less. If we want people to use it for more altruistic purposes rather than selfish ones, we shouldn’t examine the technology itself, but rather the values and motivators that compel people to use it in a certain way. It is of my belief that we currently live in a system that places more value in wealth and status than morality. If a person has enough wealth, then they are allowed to avoid consequences for their actions much more easily than others – our current president should be enough to prove that that’s true. If we want to make sure that technology will be used to serve mankind instead of the wealthy few, then we need to have a major overhaul of how our society functions as a whole. Social and systemic change requires collective action in order to come into fruition, so it is on all our shoulders to be more critical of what our culture values and speak out against what we’ve been so used to praising, like wealth and power, and instead give more attention and praise to those who might not be the most flashy or glamorous, but are working towards bettering their communities and our world. If we set these types of people up as our future generation’s role models, instead of the celebrities and tech billionaires our society idolizes today, then they will be more inclined to grow up into empathetic, altruistic people who are less likely to abuse technology for their own selfish means.