Technology cuts?

Question

Technology cuts both ways, either in boosting the productivity of the worker or the productivity of the resource. In this case, it happened both ways (enabling more cotton to be cleaned and more cotton to be grown), and when combined with the exuberant demand for cotton, it dramatically increased the demand for slave labor and lengthened the tenure of the “peculiar institution.” Technology can work both ways in another respect as well—either to advance civilization or to set it back on its heels: I think that the cotton gin provides us with a good example of how the ingenuity of our species must be carefully managed, lest we become “too clever by half.” What other examples come to mind… and what are their ramifications?

Answer 1

There are often people who may be hurt in the short term by new technologies.  Typewriter companies were hurt by computer technology, buggy manufacturers where hurt by the invention of the car.

The cotton gin was not a bad or evil technology just because there were some negative consequences that came from it.  

But think of how much worse our lives would be if the car was never invented because we didn't want to hurt the buggy maker, or the computer was never invented because we didn't want to hurt the typewriter manufacturer, or if cotton still had to be processed by hand.  Slavery in America has long since ended, but advances in agricultural technology continue to improve our lives today.  

I think that the ingenuity of our species must be unrestrained so that our society, our economy, our technology, and our species will continue to thrive in the future.