Good and bad things about science and technology?

What social, ethical and environmental good and bad things have happend from science discovery and technology?

• What social, ethical and environmental implications and consequences of scientific discoveries and technological development are there?

• Answer:

  Social? Humans are slowly starting to realize that we no longer need the fear of a god figure to keep the rain falling and lightning from striking... Hopefully in my life time religion will be abolished and we can begin to rule our own destinies instead of allowing fear of the unknown make us follow religious leaders who have no more 'answers' then any other 'common' human. Answers come as we build upon the research and knowledge gained by previous generations. It is a constantly expanding knowledge base. Ethical? We are beginning to understand that we are not the rulers of the universe that religion told us we are. We have no “Manifest Destiny” to cover the globe at the expense of whatever was there before us. We, as a species have started to understand that everything we do impacts the world and if the world is unhappy, WE are unhappy. Environmental? We are slowly but surely beginning to perfect renewable sources of energy such as hydrogen and wind. Unfortunately solar is FAR from becoming an economically viable method of power generation for the normal person but for Industry, it is becoming a worthwhile investment. The industrialized nations need to allow the alt-energy technology to expand to the 3rd and 2nd worlds and, for a short time at any rate, say “Profits be damned!”. Yes, 1st world nations need to clean up their act too but we have seen that inefficient technologies available to 2nd and 3rd world nations are MUCH more toxic then the most widely available tech in the 1st world. We need to help them advance at a faster rate then we did because we now comprehend the impact that this stage of the process has!! We may need to drag them kicking and screaming to our current level but it is worth it in the long run. We Americans complain about not farming organically while other countries can’t feed themselves at ALL… Hell… a 12 year old American or European Child without a cell phone and an I-Pod is considered ABUSED when there are 12 year olds in the 2nd and 3rd world getting sick and dying because they don’t have mosquito netting over their bed!! We, as a species, need to pull our heads from our collective butt and realize that the things that 1st world nations deem common are extravagant luxuries for a major portion of this planet.