NEGATIVE EFFECT OF SCIENCE AND ECHNOLOGY

NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Advancements in science and technology have brought many benefits to the society. Advancements in medicine research have caused doctors to come up with cures for deadly diseases. In the 18^th century, doctors were able to come up with the treatment for small pox
(Byrum 59). It helped to save many people who could have died due to the small pox epidemic. The invention of computers also helped to simplify many tasks in the society. Financial analysts are able to make financial predictions using simulation software. Despite the many advantages of science and technology in the society, these advancements have brought negative effects to the society. Scientists have used the advancements of science and technology to manufacture military weapons. Some of the chemical weapons used during wars have caused many innocent people to lose their lives (Vonnegut 64). Science and technology have brought negative effects to the society since harmful weapons were produced during World War and World War II. They are also used in human experimentation, and harmful effects were caused due to the use of computers.

Military scientists have utilized advancements in science and technology to make war equipment. During the World War I, scientists who had the most advanced war equipment were politically stronger compared to their enemies. Machine guns were introduced during the World War I. They had the ability of killing very many people in a battlefield. United States was among the first countries to use machine guns in battle. These guns were driven by gas and they had the ability of firing hundreds of rounds per minute. In addition, military scientists were able to make airplanes that could be used in battle. Examples of these aircrafts included bombers, long-range bombers, and fighters (Ross 61). Military forces started using aircrafts since they knew that they could conduct surprise attacks on the enemy territories. Britain was among the first countries to use aircrafts to conduct attacks during battle. A British company known as Avro produced the 504 in 1914. A pilot called Lieutenant V. Waterfall flew this airplane. As the World War I progressed, scientists from both Britain and Germany produced sophisticated airplanes that were to be used in bombing their enemies. According Ross (81), “Germany produced the Gotha bomber, while Britain produced the Handley Page bomber.” These aircrafts were more accurate compared to the previous aircrafts produced by military scientists. In addition, they carried bombs that caused massive damage when dropped to the ground.

The war equipment that was produced by military scientists had several negative effects on the society. Many soldiers lost their lives during this war. In addition, some of them sustained serious injuries after being attacked by tanks. Statistics from World War I reveal that around 117, 465 casualties were reported (Ross 107). Some soldiers who returned from this war developed a posttraumatic stress disorder. Some of them started having nightmares and sleepless nights after remembering how their fellow soldiers died during  battle. Most of the men in America were required to leave their families so that they would go and fight for their countries. It forced the women in these families to look for work in factories so that they could sustain their families. In some instances, wives became widows after their husbands died during World War I. World War I also affected the education system in most countries that were affected by this war. Some of the schools were bombed by aircrafts during the war. This forced students to miss classes since they feared that they would lose their lives. Kennedy (75) argues, “Public schools also started focusing on patriotism and nationalism instead of instilling knowledge into students.” The above negative effects of World War I were caused due to advancement in science and technology especially in the building of weapons. These advancements helped countries to build weapons of war such as machine guns and aircrafts.

Science and technology have brought harmful effects to society since it was used to manufacture war equipments during the World War II. Nazi scientist invented RocketV-1, buzz bomb, during the World War II. This aircraft was categorized as a guided missile and the Nazi mainly used it in 1944-1945 (Ross 81). This aircraft could be fired from ground sites located in Netherlands to London. The Germans also succeeded in manufacturing V-2. It was also known as the ballistic missile and it had the ability of first flying into space and then landing on its target. This plane was sent to London during the 1944-1945 war, and it killed many innocent civilians. Senker (71) states, “Science and technology also helped the Nazi soldiers to develop a nuclear power program, known as the Nazi Nuclear Program.” Nuclear projects in Germany began after it invaded Poland in 1939. This was after two chemists in this country, Fritz Strassmann and Otto Hahn, discovered how to produce barium (Bishop 93). The army officials in this country started investigating how nuclear energy could be used to produce lethal weapons that could be used in wars. Before the end of the Second World War, Nazi soldiers had succeeded in developing a nuclear reactor. They believed that they could use this reactor to produce the first nuclear bomb with which they can attack countries such as England and France.

It is also during World War II that the Manhattan Project was established. The United States of America started this project in conjunction with Canada and the United Kingdom. This project is famous for producing the first atomic bomb. It had about forty laboratories experimenting on how nuclear fission could be used to produce energy. The first test bomb that was produced by this project was known as Fat Boy. On August 6, 1945, an American Aircraft known as B-29 bomber released the first atomic bomb. This bomb was known as Little Boy. It was detonated in Hiroshima, and its explosion caused about 66,000 deaths (Bishop 131). This bomb was about 9000 pounds in weight. After America released Little Boy, it released a second bomb that was known as Fat Man to Nagasaki. This atomic bomb weighed about 10,000 pounds and it almost destroyed the whole city of Nagasaki. In the book Cat’s Cradle written by Kurt Vonnegut, the author writes about the things American people did during the Hiroshima bombing. Vonnegut (75), “Some of the engineers who participated in the manufacture of the atomic bomb were not proud of the harmful effects that this nuclear weapon brought to the society. During the World War II, Germany also invented a submarine that it used to spy on its foreign enemies. It used the information that was collected by the submarines to conduct surprise attacks against its enemies.

The science and technology that was used in World War II had several negative effects to society. The economy of Japan deteriorated. This is because the atomic bomb destroyed its infrastructure. World War II also affected the Soviet Union. About 40 million people lost their lives due this war (Bishop 71). Germany used its advance weapons to kill civilians in the Soviet Union. In addition, they captured some of the civilians in this country and put them in concentration camps. Some of the citizens of the Soviet Union died because of poor hygiene while they lived in these camps. The relationship between Germany and France also became poor Germany invaded France. Germany expelled the French people living within their borders. Due to this, the United States stated that it would not offer Germany any financial support for rebuilding its economy. International trade between Germany and other countries also became poor. The economic growth of Germany became slow because of this. Many people also became homeless due to the effects of World War II (Senker 82). People were forced to escape from their countries in an attempt of avoiding conflicts. Some of the German soldiers also burnt down the houses of Polish citizens, thus forcing them to become refugees. England was also affected by the bombings that it received from Germany. Businesses in London were destroyed, and this affected the economic growth of England. The United States was forced to provide financial assistance to England in an attempt of reviving its economic growth. The above negative effects of World War II were contributed by major advancements in science and technology. It proves that science and technology can bring negative effects to society.

Scientists also use advancements in science and technology to conduct human experimentation. Such experiments are harmful to human beings since they may have negative effects to the growth and development of people under study. One of the famous human experimentations was known as the monster study (McCuen 64). Wendell Johnson of the University of Iowa conducted this experiment on 22 orphan children. Wendell placed these children into experimentation groups and gave them speech therapy. Half of the children under study were given positive speech therapy, while the other half was given negative speech therapy. Most of the children who received negative speech therapy developed psychological problems. Their self esteem was also lowered and some of them developed speech problems as they grew up (McCuen 124). The Nazi also used advancements in science and technology to conduct human experiments. One of the experiments that they conducted on human beings was the twins experiment. The leader of this experiment was known as Joseph Mengele. He conducted experiments on about 1500 sets of twins. The main aim of the experiment was to establish the differences that occur in twins considering their eugenics and genetics. In addition, these experiments wanted to find out whether the body of human beings could be altered in order to make superior beings. However, most of the twins died during this study. The scientists injected lethal chemicals in their bodies to see whether it would help them change their race. Human experimentation is also shown in the book Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley. Henry Foster, the director of Central London Hatching, shows the students touring this facility how human embryos are produced. He later takes the students to a nursery where infants are reprogrammed in order to make them hate books (Huxley 18). This is because the scientists in this institution wanted to train the infants on the methods that they could use to become successful soldiers.

Human experimentation has brought negative effects to the society. Participants in human experimentation do not interact with other people in the society. This affects their social life since they may not get the social skills that they require in order to interact with other people. In addition, some of the participants in these experiments may die. The experiment may not be safe and this may affect their anatomy (Byrum 52). Human experimentation is also unethical since it treats human beings as objects. Some of these experiments use infants as subjects of the study. The infants are not asked whether they agree to participate in an experiment since they may be too young to understand the concept that is being tested under experimentation (McCuen 157). In some instances, the researcher and the participants in an experiment may have conflict of interests. Conflicts of interest may make the scientists fail to yield good results from the experiment being conducted.

Advancement in technology led to the invention of computers. Computers bring many benefits to society, for example creating job opportunities for computer programmers. However, computers have also brought negative effects to society. Morley (43) claims, “Computers have affected social interaction of young people. Young people prefer to communicate through messages and social media sites instead of face to face communication. Families no longer hold family dinners together since children would rather spend their time chatting with their friends in social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter (McClellan and Dorn 62).

Internet helps to facilitate computer communication. However, the Internet has brought many negative effects to the society. One of these effects is the promotion of pornography. Workers spend their time viewing pornographic images over the Internet instead of doing the tasks of their organization. Pornography encourages teenagers to engage in premarital sex. This may expose teenagers to the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases or becoming pregnant. Pornography also promotes child trafficking since some children are kidnapped and forced to act in pornographic movie (Morley 53). Internet also encourages the spread of piracy. Internet sites such as Pirate Bay offer music and movies for free. This has affected the music industry since musicians are not able to recover the amount of money that they used to produce particular music. Overuse of computers may also expose users to the risk of developing a computer addiction. A person who is a computer addict spends most of his/her time on the computer and forgets about his/her social life. There are many cases when romantic relationships have gone wrong since one of the parties ignores the other party because of spending a lot of time on computers. People who spend a lot of time on computers may end up developing back pains. In addition, such people may have long term sleep deprivation due to spending a lot of time on computers.

Medical experts have also warned that computers may affect children as they grow up. Children may develop visual problems if they spend most of their time playing computer games. They may also develop blurred vision. Psychologists also argue that exposure of computer games to children may make them to become violent in future. Some of the computer games encourage solving of disputes with the use of violence (McClellan 112). In addition, some computer games encourage the use of slang during normal communication.

To conclude, science and technology have brought negative effects to the society since they contributed to the production of harmful weapons during World War I. During this war, military scientists were able to produce machine guns that had the capability of shooting many rounds per minute. In addition, war aircrafts were produced during this period. World War I led to the death of many innocent civilians. In addition, the American education system was affected since students and teachers did not attend school during this war. Scientists produced atomic bombs during World War II. In America, the Manhattan project was started in order to produce atomic bombs that would make America a super power. Fat Man and Little Boy were produced during the Manhattan Project, and they were used to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The economy of Japan deteriorated because of these attacks. Scientists have also used science and technology to conduct human experimentation. Such experiments have caused deaths of many innocent people. Computers have also brought harm to the society since they expose computer users to the risk of addiction.