I am disgusted by tis consumption sosiety but I'm stuck in a question. Consumption is made by advertising.Advertising makes us want to buy something because it is in fashion or it is of newer tecnology. Fashion I believe is bad , because we musn't judge others from the outside but from the inside.But why not buy something wich will make my life easier.Is technology and progress bad? I'm making my own homepage and consumption is one of my subjects

-- Anastasiou Dimitris (jimanas@mailcity.com), February 08, 1998

Answers

without technology we would not be asked to answer this question, unless you drove up here and asked me in person. Better hitch up them mules, and bring a coat, or bear skin or what ever, we just had a blizzard.

-- dona herweyer (jhddi@juno.com), March 21, 1998.

Technology is the worst evil to come around since torture. It is horrible but it is the vice for our progress. Of course our progress now means preparing for our demise as a race but what can we do. We are nothing but mice in a cage so we should just brainlessly sit back and watch. Lets enjoy our internet now because its fun! And let's buy, buy, buy because we're going to die anyway. Who cares about the future anymore? We already know what its going to look like and it sucks!

-- liz K (kami2000@hotmail.com), May 20, 1998.

Technology is everything. Without it youd still be sitting in your hut stinking like a firepit going ungabunga ungabunga ungabunga ungabunga (not a very good conversation huh....

-- Joe Tool (joetool@hotmail.com), October 15, 1998.

I hope your comfortable in your potato sack. Would you prefer that all of us walk around in Wal-Mart Clearance Clothes? Human beings natural tendancy is to make judgement in the first 3 seconds of meeting someone and as you know the first impression is the most important. So those of us that care to make a good one we will continue consuming. There are some exceptions though, I have never met you but already your first impression is bad.

-- Judy Jettson (wasupnow@aol.com), January 16, 1999.

technology sucks mann. cant download 1080i movie from www. cant clone my dog online before she die. cant goto some space like the www.nsa.gov/info/top-secret/how-to- clone-human/index.html and like past cyberspace now in recycle bin or future cyberspace like www.starwars.com/saga-xi/episode- ix/default.html cant turn grass and water and soil into cow with ie5 (nano/pico technology still sucks) cant put wireless 1,000,000 baseT nic or solid state harddrive in my brain. cant smell cK one hundred and fifteen with netscape. i have to go now. i have to build a matrix for my 15 pet fish on the 13th floor.

-- chris chan (chrischan@ragemail.com), May 27, 1999.

I'm totally with Joe Tool!! Hes right!! Without technology,we wouldnt be where we a now with cures for diseases, computers to answer this question, and we wouldnt be as smart too. I'm doing a report for my world history class and our teacher asked if technology is good or bad. I think that I already know my answer. but there is a downside to it, companies and industries are wrecking our enviornment every minute of the day, killing animals and the enviornment they need to live in. so i guess what im coming down to is that technology helps us, but not others.

-- Roxy Fox (idont@wantpeopletoemailme.thanks), November 15, 2000.

Technology itself is not bad, it is the people that use and abuse it. Society needs to look at technology at different angles and realize that there are problems with it. Someone should also start a help group for technology junkies, a field that is forever growing.

-- David Rogers (wish_you_had_one@hotmail.com), March 08, 2001.

do you people really think there's only two ways about this. why does it have to be so black and white. technology is human development and is the outlet for our creative process. to do away with that is to deny us our humanity. but to advance to the detriment of any other kind of life around us is to ensure our demise as well. why can't we have both with some kind of justifiable balance?

-- marilyn hillarious (mhillarious@mailcity.com), March 29, 2001.

You dou's are so wrong. Technology is a double edged sword. In the future I see a person sitting on a couch with his internet/TV with which he can order his groceries, watch porn, talk to his mom and take college classes. He will never need to get off the couch and grow obese beyond belief. But thanks to technology, he can get his arteries unclogged and lipo the fat right out of him so he can start the vicious cycle again. Is that our future!!?? Our eyes sunken in from countless sleepless nights on internet! Wondering what the sky looks like? Wondering when the new version of Windows in coming out???

-- Jimmy Havok (JHavok@phunmail.com), April 10, 2001.

i beleive technology lies within the people who use it. And weither you agree or not there will always be the smart people who don't use technology no matter how great it will get. technology can take jobs and it can give them, it can feed people and it can starve them, it can make you smart and it can make you dumb. I think that tech has done the damage like pollution and illiteracy, but if we leave tech behind these problems will continue to grow bigger and bigger, so the only soulotion is to fix it with technology itself. Our demise is inevitable but with technology to carry us like the mighty hercules we just may merly escape our own shadowie fate we brought upon OURSELFES.

-- rick miller (salsa_boy_2@yahoo.com), April 10, 2001.

Calloused hearts, hands and spirits--- destroy with delight. by an: Empowered Spirit People everywhere are starting to question this great illusion that civilization has imposed upon us daily for the past 10,000 years. You would think that after a few million years of nearly constant equalibrium in a cycle so ever connecting would be hard to break, but it did. It broke iconoclastically and instrumentally. One of the main instruments compelling this cape and curtain tale was that of the first symbolizations and first mediations of perceived reality through art, time, language, numbers and then a huge explosion into a totalitarian and systematic deathwish upon all cultures through agriculture and domestication. This lapse is a mere 1% fold in the known history of the humyn existence, but its a very catastrophic and self-destructive one. Resistance has come from many directions and many forms since its conception and just now are we realizing its globally destructive effects. We need to realize first, that it is an epidemic, a ritual that bound itself into our everyday lives, and that the main instrument behind this force is a megamachine known as technology. Technology created a technocracy and an overture in reality. When questiong an instrument of technology you must question the experiencial imposition and its countenance with its environment. In Televisions case there is always a dictator and a subserviant mass. Whether it be in the production of a television or its parts, the laborers have no real need for the tv parts, and produce them ill fatedly or fall sacrificially to unemployed status and/or receive discrimination. Also, there is the imposition on the environment, whereas local life of course does not get a say in whether the resources extracted are needed there, or for production purposes. Then there is the imposition and dismissal of the environment the television carries out during its operating times. The environment that it takes over is subserviant to its usage, appropriating a specified amount of resources dependent on its use, whereas it controls the domicile it resides in. Such a product that controls so much of your living expenses, time and amusement must assuredly be fueled by your own participation and allocation of your energy, yet rather it creates its own fuel from yourself and those laboring at its expense. Whether you decide to turn it on or off is your decision, this supposedly is a certainty except when looking at its determinant these technologies must actually appropriate themselves to be used at all times otherwise disparaging its use and fundamentalism. With each technology there is also a pending advancement of the mediated reality. Where as spoken word was triumphed by writing, writing by printing press, printing press by television, television by computation. In each mediation the succession of each technology cancels out its former and abolishes the usage of such former technologies rendering them almost obsolete to the majority of society. Each succession of technology is its own heirarchy, and in order for its usage to pervade its purpose it must recall the former information and history in a way that supposes its usage. Technology in each succession also lets us forget, it creates a his/herstorical context and reificaition that we must also become subserviant to. Which also brings us to the next point about information. Information is spread out among so many different networks that it makes it only useful to specialize in one or two forms of communication. Technology when put into these terms is not subserviant to humyns like we think it is, it always follows these terms of successions and heirarchies. Tools on the other hand have their individually crafted and immediate usage. Inventors of technologies do not merely scrape the metals and combust the silicon covers of computers out of their backyards, they must obtain these resources from an environment not of their own. They use what is not immediate and handy but what is obtained. Tools make use of the environment in which they are in and may then devolve back into the environment after its use. A tool serves its purpose and then may later take its predisposition once again. Take a wall for example, built in a single sitting by a group of people. The wall serves its purpose made up of materials that precede its organic and formidable makeup. Then may be taken down exactly how it was put up. A bridge of wood once broken and unhemmed will fall into the ravine, float down river and help with the forming of a dam by local beavers, or its pieces of dried vines, wood and bark will make themselves of use to another part of the environment in either mulch or a watershed. Another tool for example, complex in its use and formation such as the double bladed axe, this tool requires the same amount or more intelligence of the dynamics of gravitational pull on each succeeding swing of its equally weighted sides. Made out of stone, wood and rope it can be easily thrown back into its place on the earth just as easily as it was picked up, even easier with a long throw. Technologies implement impositions of state. Technology is backed by an entire system of techniques in which it recreates mediations all the time. Agriculture is a great example, a mass breeding of once wild animals must be controlled, contained and dispelled of their instinctiveness, and left docile in an environment not appeasing or appetizing to their natural instincts. Plants are also left the same way, they are hybridly mixed many times over to produce an unstable variant of a single plant that then must adapt to a constantly changing environment and produce themselves many times over their regular sprouting season. Agriculture only works with allocation of massive amounts of energy concentrating on a single task. Of course their is a heirarchy built in this also, a division of labor between workers as well as one that divides those that consume and those that produce. Technology in these examples appropriates what is not already available and put under its control and domination. Industrialism, being the most harmfully induced revolution of technologies to ever be created. It requres such an efficient production and reproduction of materials and products that its resources must be plundered to keep up with its stability and progress. And yet again division of labor becomes an even more widening gap as production requires even more rigorous tasks of specialization. These implications so far have left humyn life in the same wave of suffering as the environment in which they live in toils. We have been burdened by domestication just as the animals and plants were, our brains and biology rendered obsolete by succeeding technologies which inevitably through its successions and mediations make us passive and undeniably mere cogs in a machine that runs our lives. We are slaves to technology and they are the hand that feeds the cradle, our planet is still being murdered, unless we rid ourselves of its intrinsic copulation of domination. We need to look back and look forward at the many gatherer-hunter tribes that still survive today, without technology. Living in harmony with their environment, free from disease, war, drugs, famine, a teenage suicide rate that is unimaginable, global warming and global melting, genocides of all sorts, without religious occultness and dogmatism. Living side by side and in subsistence with the growing world around them. Taking what they needed to survive and nothing more. This is not a dream, but a distant reality. A reality that we have forgetton, one that we remember when we need their land to subdue and create more shopping malls in place of their sacred sanctuaries. Through the help of modern anthropology and paleopathology we have discovered what we lost in the great takeover. We lost a spirituality that circumvented the essences of natures excitement and lore. A desire to live and love those around us. And we are losing precious time everyday. A catastrophe looks very plausible and inevitable due to the extremity of our incognition of this reality. But there is hope, there are kids fighting back and people that say no to Prozac. Calls of wild inspiration and creative insurrection awaits. We must take back the land that has been subdued and turned into a wasteland. We must take back our minds from becoming hollowed creators of more technologies and even worse, after inventing these machines we watch them destroy us and our environment, in accidents like bhopal, on purpose like agent orange and through daily submission of our bodies to a Leviathanic technocracy. Trying to force positives out of morose technologies is what we've been doing for 10,000 years. Telling ourselves that some good could come out of all this. The same way we try to defend another technologically innovative system called government by adding more roadblocks in humyn freedom called laws. We beg our leaders for mercy of our children, the same way we tell the developers to stop cutting down forests. We know they hear us, but what do we expect them to do, stop production? Telling them to stop will do nothing because they are part of the machine, they are merely tools of replication. Like the copy machine for printed information. Destroying these machines is the only way we can finally realize our connectedness and that the impetus called civilization is destroying our environment and ourselves day in and day out, nine to five, twenty-four hours a day seven days a week for the rest of our lives. Fight back not based on conscience but on reaction, as if your mother was being raped, as if your spirit was being sprawled upon, as if your hands are dripping blood from inexorable labor. Imagine yourself having to watch your family, your community and your environment die off in the same way everyday, the sad side of this nightmare scenario is that it is happening. Children are dying of malnutrition, our families are disentegrating into medicine cabinets and cancerous diseases, our communities and friends are pillaging and thieving from their own neighbors and our ancestors, kin in this game of life are perishing in factory farms on tract land and an endangered species list that is too big to comprise. I have only one message to us all. Disorganize, live off of instinct, use what energy, passion and explicit means of encapturing reality you have left, to in turn create a desirable future that satisfies your needs of your body and mind as well our spiritual and obvious biological connection to mother earth, rather than the needs of a disembodied and artificially comprised machine. Destroy what destroys you. Release the mounting torment of 10,000 years of repression and denial. Hit your targets, they are many. They lie in the false desires of capacitated freedom. Fire and brimstone are tools of our revolution, of our passion and paralysis. We will decapitate the Leviathan, and make sure of its extinction. This is a struggle and soon a a triumph, Against Civilization. "In defense of all that is magically real, natural and erotic. For the destruction of the grave, dominating and despotic"

-- joe shmoe (plantingtheseedsofrevolution@yahoo.com), April 18, 2001.

Technology was good, and them came micro$oft

-- Santana Shilling (lenny@thwt.com), May 29, 2001.

Technology doesn't rule our lives. Until the day comes when humans can't turn the computer button off, we still have overall say and control in what happens to us and what we choose to do. More people in the world live without technology than those who live with it. They may no have the quality of life of those in the western world but who is to say there existance is meaningless because of this. I believe that technology simply makes our lives a little easier and more interesting.

-- Tamie Rose (tamietamara@hotmail.com), July 25, 2001.

Luddite; I typed that word with a word processor.

-- aaa (a@anon.com), August 31, 2001.

Technology=progress=the slow end to our human prosperity. Technology is what is destroying people, even if it isn't killing them. It is killing true nature, the core of the human heart. Since when are our souls truly happy immersed in some brain-washing tv show and teeny- pop boy band on a radio singing about the current "life-threatening" dilemmas? Rarely is found someone who actually takes time to think about these problems. What is the purpose of current technology? For entertainment and to make life easier for us, so we can be lazy, so we don't have to work, so we won't have to think. Not to even mention the physical destruction. Isn't anyone a bit worried about how much war is going on these days...and how many countries have nuclear weapons? Technology will destroy us. We will destroy ourselves.

-- Lisa is Cool (stclmr12@hotmail.com), November 04, 2001.

Tech rules

-- Person People (person@people.pop), November 30, 2001.

tecnology is rapidly consuming our morality our dignity and our humanity. it has made us capable of killing each other and endulging in activities that shames our existence.

-- javid (jimanas@mailcity.com), December 04, 2001.

technology is good because of the style that we live in. I bet most of you chumps would never give up your air-conditioners or your heaters. Lets not forget microwaves and your video games. If it wasn't for technology the common cold would have been the death to you all. You fools don't have any idea what you are talking about until you deprive yourself of your "luxuries" or technology.

-- wish u knew (fu@goodtechnology.com), December 11, 2001.

nobody can really say that technology is really straight good or straight bad. it has helped us in many ways and it has hurt us in many ways. for example it helps protect our lives, like planes and bombs, but it also kills many of us off because of the replacement of people with technology many people are in poverty.

-- iam notgonna tellya (woulndulike2know@nunya.com), December 13, 2001.

Technology is neither good nor bad. There are good qualities to technology but there are also the opposite. The world without technological advancements would not be as productive as it is today. But, there are things about technology, including the Internet, that do not generate positive outcomes, depending on the individuals using them. (this was my intro paragraph for an essay at school) bye

-- Sarah Nicole (sarahnicole03@aol.com), December 18, 2001.

i personally think technology is a good thing but humans need to learn how to control it,not to use to much of one technology, i know it's hard but it's possible

-- sara ????????? (sarafencinggurl@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002.

Being smarter than the tools we make and undestanding thier limits can bring a better understanding of technology.

-- Balarama Perkins (bp2jhc@yahoo.com), January 16, 2002.

right now instead of doing my freshman project i have to warn you all the Elton is coming because of technology the apocalypse perhaps might be prolonged if we stop the evil MrJoHn and always and forever follow our great leaders Mikey Jack and LC!!! if u do not listen to me the world will bcum the vile muck of Napolean!!! follow snowball forever do not let the techies fool u they r the right hand men of the john and the rat who thinks he is cat hav u heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon? that is all because of technology!!! The Rat looks @ his computer and meows this is what this mess of wires and circuits has done to society do not bleev farmer joe or Mr john they r out to get u w/ their technology LOONG LIVE MIKEY JACK

-- LC porpoise jorge jimmy chipmunk dashikir squirely sprakly clam queen toonie (nikegurl13@aol.com), February 14, 2002.

hello all you lovely people, guess what? technology is evil. it will possess you. i agree with joe shmoe. technology is taking away my child hood. As a girl of 14 I would like to say that technology can strip you of your true self. It will bear down on you trying to make your dog do new tricks and have you love elton john. say it with me comrads....DOWN WITH MR JOHN UP WITH GREENDAY AND MICHAEL JACKSON. I LOVE THEM DEARLY. WHOPTOPTEEDOP.... WE WILL ROCK YOU SOCK YOU PICK YOU UP AND DROP YOU.

-- watchurselfandurbackifurthatflexible (neversaymyname@hocuspocus.com), February 14, 2002.

Technology has improved our world in many ways it has given many people life. The new technology of removing canorous tumors has saved many lives. Here are some of the many uses of technology: one of them is the information highway (the internet) has made any information available to students or anyone if they wanted to do any research or just need to find something out. Also technology has helped to increased security since 9-11-01. As well as helping us connect people and cultures all over the world. The health of our world is in the hand of scientists to use technology to find cures for new disuses such as ADIS. Technology means to use science to for commercial or industrial objectives. This means many of the things we consider to be needed in life are bad that seems to be unreasonable. Although people have said cell-phones and computers can cause brain damage there have been studies that show that cell-phones can cause no brain damage (unless you are in an accident when using a cell-phone). One of the many ways technology has connected the world through e-mail. I could send and e-mail to someone in China and it would take just as long for him or her to get it as if I was sending an e-mail to a next-door neighbor. E-mails also do not get lost in the mail so you don?t have to worry about that. Technology has made available many new medicines. All of which would not have been available if not for technology.

-- Ksas galot (anyghing@aol.com), March 07, 2002.

When we talk about the future, we are really talking about the past, the past is all we know, from the past we can see the line of process occuring. Ask yourself where are we headed? where is technology taking us? any smart human being can tell that there is no positives to technology, even if we were still sitting in a cave, at least we ALL would be happy, and isn't that the main thing and the world would be a grand place for everything and everyone. i think technology is selfish!!! we are trying to improve our lifes not thinking of the future.

-- why be selfish???? (what about god@theotherside.com), March 09, 2002.

Technology is evil in the hands of evil people. It's good in the hands of good people. Since the world has both, it's a double-edged sword. How can people say technolgy is evil if they are typing up answers to the question. Computers are technology. If it wasn't for technolgy, humans would be dead. Simple as that.

-- Bob Heger (Gamer8522@aol.com), March 11, 2002.

Human nature... what is human nature?...You can see in the world that is here and now is corrupt and evil. We watch with our technology by our side as brother kills brother and sister kills sister. that my friend is human nature. Pride. selfishness. Greed. these are all human nature. why you ask ? we want the lastest and the greatest technology to make our life easier. you take away our first and true nature; to be one with nature.

-- Jordan Davis (jwd518@hotmail.com), March 12, 2002.

I totally agree with David Rogers. I'm currently doing an essay on this topic, and your answers are well thought out. I'm glad that I found this site. I had already decided to use David's point before I found this site, so I am glad that I someone agrees with me. Technology has provided mass healing and mass destruction in recent centuries, and has "helped" us as much as it has "hindered" us, and therefore I have to agree that it has soley to do with the heart of the user. In that way, even if we were using pitch forks instead of nuclear missiles, we would still have world wars, disputes, terrorism, etc.

-- Mark Peters (light_of_the_world@hotmail.com), March 26, 2002.

Anyone who is anti-technology, please add me to their msn messanger or ICQ. My email is captainskull@hotmail.com, my name is Lino Bollansee. Or just email me so we can talk about it!

-- Lino Bollansee (captainskull@hotmail.com), April 04, 2002.

technology makes things easier. As a species we are gettin lazier. technology isnt a remedy for laziness. it makes it worse. but is that so bad? whats wrong with being lazy. u get fat or unhealthy, technology will eventually have a remedy for that too. everyone could go on about this forever.it is an issue that we always will have our own opinion on.embrace whats good.fuck the bad shit.

-- mike rusen (mikerusen@hotmail.com), April 04, 2002.

I don't have much time to write this so I'll be brief. Technology is a good thing if we use it the right way. Without it we would be killed by things that are not takin seriously today like the common cold. But if we use it in thw wrong way, such as cloning and stuff, our individuality and all that crap will get screwed up. I'm know because i'm reading brave new world. cya

-- pouchow (snafu132@hotmail.com), April 05, 2002.

i hate technology and i hate you

-- kenny frank (kenny69_b@yahoo.com), April 19, 2002.

i think technology has help us a lot. With out it we would still be riding horses and eating raw meat. Now im going to go ave a 16 ounce juicy steak

-- oz (britfan69@hotmail.com), April 19, 2002.

It is not the technology that is good or bad, it is the person behind the technology!

-- A. M. Maxson (maxsonam@msu.edu), April 22, 2002.

I think that technology is good. For you people who doesn't like technology think about these things: how do youget the clothing that you're wearing right now, how do you send your email to someone, what does the dentist take to check your teeth, when you go to hospital does the doctors do everything by hand, when you have some free time want do you look at (THE TELEVISION), what do you use when you have to research on homework, what do you use to make your work look more professional, when you have to go some where do you ride a donkey? I GUESS NOT, THINK about everything in this world almost everything is technology. It's faster, more convenient and it saves our lives. HIS IS NOT EVERYTHING THAT TECHNOLOGY DOES THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING I'M TALKING ABOUT.

-- Indira Seepersaud (Fe_13indira@Hotmail.com), April 28, 2002.

it's all a trade off. *think about adam and eve. knowledge for innocence.... *all technology comes from fire so get rid of fire?? no. only when technology is invisable is it of any use. technology is not an means to an ends. just some random thoughts.... here is a section from a paper i recently wrote: The rise in technology and self-consciousness has caused humanity more discontent than content. The rationalization of society has caused the degradation of human fulfillment and happiness. Laws we have made to keep order and stay safer have caused unhappiness and the loss of personal freedom. The rise in technology has caused us to live in a “risk society”, where all natural fears, the majority of them, have been elevated, but we seem to be more scared. We fear many things caused by the rise in technology, such as population growth, total war, ecological problems, drugs and even unprotected sex. The comforts of technology have ripened human conditions so attention can be put into understanding ourselves. In recent years we have developed our understandings of psychology and sociology so that we understand the problems and believe we can formulate a solution to them, yet the human unhappiness is more prevalent then ever. We create technology for our kids, so that they may develop faster and be more entertained, when in fact we are depriving them of many other natural things, fundamental to their development. All this shows how the further we get away from a natural state, the state we were originally in, the more problems we have. In return for the problems, we become more knowledgeable and mobile, basically getting the ability to form our own destinies. Ironically, the more we try to make our destinies better the worse they seem to get. as for the advertizing question.... here are some quotes that i've saved from a soiology book i have... there quite intresting...

.::dreary soul-killing materialism::.

Our modern enviornment assails us relentlessly, especially in the citys, with its lights and tis images, its incessant inducemtns to status consciousnetss and carcissism, emotional involvemt and involvement and oblicatory relationships. We live in a cold-blooded carnival atmosphere, a forl yet electrifying ambience of empty sensual gratification wherein the actual process of buying and consuming is demonstrated, iluminated, mimicked even frustraded much as the sexual act is anticipated by dance. By means of advertising, as once upon a timeby means of feasts, society puts itself on display and consumes its own image. Jean Baudrillard - advertising - social theory p 384

And what would citiizens be if objects and products were not proposed to them in the twin dimentsions of advertizing and choice? they would not be free. p 385

-- ben K (ibben@zworg.com), May 02, 2002.

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My Postal address:

Pilla Naga Srinivasa Rao, Jillellamudi Vari Lane, Eastern Street, Eluru-534001, Andhra Pradesh-India.

-- Pilla Srinivas ( Pilla Naga Srinivasa Rao ) (hollywood_boy_21@hotmail.com), July 04, 2002.

Is technology good or bad? This is a very interesting question. In order to give a good answer to this question, we would have to have a solid understanding of what technology really is. The word technology means literally:

"The application of science, especially to industrial or commercial objectives"

The application of science. It doesn’t seem like a complete definition. Especially if we don’t really know what science is. Since technology is defined as the application of science, we must know what science is first. So... Science is defined as:

"The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena."

Well, this is interesting. Now we are getting somewhere. Science is basically the observing and taking notes of phenomena. Now we need to understand another word... Phenomena. In order to understand science we must understand what it is we are looking at. Now phenomena is defined as:

"An occurrence, circumstance, or fact that is perceptible by the senses."

Now... Do we have enough information to have a real understanding of what technology is? Let us retrace our steps. Technology is the application of science. Science is the observation of phenomena. And phenomena is anything we can perceive. SO a more all-encompassing definition of technology might be:

"The application of the results acquired by the observation and investigation of the world in which we perceive."

It is interesting to note that the concept of technology is ultimately based on what we perceive by our senses. So often technology is thought of as detrimental to that aspect of ourselves which senses the world. So often technology is seen as dulling our senses. As confining us to cubicles, and factories. As destroying the beauty around us with roads and pollution and the like.

Perhaps it is not technology that is affecting our world and causing us to confine ourselves to a place in which the senses are hindered. Maybe it is the other way around. Could it be that it is the way we perceive the world that is causing us to create technology that propagates this world view. Since technology is the result of the way in which we perceive the world, then it seems safe to assume that the technology we have today is a result of the way in which its creators perceived the world when they were creating it. Likewise, the technology we ourselves are creating today will reflect the way we perceive the world right now.

Now back to our question of whether technology is good or bad. Since the source of technology lies ultimately in the way we perceive the world, then, it is there, at the source, where we may find an answer. Technology is a reflection of human perception. It is the sculpture of every day life. It is the use of atoms and molecules as the ultimate art. Technology actually comes from the Greek word “tekhnologi ” which means “systematic treatment of an art or craft”. Therefore, know this we also know that technology is as good or as bad as the creators perception of the world. If the perception of the world is flawed, then technology will be flawed. If the perception of the world is in tune with the human spirit and all that is good and beneficial for mankind… Then the technology that ensues will be good.

-- trajan (trajan11@pacbell.net), September 12, 2002.

i think technology is good in some ways because it help human being to progress in the world and without technology would we be getting minerals easier than before i dont think so.

By the way if you have aol aim my sn in chillinvilin23@aol.com peace

-- Miguel magaclas (scartissue23@yahoo.com), September 18, 2002.

technology is good in some ways because it help human being to progress in the world and without technology would we be getting minerals easier than before i dont think so.

By the way if you have aol aim my sn in chillinvilin23@aol.com peace

-- Miguel magaclas (scartissue23@yahoo.com), September 18, 2002.

no it isnt

-- Bloods thicker than water (Bloods thicker than water@foubour.com), September 29, 2002.

People very often debate whether technology is good or bad. Many people believe that technology can only cause harm to their lives and society, while many others strongly defend the technologies which have made their lives much more leisurely and enriching than it could have been several hundred years ago. In my opinion, both of these views are correct to an extent, but I also believe that what should be examined is not whether technology in its self is good or bad, but rather how we as humans use it.

For decades now, television has been accused of contributing to the dissolution of the American family and the destruction of the minds of those who watch it. However, although the TV has been involved in this, the problem roots not with technology but rather the people who choose to let it run their lives. I believe this because it is parents, not TV sets, who choose to let their children sit in front of the television for hours upon hours, and it is the parents who do not intervene and replace TV time with quality family time. Technology has also been blamed for destroying the minds of adults who spend too much time watching it, but in fact, the blame should lie on what programs a person watches or the person who chooses to watch it continuously. Hence, the television is only a contributing factor in family problems and mind destruction. It is the bad judgment of the people who watch television or let their children watch it who should be blamed for these harms, not technology.

Another topic that comes to mind when technology is discussed is the household appliances that have evolved in the last century. Refrigerators, gas and electric ovens, microwaves, vacuums, dishwashers....the list goes on and on. All these things have made housework tremendously easier than it would have been about 100 years ago. This results with both positive and negative effects. It has given us easier ways to get jobs done, leaving more time for other things, but the bad part of this is what is chosen to do in this extra time. In many cases, this extra time is spent doing leisurely things, which might make us more happy, but also has an effect on our health. Lately we have become aware of the dangers of heart disease and the health benefits of exercise....the exercise we would have gotten 100 years ago just from doing our daily chores but now aren’t getting enough of because we don’t have to work as hard to do those same chores. This can be blamed on technology, but again, in fact it is our own fault because we chose to use the technology and spend the extra time lazing around.

Now, something that really bothers me about technology is what is made out of it. I often question why people spend so much time and money trying to come up with so many useless things when we have global warming problems and starving children working in shoe factories. For example, scientists spent years to make a clone of a sheep. Now let me ask you, is their any practical use in knowing how to clone a sheep? Many people think that eventually this scientific advancement will lead into the cloning of humans, but again, what is the point? I feel strongly that nothing good can come from that. Instead, I think scientists should be using technology to come up with things that can greatly help the majority of the world’s population and make the world a better place.

It seems technology has brought both useful and pointless things into our lives which has contributed to making them better as well as causing negative affects upon them. As we live in this information age with new products and discoveries coming to us everyday, we must remember to use our best judgment to decide what technologies are good and which could be harmful. We must also remember that what ever technology does to our lives, technology in itself is not to blame, but rather how we used it.

-- M.Ravi (mullapudiravi@yahoo.com), October 09, 2002.

I think the solution to this question is that technology is neither good nor bad. Technology can be either, it just must have some of both in it. For example, television can be a problem for some people, considering that most things on tv are unpure shows and ludicrous movies that are shameful to a persons' eyes, but on the other hand, television has some educational purposes, such as: Discovery Channel, National Geographic movies, and shows for children to learn more about nature, and reading, and important things like that. There are many types of technology that have been developed, such as new ways to produce better cars, purer water, safer foods, but depending on how people use technology is up to them whether it becomes safe, or isn't. To me it isn't a question of is technology good or bad, it's a question of how people are going to use technology.

-- Candice Mendenhall (ThinkativeOne@msn.com), October 16, 2002.

I think that technolgy is very good, because all of our lives depend on it one way or another. From the day we are born we start using technolgy. For the people who say technology is a bad thing, I think that they are stupid because what if they were very sick, they would need ann ambulance, and medical attention, all of which uses technolgy. I also think that when people say that they are becoming fat because of technolgy, they are also stupid. Unless they eat their computer, they need to learn to control what to put in their mouth. And when they say that they are not excersisng because of technology, I think it stupider, because all they need to do is turn off their computer and take a walk.

-- Anita Karran (anita_angel23@hotmail.com), October 16, 2002.

hello I am the boss of technology i think technology is so suck and make me sick. People using technology to make a nuclear bomb, then ready to bomb the world country. and your ready to DIE for sure. dont say technology is good. Internet got virus everywhere so be carefully before virus get fuck your stupid ass little computer!!!

-- Lil Dragon (lil_dragon65@hotmail.com), October 20, 2002.

FUCK YOU BITCH. EAT SHIT

GO TAKE A BATH WITH YOUR MOM L

SEX WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND

-- Unknown Gangsta (gangstafucker@aol.com), October 20, 2002.

LC is really an evil sea witch best watcha back! She looks like a harmless innocent gangsta, however she is really a gothic evangelist ursula!! Beware my children of the naked dancing poodles and the naked dancing llama obsessed w/ frolicking. "DONT JUST STAND THERE!!! FROLICK!!!" Naked Dancing Llama. He lives in Cuzco, just like the monk - santa claus- simmons informs us cuz Cuzco is the emperor's sunshine palace. As a 15 year old chipmunk I would like to say that Technology allows people everywhere to be able to get on the computer looking for info on whether technology is good or bad and get a buncha babble about frolicking. DONT BEAT BOX around my questions dagnabbit. MOOOOOOOOO hehe. Scary skwerl world is the BESTEST. Visit it and say "HI" to my fave skwerl dashiki!! luv jimmy

-- Boney climb a tree (yummygrasshoppaz@SkwerlsRevil.com), October 31, 2002.

Technology is great. Programs on computers make simple things even easier. Technology in hospitals to. The technology in hospitals save lives and helps people recover faster. It helps people learn and things like cars can get you from point A to point B in much less than a third of the time without.

-- Hash (zorgmaster@hotmail.com), October 31, 2002.

There is no exact answer to this question. Without bad there'd be no good and there will always be bad, technology is just something more to add to their arsenal. Although it can be used both ways, so its a huge cycle it will never end unless you get rid of both, which will happen eventually so it works out all the same. But what is bad and good different conceptions or out looks of anything. I guess its just what is right to someone is wrong to someone else and vise versa. So technology, depending on how it's used and what they think is right, decides weather its’ used right or wrong.

-- sad ugly kid (sad_ugly_kid_69@yahoo.com), November 04, 2002.

I think technology is good and bad. Its bad cuz it makes everthing easiear for you and doesn't make you do much work! Its good cuz it helps with things that you are unable to do. ~~~~~~~~Tayyaba

-- Tayyaba Toseef (tayyaba9@yahoo.com), November 12, 2002.

I get tired of people that say technology is straight up bad. It is not. Maybe those kind of people just need to be be removed from the city-life and go live on a farm somewhere. No, wait - even farms have lots of technology. If you think that technology is bad push the little "power" button on your computer, get up and go do something more productive with your time. Technology helps us out a lot more than we know. If we actually took the time to think about it, we would realize that technology has become the norm in society, but we have taken advantage of it. So I guess that maybe we just need a break from the rush of clicking our "mice" and tapping our keyboards at 50wpm. Technology has given a lot of people life. If you go up to those people and say: "Technology is bad". They are most likely going to slap you in the face (with words and maybe even physically) then tell you that your full of poo. It just depends on the person that it viewing the subject: "Technology". Good and bad. It's the same with people. There has to be good and there has to be bad.

-- Doran *Dorknob* (dhnlts@hotmail.com), November 20, 2002.

without technology there wouldnt be vaccines etc. people would be dying, i agree with the person that said it was a double edged sword, there are numerous, uncountable amounts of pros to technology, in fact, i think there are more pros than cons to technology since it helps the environment, makes people happy....etc problem is people, arent enojoyning nature, the real world not the virtual world as long as people keep their culture and stay intact in the real world technology is pretty good we have a large power in our hands, we gotta learn how to use it.

-- Jim Doyle (spiralspektrum00@hotmail.com), December 03, 2002.

Look technology does have both its good and bad points. But I just have to say some of you people need to maybe learn english, learn how to spell, or whatever is neccessary because if your going to put your opinion out there at least help it sound semi-intelligent. Now I believe most of you must be out of high school but just to let you know I'm not. I'm a senior in a horrible Philadelphia public school where people that sound a lot like you make me look like Thomas fuckin' Edison. Now after you finish reading this silently talk shit about me to yourself

-- Ceej (cvenom1224c@aol.com), December 20, 2002.

These days who can live without it, Technology Rules! From switching on the light, turning up the heat; simpler yet damaging. No more chopping woods or heating up water over an open fire pit. These are so far off in our generation (21st century), its sad to see this. In general - Adapt or be killed (Surivival of the Fittest!).

-- VSY (sweetyazhi2000@hotmail.com), January 23, 2003.

I find it funny that you are arguing whether technology is good or bad on the internet. Surely that's not right? Technology is useful to us, and helps us to survive. We could not live wuthout technology. However we should try and not rely on it so much, as I find it isn't always reliant.

-- Oliver Firth (firtho@hotmail.com), February 24, 2003.

For those of you who think technolgy is so bad, then why are you using the internet(which is technology) to tell us this?

-- jw (ferret250@hotmail.com), March 05, 2003.

well i agree wit jw or whatever his name was an with out technology we would be stuck an u wouldnt be on the comp readin this message. it is advertised for reasoning...tell me what kind of tooth paste do u buy an how did u hear bout it...TV...whether it is aquafresh or colgate everything is advertised an whatever u have in your bathroom for brushing ur teeth an washing ur hair u saw on tv.

-- Bi-Sexual Dyme (hotlips012588@hotmail.com), March 19, 2003.

Why must aruba's cat population suffer for the tastiness of their fur earmuffs to forton? NO MAS! when will i receive my secksee midget skwerls?? ever?? soon? maybe if the midget wasnt such a pansy... and when shall my hick fish arrive? will i be the godparent by then? why am i so hungry? why do i have the stange urge to devour sam's face?

-- purple haired snake w/ spoons for hands (jorgeisecksee@yummysnakes.com), March 26, 2003.

i agree with Bi-Sexual Dyme (cool name by the way).

-- Sarah M. (tizzymellon05@aol.com), April 07, 2003.

Technology rocks!

-- Amisha Patel (Amisha_2257@i_luv_india.com), April 08, 2003.

TECHNOLOGY IS GOOD AND BAD, BUT MOSTLY AWESOME I CANT BELIEVE ALL U DEPRESSIONIST WHO SAY WE ALL GONNA DIE ENJOY LIFE STOP BENG HOMOS I DONT EVEN NO Y IM STUPID ENOUGH TO ANSWER TO THIS GAY PROPAGANDA OMG OMG OMG STOP TELLIN THE WORLD BAD THINGS PEOPLE LIGHTIN UP OMG OMG

-- sllsdf;sdj (alsdlfsld@slflsd.com), April 08, 2003.

Technology it self isnt bad or good. Its how it is used that makes it good or bad. Technology has given us so much and yet taken it to. Though i believe, many more years down the track we will learn the right thinks to use it for. Until then, we must learn from our mistakes. It is apart of our life no matter if we like it or not, we must learn to live with it.

-- Joel Manning (stixerdamixer@hotmail.com), April 09, 2003.

First-I have bad spelling too, but please spell check before you put anything on your website. Second-Are you asking about consumption or progress? I'll answer both: Consumption is not bad but you seem to have made up your mind about that already. You are disgusted by the consumption society but you are PART of it. Have you bought anything ever? Of course you have. Consumption is necessary for anyone with a job and even people without jobs. Without consumption no one will make any money and our society is based on money. If you are disgusted in money then you should say so but you didn't so I'm not going to get into that.

Of course progress isn't bad. You make progress do you not? Well no kidding. If you didn't you wouldn't have been able to put together the letters that you used to form sentences to ask us this question. Ever since you were born you have been progressing. It's human nature. You HAVE to progress. Even people who are mentally challenged progress. Because people progress so early to until they die, they naturally bring progression on the world. Technology comes from progression. It is inevitable. Live with it. It's human's problem that they become corrupted with power and that technology brings power to its creator. Technology isn't bad-the people who don't know how to use it wisely are.

-- Me (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.woooo), April 14, 2003.

technology is good because now handicapped can walk and blind can see but it is also bad cause it causes pollution

-- Student (cantgive@no.com), May 01, 2003.

All you people who think technology is all evil....Look at how you wrote that answer. Your writing an e-mail on a computer to a webpage. Last time i checked all of the above were technological devices.

-- cait (Iamqtpuh2t@aol.com), May 04, 2003.

I was reading a few answers that people gave and then I came across this one and for some reason it offended me (others pissed me off too of course but this one I feel like answering to).

Technology is good because of the style that we live in. I bet most of you chumps would never give up your air-conditioners or your heaters. Lets not forget microwaves and your video games. If it wasn't for technology the common cold would have been the death to you all. You fools don't have any idea what you are talking about until you deprive yourself of your "luxuries" or technology. -- wish u knew (fu@goodtechnology.com), December 11, 2001.

Well I wonder if this guy ever gave up any of these commodities to see what a blessing it is to be free of these things and realize that life is a step by step process and it is in fact quite plesurable to do things and feel things naturally without all this technology corwding us. I never had a microwave growing up or airconditioners and I'm from south america and I find that ever since I moved here to the US I became like everyone around me...very lazy and indifferent to everything. I don't love life ass much as I used to. I'm not saying I want to move back to South America right now, but I would like to call this to peoples attention: sometimes it's not a bad thing to move back, it might in fact mean that you are moving forward.

-- Ramara (Ramara_b@hotmail.com), May 11, 2003.

Yes, technology gives some people easy lives, but you're forgetting the rest. The pollution caused by America and Canada and Australia and so on travels to other countries. Because of our greediness for fried hamburgers and barbequeing, people from other places are suffering. People from countries in which there is no electricity, there's no schools, no televisions or anything. They haven't done anything to deserve it. But just the same, they suffer from the greenhouse effect, pollution and so on.

-- Un-Supporter (dont@email.me), May 15, 2003.

I'm doing a debate on "technology is ruining our teens." i am on the affirmative side so i have to agree with this subject. I have been finding this extremly hard as how can anyone say that technology bad. Everyone uses it no matter who it is, they use it. The only negative thing i could think of was, what the future was going to be like for the next generations? They aren't going to enjoy playing outside because there will be something better like playing a computer game about playing outside. These little things are destroying us no matter what anyone else thinks. We are the future and we DO have to decide wisely with what we should do. If you think it is alright to play a computer game about going outside and playing go ahead and do it, but for everyone else that prefers to do it for themselves get up of your computer and go outside like i am about to do right now

-- sean ur my stars baby (mayeham@hotmail.com), May 20, 2003.

Technology helps, but Technology kills. We shoot each other, blow each other up. We are supposed to be the intelligent species of earth? I think not. Humans should be ashamed of themselves for causing such madness to themselves. I would not be surprised if aliens in outer space are laughing at humans, at how they fih ght each other.

-- Hw? (ashamed@humans.now), May 26, 2003.

As a Human population we have the tendency to always seek bigger and better things. the ideas of this was brought from the Europeans (British, French, German etc.) We have the tendency to discourage simple ways of living like those of the American indians and native Africans. We have oeten called their way of living to be barbaric and uncivilized. Truly I think we can say that they were far more advanced than we are. Ever since the industrial revolution we have used our knowledge of machinery to destroy. To destroy all that what we have created, all that God has created, all of what the mother's and father's of the world created. Now can you truly say that we are lucky for technology. How can we say that when so much has gone wrong. But how can we not say that when everything is so great. Ponder that my friends!

-- J. McDaniel (MysticalJazmine1@aol.com), May 27, 2003.

monkeys man

-- dfylfphapoh'f'ohfg (557upoutrpy@ppppp.com), June 14, 2003.

Soem of the Guys n Guls responded to the question have confused science with technology. Science is always good, because it reveals properties, potentials and characteristics of materials. However technology is the mechanism/process adopted to use the discovery of science for one's interest. It can be good or bad depends upon intentions and interests. e.g. nuclear science helps generate lots of energy but it can be used to make atomic bomb which can and have killed millions in seconds. communication has facilitated business, information and knowlegde but it has facilitated crimes as well. Industries have made the life easier but it has destroyed the environment, so on and so forth. If there were no computer technology we would have not sitting wasted our time in discussing this topic.

-- Bahramand Khan (bahramand_k@yahoo.com), June 14, 2003.

im doing a debate on 'technology has made us happier' and im negative THANX LIL GEES

-- Michael (likemike_91@hotmail.com), June 15, 2003.

For me, technology is not at all bad. In fact, advanced technology brings us to a more qualified lifeworld. What only makes technology bad is the people around. People use to abuse it. They are more becoming dependent to it set asiding the bad effects. For instance, the factories which brings pollution to our environment. This won't happen if people know how to use it properly.

-- grazielle gironella (ggiron_ella_99@yahoo.com), June 23, 2003.

Im doing a debate for my school, motion is Should Technology be abolished, im on the negative side so i (should) think that technology is good. Apart from the really obvious, what is good about technology? We live our busy lives using technology for granted, it gives us work, play and helps us, on the other side, it can be used as aggressive media and can create poverty. Huh?

-- Michael Than (unknown_kronic@hotmail.com), June 30, 2003.

technology.. good or bad. i cannot believe the question is so simple. basicallly, if anyone wanted to know whether technology is good or bad, they would base it on their own opinion or experience of technology they have used or recieved. i guess there is no correct answer to this question when you consider all the good and bad things that technology has done to the human race, and if there is anyone out there who has an answer to this question, i belive it would be completely biased.

-- bianca (cruelbanks_2001@yahoo.com), July 27, 2003.