Our culture tells us that an increase in technology is an increase in progress. Technology will save us from our depressed lives, increase our standard of living, become the very thing that saves humanity from itself.
If we analyze our lives though we may find that technology isn't the benevolent force that we believe.
From Wikipedia:
In the 20th century, the world saw the biggest increase in its population in human history due to lessening of the mortality rate in many countries due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity attributed to the Green Revolution.[40][41][42]
In 2000, the United Nations estimated that the world's population was growing at the rate of 1.14% (or about 75 million people) per year,[43] down from a peak of 88 million per year in 1989. In the last few centuries, the number of people living on Earth has increased many times over. By the year 2000, there were 10 times as many people on Earth as there were 300 years ago. According to data from the CIA's 2005–2006 World Factbooks, the world human population increased by 203,800 every day.[44] The CIA Factbook increased this to 211,090 people every day in 2007, and again to 220,980 people every day in 2009.
Technology may be a generalization, and personally I reap the fruits of the many advancements mankind has made over the past few decades. As I type I am watching television on a 42 inch flat screen tv, typing on a laptop, and sitting next to my girlfriend that is using her iphone.
Nevertheless, our quality of life increase comes at a significant price. We are depleting the world's ocean resources, depleting the rain forests, eliminating about 100 species a day due to human activity, ruining our atmosphere...
7 Billion humans wake up each morning and begin to devour the world. As technology improves we will continue to find better ways to keep ourselves alive longer, feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, and in our compassion for our fellow Man we will quicken our descent into oblivion.
What I am saying is heresy because technology has become a religion to us. Unlike God, we are able to see the miracles of technology daily. We bask in the glow of computer screens, enjoy the fruits of satellites...How dare I speak ill of "progress". But I ask to to ask yourself is it progress we are making? Is the world better off today than 200 years ago? Than 10,000 years ago?
With all our increase of knowledge and technology we have done what nature could not do; bring humanity to the brink of extinction. Had we bypassed this route, bypassed the agricultural revolution humanity may had endured for hundreds of thousands of years (barring some catastrophic event such as an asteroid impact*). Our world was like an Eden for us and look at what we are doing.
We think that our crises are famine, lack of water etc. and we invent almost miraculous ways to ever increase our food supply. The real crisis we face is overpopulation and all our other ills from crime to poverty flow from this simple truth: There are too many humans.
Our solution? Increase the food supply year end and year out. We have been doing this for the last 10,000 years and this is where it has brought us.
I don't rejoice at our technological advances. It won't save us. Information won't save us. On a macro level it isn't family planning or education or anything like that that will save us. Only a radical change in our culture could save us but we could not dare to willing surrender so much power.
We "conquer" Nature daily instead of living with it. The only problem is that we are Nature. Everyday we conquer ourselves.