|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Global Technological Equalization
| Article
# : |
14781 |
|
|
Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
|
| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1988 |
3,338 Words |
| Author
: |
Richard L. Rubenstein
Richard L. Rubenstein is the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished
Professor of Religion at Florida State University and
president of the Washington Institute for Values in Public
Policy. He is the coauthor (with John K. Roth) of Approaches
to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and its Legacy |
In spite of technology's hopeful promise to improve the condition of humanity, it has been at best a problematic boon. For those committed to a religious view of the place of the human race in the order of things, science and technology are God-given gifts intended to be used for the improvement of all peoples. These gifts, however, have all too frequently been used as instruments of political, economic, and military domination. Nevertheless, it is in the long-term interests of the technologically advanced nations to work toward global technological equalization. In fact, any vision of a future peaceful world must include the process of global technological equalization. Moreover, this is no longer an unattainable goal because, as we shall see, a sound educational system and intelligent management are more important than automation or the assembly line in fostering technological progress.
Historical Development
From a global perspective, technology has fostered extraordinary inequality of human condition. In 1750, at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the per capita gross national product of what we now consider the developed nations was roughly the same as that of the countries we today identify as the Third World. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the gap between the industrial nations and the Third World widened dramatically. By 1880 the per capita income of the nations of the industrial West was twice that of the Third World; by 1950 the per capita income of the former was five times that of the latter; by 1970 it was seven times as much. The gap continues to widen, and at an accelerating pace.
Science and technology gave the industrializing nations an enormous economic advantage. It also gave them an insuperable military advantage that led to the domination of the technologically underdeveloped peoples of the world by the industrial powers of the Northern Hemisphere. A crucial turning point in the relations of the industrial nations with the rest of the world came with the great depression of 1873, which lasted until the 1890s and afflicted all of industrializing Europe, North America, and Australia. At the risk of oversimplification, the depression can be seen as a consequence of the West's extraordinary technological progress. Although productivity increased dramatically during the depression years, prices and profits fell. Hence, the period was experienced as a severe depression. Price deflation was largely due to scientific and technological progress in industry, agriculture, communications, and transportation. Ever fewer peasants were needed to work the land, which yielded an ever more
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
