Technology is Man's Greatest Frenemy

by: Carol Deang (1st entry)

“FRENEMY” (alternately spelled "frienemy") is a portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy" which can refer to an enemy disguised as a friend. I see technology as just exactly this—a frenemy.

I am not talking here as an expert on technology, for I certainly am not. My only real connection with technology is limited to my TV, laptop, cellphone, camera and car (with of course, our appliances at home). Thanks to technology, people are able to live comfortable and charmed lives.

But, with the ubiquity of technology in this time and era, discoveries and inventions left and right, I just can’t help but ask: Where is the world headed to with all these technological advancements? As they say, whenever one is up there, there certainly is no way but to go down.

A leading IBM researcher says computers capable of mimicking the human brain's power and efficiency could be just a decade away. Definitely revolutionary. But is that a good news or a bad news? For a hardcore scientist, that just probably is fantastic. At the outset, it seems very impressive, but why on earth would we want to achieve that? For all we know, we might reach that epoch where machines will control the whole wide world. Hello to Matrix era! I shiver at the thought of this, but mind you, this is not as far-fetched as it seems. For once upon a time, we watched in awe as sci-fi films showed two people communicating through video calls. Fast-forward to now, that kind of technology is just plain common.

Yet another report on a child who suffered from serious trauma when his parents decided to take away his XBOX raises more questions than answers on the effects of technology in our culture. Add to this all reports on environment degradation particularly global warming and climate change due to excessive carbon emissions. Note that these are actually very serious global issues for climate change and global warming are perhaps the most serious threat to our planet and such are human- and technology- induced.

I have no intention of belittling the revolutionary effects of technology. But though we are indeed living very comfortable lives, we are living comfortable but very COMPLICATED lives. There are just too much technological advancements for our own good. Too much technology is not very friendly, not only to our environment, but to our cultural horizon, as well.

Now Technology, are you a friend or an enemy?