Advances in technology splitting the world?

Thanks a ton for sharing this discussion. yes u are absolutely right, no doubt technology has made us comfortable and has revolutionized our life but it has definitely had its negative impact on our lives too. There are many people who are not able to avail internet and other advanced technologies and hence there are feeling like being left out from the rest of the world. They feel like they are the less advanced people and hence this is creating a divide among the people. What say?

Yes, there is definitely a digital divide between countries that have access to technology and those that do not. However, as technology advances, we are finding ways to make technology that can be produced cheaply. But the gap does seem like it's not shrinking.

I think that technological progress all too often inures to the benefit of those who can afford those technologies. But there's a huge downside (besides the fact that some countries and people cannot keep pace) to technological progress and that is energy consumption. Huge amounts of energy are necessary to produce all the stuff (most of which we actually don't need...) and for its usage. Here's a simple example: say you want to run a 60W light bulb for 24 hours nonstop. If you wanted to run that light bulb by your own muscle power you can calculate for example that you would need to lift 100 cubic meters of water to a height of about 5 meters within 1 day. Thus, we may look better off now but if there is an energy crisis (e.g. if oil runs out one day) they will be better off than us as they know how to manage with less. Therefore I think we should start looking at things differently. Nowadays everyone worries about the economy and everyone just wants to live an easy life. We should turn to a different life-style with much less waste and better management of energy. Also MUCH better management of vegetation (considering the CO2 problem), i.e. we should store energy (mostly that coming from the sun) in trees and other plants rather than waste it. Photosynthesis is the best way to do that and besides it helps to make this planet and ALL its living inhabitants healthy again. We must never forget that we are a part of nature and hence we depend on it. Thus we should use technologies to protect it and those technologies can be a benefit to all people.

In a way, technology divides beliefs and traditional norms on various societies. Some technologies are agreed by the many while some are not. This really depends on people and how they are brought up by technology in term of their lifestyle.