This is a broad-based subject that probably has been addressed multiple times, but I thought I'd put my 2 cents into it [it will also be posted in the Science & Technology thread as well, since it probably belongs there, to some extent]. First of all, I'm not some tree-hugging hippie that uses the very thing they oppose to express their thoughts(that would be technology, in this case); in fact, I am actually a geek when it comes to technology...anyway:

The plain and simple truth is that humans aren't really as intelligent as we think we are. We think that we're gods, for one thing (if you disagree, then explain to me how an ego works, other than telling yourself you are holy). Technology has done the exact opposite of making us more intelligent, in a certain respect. While in one sense we learn more about the newly developed technology of the age and therefore are intelligent, in quite another way we are quite ignorant or even more accurately (in my opinion), stupid. Technology of many sorts, while originally designed for the good of the world, has been taken & molded by government and miltary to create a megaweapon out of it.

The entire point of making a weapon is to kill things, in this case, people of other countries when in a war(or opposing forces of the ruling government). In most scenarios, what is being fought over? Either territory, or religious beliefs.

In the animal kingdom, every animal fights for territory, food and mating. Not a single one, other than humans, fight for religious beliefs. Why is that? Perhaps because they are "intelligent" to realize that beliefs are a waste of time to themselves, and serve no purpose whatsoever.

Note that there are no religious battles over the function of a pancreas, mating rituals of a killer whale, so why wars over varying religions? It doesn't seem very intelligent to me.

I know what you're thinking at this point: "What does technology have to do with religious war?" without the current technology to make the weapons we have today, religious wars probably would be less common, and more easily stopped, in theory.

Technology, while convienient to all of us, is the basis for the Apocalypse (or what have you). Humans, especially in the government, the U.S. government, in particular, has a nasty little habit of liking to tinker around with things they have no understanding of. Basically they find something, figure out how to make it work, and say, "Alright, we know how to start this up, let's assume you stop it the same way, and see what happens. If anyone dies in the process, we'll say it was all for the sake of science." While they possess the knowledge to make a technology function, they don't necessarily know how to make it function properly or to the desired effect in a safe manner. Knowledge does not equal intelligence, and people have a hard time understanding the difference. The fact that government presses the thought of "Knowledge = Intelligence, therefore we are intelliectual gods to you", and the super-patriots of the nation believe this crap, it's no wonder the world is in such sad shape as it is today.

Technology = Government = Knowledge = [Un]intelligence.

"There are some to whom knowledge is a shield, and to whom it is a weapon. Neither is balanced, but one is less unwise."

Multiple posts in more than one forum is not allowed. Your other post has been removed.

The "noble nature" is really a myth. If you think things are bad now, just imagine how they'd be without technology.

Better yet -- don't imagine. Look at the third world countries. No medicine, severe pollution (no sewage treatment, overpopulation), horrible living conditions (2 out of 5 children die before their 5th birthday), and a me-centered/village-centered mentality. There's no ability to understand issues that affect the rest of the world and no ability to tolerate or get along with other clans and other religions.

There's only "us" and "them" and the treatment for "them" is slavery or killing.

No. Technology isn't the great evil. The great and seductive evil is Ignorance.

Indeed, well said, but think: what if the conditions of third-world countries was meant to be the conditions of the rest of the world? What if, in our striving to become more intelligent and technologically advanced, we changed the meaning of the existence of mankind? Maybe we were meant to live in poor conditions of third-world countries. After all, humans (in my opinion) are nothing more than viruses meant to wipe the earth of its inhabitants [we do such a great job of it, anyway, why shouldn't it be our main function?]. Maybe we were born to be scum-suckers, but changed our evolutionary plan via creating more advanced technology. If the technology that we have today didn't exist, would we miss it? If so, how could you miss something that doesn't exist.

But indeed, the most destructive and evil force in the world, if not the Universe, is Ignorance.

Would humans miss technology? Yes.
Could they live without it? Of course.
What would change? We would enjoy climbing trees again, instead of playing computer/video games. I mean, hey, trees are fun .

"The plain and simple truth is that humans aren't really as intelligent as we think we are."

...Depends which one you are talking to. Some people are probably ten times smarter than they appear to be. We are intelligent, but we think with our genitals way too often, which evolution is now beat us with them. Sex drives are getting out of hand, we are starting to mature closer to the rate of the Pygmys, and we are careless with sex. Viruses are now taken care of us (as it was said that we are viruses). We are our own worst enemy, in yet another situation.

Humans make technology to combine our knowledge (actually logic, hence logic gates in computers ) over time for the advancement of the future. Of course, only you can make yourself happy and you must find the lifestyle that makes you happy in order to do that. Anyway, technology is smarter than us because it is the additions of our intelligence and knowledge.

"Technology of many sorts, while originally designed for the good of the world, has been taken & molded by government and miltary to create a megaweapon out of it."

Well, that's the best way that you know an idea works, in their minds. If it is physics, then physics will make it blow up. It is a primitive look at design. Nuclear power works if and when you get a nuclear sized explosion. Stupid? Yes, but it works.

Yes, people fight over territory and religious beliefs. Your religion is probably wrong if you are killing people over it and you must like your territory being a wasteland if you are fighting for it.

Simple logic.... If you kill people in the name if a peaceful life (religion), then you are breaking the purpose of the religion. If your religion isn't peaceful, most likely it is 100% man made and doesn't even touch on reality. Secondly, if you fight over a territory, you are destroying that territory as you fight over it. Look at Vietnam, the conquest of ancient empires, or the World Wars. The land gained was more of a burden than a blessing. Look at the US. We bought it from Napolean. Problem solved. Of course we fought the Indians (natives) and again, more destruction. Australia... again, England just moves in and the English people have now evolved into the Australians. When you fight over land, the value is lost. Of course I don't understand why there is so much fighting for a sandpile in the middle east, but I guess that's based on a religious violence. And hey, who doesn't like to play in the sand?

"In the animal kingdom, every animal fights for territory, food and mating. Not a single one, other than humans, fight for religious beliefs. Why is that? Perhaps because they are "intelligent" to realize that beliefs are a waste of time to themselves, and serve no purpose whatsoever."

It is actually because they aren't intelligent to form a mass society. Religion, as faiths, usually aren't bad, but religions are businesses in reality and therefore have their problems. Actually, if you look at bees, you'll see that they pretty much worship the queen. They fight over mating and they can get very violent when other bees try to become a part of their hive. These are basic qualities that some people try to say are religious fights. In truth, they are often fights over animal instincts. You get happy with the life you have, so you try to make sure that no one changes it or take you from power. As far as I'm concerned, a real religious battle is merely a battle of the mind, while all other battles have other motives.

Why does technology have to be a religious war? It isn't. People are happy with life and feel violated by a change, perhaps caused by technology. If you don't like change, then you are run over by it. People just don't seem to be able to have a smooth transition from one phase to another. It seems to be in our nature to fight, even if we don't know what we are really fighting for. It's sad.

Apparently you know nothing about history. Religious wars of the past were 1,000 times worse. Have you not heard of the cruisades? Those were pretty sick. If we go to nuclear war in the near future, it may be the worst war, but the ones of the past, fought old fashioned ways, were brutal, personal, and disgusting.

Tools are what has always set us apart from other animals. We gained intelligence by use our intelligence. We always have and hopefully always will. Tools are merely products of our creativity and brainpower. Don't blaim the tool for the corrupt brains that made it. As they say, "a bullet isn't biased." We have the power to make our thoughts part of our reality, but what we do with our thoughts will reflect what happens in our reality.

I don't believe in patriotism. I was not more patriotic when the trade centers were hit. I felt sorry for the people that perished and even worse for the families that would live without their spouses and parents. It isn't patriotism that moves us as much as the defense of these people who lose so much. We abstractly seem to form a blanket of patriotism around an area that we want to protect. I am not like that. I think the world should be covered in the same blanket, but unfortunitely not very many people would seem to agree... which is a form of selfishness.

"Technology = Government = Knowledge = [Un]intelligence"

I disagree:

Technology= Sumation of possibility and ethics developed by a person/persons

Technology is a shield, a weapon, and a tool for peace. It is our thoughts materialized.

Technology is good for you. Well, might be. Give a hunter a gun, he goes and gets a deer, makes deer jerky. Give a madman a gun, he goes and shoots a bunch of people.

Same with religon. Give smart people religon that teaches peace, they will follow. Give morons religon that teaches peace, they go out and kill in the name of that religon. That's all the catholics did in the crusades, inqusitions, witch trials, so forth. Morons got ahold of a peaceful religon and decided to kill because they right, you wrong. Now adays, less morons control the catholic church, and they aren't out there killing people.

To prove point, look in Middle East. They believe that killing a Jew or two while blowing yourself up will lead you to heaven. Obviously the smart ones haven't taken ahold of that religon. For they right, the Jews wrong, BOOM! They are taught peace, so they kill to make their teaching of peace the right one. For you have nothing to worry about when all enemies are dead.

Of course, with the way they going, they gonna run out of Towel Heads to blow up the Jews if they don't find a different way to kill them.

Would humans miss technology? Yes.

I was addressing that if current technology didn't exist, at any point in time, how could you miss it? Anyway, it's not a big deal...

I know that my original post sounds kinda vague and ignorant, but I was in a bit of a hurry as I was typing it.

I have approached this entire thing wrong, I should've addressed that we're letting the wrong hands get ahold of the wrong technology (the government...hehe).

Now adays, less morons control the catholic church

Indeed, that's why on CNN for a good 3 months all you saw was: "Corruption in the Catholic Church!" and "A Bishop molests a child!"...heh...

As for my reference to humans being viruses (maybe Agent Smith in The Matrix was right, after all): what is the one thing humans are best at? Destruction. [human-created] Technology assists us in destruction. We do it so well, I just can't help but think that maybe it's our purpose. Maybe every few eons, some species is put on the Earth to scrub it clean and give a new "dominating species" it's 15 million years in the spotlight.

You get happy with the life you have, so you try to make sure that no one changes it or take you from power.

This is human nature. Humans, for the most part, like being in a never-changing cycle of everyday life and become upset of they are exposed to any different view. It's conformity, plain and simple. Humans are destructive, ignorant creatures and any other view is simply a self-congratulatory delusion.

Apparently you know nothing about history...but the ones of the past, fought old fashioned ways, were brutal, personal, and disgusting.

I do know my history well enough to know how brutal (and pointless) the Crusades were. Now tell me what caused them to be so bloody and brutal...human idiocy spurred on by religion, expressed through war using technology. If we could keep the government from twisting technology into something made for war and killing, things would go a lot smoother. But the government, in all of their originality, believe that the country with the biggest guns stops all war...ahem...yeah, really smart guys we have running the country for us. It's even more amusing because we (meaning the electoral college, who we elect, not the actual People) elect these goofballs. We elect people like us to elect more people like us to run the country...yeah...good job guys...

Give a hunter a gun, he goes and gets a deer, makes deer jerky. Give a madman a gun, he goes and shoots a bunch of people.

Not necessarily, I've heard of a hunter shooting people...numerous times. And, I'm a madman, and haven't shot anybody yet...

All in all, I think that the simplest way to sum up technology & the uses it's been put to is the way that Mad Scientist phrased his signature: "The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our models of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophes"

If memory serves correctly, I've heard that Einstein literally *cried* when he learned that some *other* eggheads turned his theories of atomics into weapons...He wanted his theories to be used for peaceful purposes, such as generating electricity.

Easy summation...

Technology enhances our ability to survive, enjoy life and live longer; however it is dangerous and people are stupid.

'nuff said.