Article>DANGEROUS INVENTIONS

The argument about progress is one which will presumably never be settled. Each technological advance brings certain benefits to mankind, but draws in it's train attendant evils which some people feel more than outweigh the original good. Reaction to these advances tends to be coloured by temperament. Those of a conservative nature look back nostalgically to earlier days and see only changes for thd worse; the others point to the patent benefit and ignore the latent dangers.
The motor car is an obvious example. In its early days, it gave people a hitherto unimagined freedom of movement. Town-dwellers could escape to the country, and country dwellers were given easy access to the amenities of the city. More cars led to better roads, but still more cars led to congestion. Once the general increase in prosperity had put them within reach of the majority of the population they began to cancel their own advantages. Roads are now clogged with traffic, parking in towns consumes endless time, and movement of traffic in large centres like London is slower than it was in the days of horse-drawn cab. Apart from the sheer inconvenience, huge quantities of exhaust gas pollute the atmosphere to a degree which is recognized as dangerous to health, and the number of people killed or injured on the roads continues to mount teadily.
Another invention against which a strong case can be made is television. Because it uses the most potent form of communication, the visual image, it is an immensely powerful medium. It presents information in whatever manner is likely to be visually the most striking, and will not hesitate to select and edit its material with more concern for inpact than integrity. It demands complete and silent attention. It is death to conversation and normal two-way contact between individuals. It makes passive non-participant spectators of us all.
Even more alarming is the way in which Man is tampering with the balance of nature, particularly in the use of recently developed pesticides and weed-killers. Their use has led to increased food production; it has also led to the death or sterility of innumerable birds and the virtual disappearance of whole species of insects. D.D.T is a particularly frightening chemical because it can be stored in the tissues of the body until there is a sufficient quantity to do irreparable damage. It has now been discovered in Antarctic penguins, thousands of miler from any possible source. At first sight this may seem to be of little concern to mankind, but our existence depends entirely upon the balance of nature being maintained. If we tilt it slightly, it may over-balance, with disastrous consequnces for us as well as for the animal kingdom.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that we are being helplessly swept on by progress. For every life saved by a speeding ambulance another is taken by a skidding car. It seems that we are incapable of sufficient wisdom or imagination to look at our 'advances' in the long term, or to assess accurately the balance of the happiness or misery they will cause.