Issue 88 technology influence (Comments Welcome) 裸写~680~
Wang Tun
纯裸写......
尝试一下裸写的感觉，提纲没写过，看也没看过，打开就写，发现题目里还有个词拿不太准
ethics后来猜应该是伦理的意思，算猜对了
写完还剩30s,不知道该干啥，觉得检查错也检查不出来，当时也楞了，硬生生盯着表滴答滴答走完
裸写的感觉，道理写得非常浅显，一点也不深刻，
但是后来写完再想发现也写不出什么深刻的东西来了，不知道本身话题所限还是写完思维已经受限
语言写的更加朴素平实了......但好处是错误少了，而且应该更加通俗易懂了，平铺直叙
发现以前我写的东西可能根本没有把我想的东西表达清楚，太跳了
改了一下文法错误是为下文
题目：ISSUE88 - "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
技术不仅仅影响而且实际上是决定了社会传统和道德规范。
字数：680 用时：0:45:00 日期：2009-8-13
Technology is always a very important aspect of our human society and it plays a significant role in the progress of our civilization. As a certain result, it does exert strong influence on the social customs and ethics apart from the influence in the term of material, but it is still far from a determinant factor of that.
As given by Karl Marx, productivity determines production relations. Well, technology is the most influential factor of productivity while social customs and ethics are important reflections of production relations. One important technology often marks an age and a society of a certain production relations has its own system of outlooks and values, including morals, laws and ethics, etc. For example, in Stone Age, to make stone tools is the cardinal technology, and a tribe is often organized around those craftsmen who are good at it. And thus, individual people are collected together to live: they hunt together, eat together and live together. Under such kind of circumstance, team work and sprite of cooperation is one of the most important ethics. And usually, it is a good manner to leave some good meat to the aged and women, for the aged offer experience and guidance to their hunting while women take on the responsibility of taking care of children. This is very different from the past when the strong get their own food while the weak are left hungry, and even in face of starting to death. When it comes to the Iron Age, people are better at making tools. Iron tools allow people to grow plants on the farm and harvest, which is quite a frog-leap in technology. At that time, tribes are united into kingdoms, where nobles and a king establish a government and gain the authority. Since people are not worried about food as much as they used to be, more complicated feudal system of moral and ethics were developed. Like parents should take care of children and adults should fulfill their filial duties; there should be only one husband and one wife to form a couple, i.e. monogamy; the plebeian should at the command of their monarch, etc. But when stepping into the machine age marked by the Industrial Revolution, we have a brand-new system of ideology because the establishment of Capitalism. Freedom and individuation is encouraged and appreciated; seek of money and fortune is taken for granted. The invention of machine allows people to have more leisure time, therefore the idea of a more comfortable life become into fashion in west Europe. This is all influences brought by technology. And now, we are at the gate of a new era of technology, for example the invention of electricity has made it possible to sentence a prisoner to death by electric chair, which posts a new ethic problem to our society. Besides, the invention of atomic bomb, the research of modifying human genome, etc, all become puzzling problem of human society.
Yet so influential, technology has never guided the trend of the customs and ethics of the society alone. A lot of other factors contribute the formation of customs and ethics of a society. A lot of example can be listed. Firstly, geography. For instance, Japanese are said to be somewhat narrow-minded because they live on island. They have no immediate neighbors, and there are not so much natural resources on the island, therefore they tend to invade the other countries on the mainland, so it's no wonder why they like fighting. And the lack of natural resources is also a reason of Japanese’s consciousness of danger, as well as their hard work. Secondly, climate. We all know that Englishmen will take an umbrella with him when he goes to work in the morning, regardless of what the present weather is, for it changes suddenly in England. A rain could reach in five minutes even it is completely sunny now. That is why umbrella is an important object in British customs. Thirdly, religious beliefs. People who believe in different gods certainly have their own customs and ethics, no need for further explanation.
To sum up, there are many factors that influence the customs and ethics of a society, and technology is just one of them, not the only determinant factor.
Sincerely yours,
Wang Tun
ch4w...@gmail.com
2009-08-14
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Wang Tun | 王 暾
Undergraduate of Mixed Honors Class (Engineering)
Chu Kochen Honors College, Zhejiang University
Major: Optoelectronics, Department of Optical
Engineering
Minor: Advanced Class of Engineering Education
(ACEE)
Cell: (+86)136-5667-9099
Email: ch4w...@gmail.com
Address: Room 4073, Lantian 1st Dorm, Zijingang Campus,
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, P. R.
China