The way forward?
Progress is a theme that has been evolving ever since man has been able to reason. However progress relates to so many aspects of our lives it would be impossible to cover it all in a few pages, so let us take a few examples. But first progress can touch different people in different ways.
In the late 1970鈥檚 the newspaper tycoon introduced the latest technology into his business and at the same time laid off thousands of men. This caused a strike lasting quite a long time.
In the 1960鈥檚 in Liverpool 22,000 dockers were employed on the waterfront, today there are less than 500.
The same scenario has taken place in factories and the retail trade, robots involved in making motor cars and other goods. In America there are radio stations broadcasting through the night with no human presence or using pre recorded tapes.
When a huge hypermarket opens a hundred small shops close down. The supermarket will employ a third of the workforce the shops had.
In the building industry, despite new man made materials becoming available, the quality of houses is nowhere near those built 100-150 years ago, many of which are still standing. Plaster board where there used to be bricks, we are swamped with laminated chipboard and plastic fittings. To buy anything made from the genuine material costs the earth.
In the medical world there is no denying the progress that has been made. A lot of illnesses have been wiped out and serious ailments like cancer have been slowed down. Heart transplants, growth of body parts, stitching back of severed limbs, these were things of science fiction just 60 years ago and the future looks rosy on that front as along as this progress is available to all.
However one aspect of technological progress bothers me, if it moves at the same rate over the next 100 years as it has over the last 100 years and if people are replaced by gadgets and robots鈥 who will be able to buy the goods produced? No work, no wages.
I recall a small film in the 1960鈥檚 in which an American actor 鈥溾 played a rich businessman whose wife had every domestic convenience she desired but she was always bored. One day he bought her a present in the form of a sweeping brush. He showed her how, if you moved it back and forward on the floor it swept up the dirt. She was delighted, the next day she phoned him at work and told him all the neighbours wanted one. It was a spoof on technology making people redundant, in this case the vacuum cleaner. I wonder if the scriptwriter was looking in to the future.
Progress right now should prioritise the advent of sustainable fuel and power sources which are also affordable. At the moment things that are necessary to leading a decent life are going out of the reach of the people at the bottom of the pile.
i agree, progress should be about advancing our society but in a way that will help others less fortunate than ourselves. when we are able to do this, then they will help advance ourselves again.
Global warming, species reduction, world overpopulation and you think we have progress ?
we have change
change for the worse !
www.vhemt.org
"At the moment things that are necessary to leading a decent life are going out of the reach of the people at the bottom of the pile."
so they should stop breeding,but, the council give em cheap housing.. the middle classes die out while the poor breed like rabbits