“Technology” A Double-Edged Sword – Sunday, August 24, 1980
The age of technology in which we live has helped mankind in the pursuit of social and economic progress. Advances in the fields of electronics, medicine and industrial mechanization have made our lives easier as well as healthier and more stimulating.
Scientific discovery, however, is a dual-edged sword. For technology can either aid or hinder man’s progress. The same understanding which opened up the possibility for new sources of energy, for instance, also unleashed the atomic bomb. New developments in chemical insecticides which have aided the world’s agricultural production can also create life destroying inequities in our ecological system. And also alike, the very machines which have freed man from the necessity of manual labor have the potential of dehumanizing those who operate them.
And so it is. Each new discovery brings with it new dangers as well as benefits. It’s for this reason that man’s technological genius must be accompanied by moral intelligence as well.
The need for this balanced union between man’s rational and moral faculties extends to all technological advancement.
The electronic medium of television is another case in point. As an educational aid, a transmitter of world opinion and activity, and as a legitimate medium of entertainment, television is without equal. But while this remarkable invention can be used to enlighten and instruct, it can also falsify ideas and undermine the moral fabric of society.
Technological achievements will continue to bless society only as they are governed by the moral faculty of the public; the same moral factor which will keep technology in its proper role as man’s servant. Without it, man may become a victim of his own genius.
May we temper technological discovery with moral principal: may we realize that all human progress must be sustained and enlightened by the moral advancement of mankind.
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August 24, 1980
Broadcast Number 2,662