The Long-range Cost of Progress in Technology - What Will Be Next

摘要

When we review the history of humankind, we will find a universal phenomenon after every significant progress in technology that there will be some punishment or cost, which people cannot predict beforehand. Though these costs are different in their formats and contents in different cases, they will appear sooner or later certainly. The application of fire, development of agriculture, usage of fossil energy source, usage of nuclear energy, is some typical examples. The question is that what the modern Information & Communication Technology (ICT), which brings us a lot of benefits, will require humankind to pay. Our point is: the frangibility of modern society is one of these costs for ICT usage. More and more frequently accidents, such as 911 Attacks, SARS, large-scale power cut, and spaceship wreck, force human to think deeply in the effects from ICT. This article will analyze the inherent relationship between ICT application and the frangibility of modern society, and will point out the inevitability of this phenomenon, then gives us some suggestion on how to deal with this phenomenon.