Science and Modern inventions: A Blessing or a curse?
Expansion of Ideas School & College Section.
It is science that has provided modern man a life of ease, leisure and pleasure. It has brought within the reach of the common man comforts and luxuries that were available in the past only to the privileged few.
Science has invented marvellous machines to take the drudgery out of man’s work. By doing much of his work and doing it fast, machines have provided man with a lot of leisure. The rosy dream of an easy and luxurious life has come true for him. Distance has been conquered. Modern means of transport and communication have made the world a global village. Men and things and news and views can go around the globe today with lightning speed. The Internet has brought people of the world together and brought about a revolution in the fields of information and communications. Man has already landed on the moon and man-made satellites have made voyages through the solar system.
Our life has become healthier and longer. Modern hygiene, sanitation, medicine and surgery are conquering more and more physical and mental illness with each passing day. We now know and experience the joys of good health and longevity. Through the cinema, the radio, the tape recorder, the TV and the video, science has worked wonders in the fields of education and entertainment.
Though we welcome these blessings of science, we have to consider the other side of the picture also. Man has not been able to face the problems created by the inventions of science and to stop the misuse or harmful consequences of scientific inventions. Factories have polluted the water and the atmosphere. They have caused noise pollution. Industrialisations have led to slums in which human beings live a degraded life in the midst of filth and squalor. We have allowed science to master us instead of keeping it our servant. Medical inventions have, by reducing infant mortality and increasing longevity, led to the population explosion and the consequent miseries.
Again, science has put in our hands terrible weapons such as nuclear bombs, guided missiles and the means of chemical and biological warfare. We are in danger of destroying ourselves with these monstrous means that, ironically, are our own creations. Rightly used, science can bring heaven on earth. Wrongly used, it can turn this earth into hell.
