The cost of "progress"

When a new technological invention becomes widely used, the world changes. The main purpose of technological progress is to make life easier, more comfortable. Cars transport us farther and faster than horses and buggies, and thanks to washing machines we no longer have to spend hours doing laundry (unless we put it off for several weeks, maybe).

Invention improves certain aspects of our lives, but at a cost...and at this point, the costs outweigh the benefits of most new innovations. The latest technology hasn't necessarily granted us more leisure time and less stress. In many ways it has made life more fast paced, overwhelming, and dystopian.

Postmoderns tend to think of technology as additive, simply providing more options to the ones we have, but it is actually transformative. Once a new invention is released in society, our way of life changes permanently. These changes have the potential to be positive or negative.

Faster and easier isn't always better. For instance, modern transportation created its own set of problems: drunk driving, pollution, a decline in people's fitness due to lack of exercise. The invention of the automobile literally changed the landscape of the world. Paved roads are such a common sight that my little cousin thought God created them along with animals and people.

California in particular has been built around the automobile. Buildings are sprawled out miles apart from each other, so a car is required to reach everywhere one needs to go. Older places such as New York and London have condensed layouts because they were built before the invention of automobiles. Their configurations allow for more walkability (and therefore fitness), as well as more opportunities for conversation. Owning a car offers many benefits, though I wonder if humanity would ultimately be better off living in more compact communities with slower modes of transportation - and no, I don't mean dystopian smart cities, but a relatively low tech way of life such as we had in the early 20th century.

Typical Californian Sprawl

 

Of course, what's done is done and we can't return to the past...but since new inventions radically change our lives, the environment, and the way we behave, we would be naive to think of technological progress as inherently good, embracing every new invention like kids in a candy store. There is sacrifice involved in exchange for the quick and easy. What are we willing to give up for the sake of "progress" - clean air, privacy, bodily autonomy?