Writing for an Academic Discussion A plan to build a new factory in your community - revised -

Do you see the overall progress of science as a positive or negative force of our world?

 

 

☆Let’s think

1. What is the professor talking about by saying, “The trajectory of scientific advancement has propelled society into new frontiers of understanding and capability”? Give examples.

 

Note: He could be talking about scientific discoveries and inventions that scientific advancement has given us.

-        Science has given us new perspectives of the world and ourselves.

e.g. heliocentrism, gravity, cosmic expansion, X-ray, DNA, intestinal flora, etc.

-        It has increased human population and habitat exponentially.

-        It has led to safety, convenience, speed, precision, and variety in many aspects of our lives.

-        It has made what was impossible before possible.

 

2. Give examples of “ethical, social, and environmental implications to consider” related to scientific progress.

Ethical implications: e.g. weapons, gene editing, etc.

 

Social implications: e.g. concentration of wealth, increase of solitude, etc.

 

Environmental implications: e.g. depletion of resources, mass extinction, etc.

 

 

☆Hints for points

Ethical implications

-        Weapons, especially weapons of mass destruction like atomic bombs, are unconscionable.

-        Anonymity in social media brings out the worst in humanity such as spreading disinformation.

 

Social implications

-        Privacy is lost due to the Internet and new monitoring methods, and surveillance states are established.

-        Robots and AI increase unemployment.

-        Workload has increased because workers are tracked and contacted even during the off time.

-        Technology deteriorates public health and makes us less intelligent and dependent on it.

 

Environmental implications

-        Manufacturing facilities have caused pollutions and global warming.

-        Habitat loss and extinction have occurred due to development.

 

 

☆Sample Responses

Sample 1  Noam Chomsky says that technology in itself is neither good nor bad; it can be used to build a house, while it can be used to smash someone’s hear. I believe science is a positive force in general. It protects us from elements and helps us recover from diseases and disasters. It allows us to build strong and comfortable shelters and supply ourselves with food, water, and energy like gas and electricity. Disaster relief is quickly done with heavy machinery. As a result, modern men live a longer and healthier lives than cavemen. Science technology also makes our lives richer. Especially, computers and the Internet help increase our knowledge, expand relationships, and have fun. While negative effects of science technology like genocide, climate change, and nuclear threat are now overwhelming our lives, the root cause of these issues are greed, ignorance, indifference, and inertia. Science itself provides us with chances to improve our lives. (154 words)

 

Sample 2  While we all enjoy products of scientific advancement, whether we have become happier because of them or not is doubtful. According to Yuval Noah Harari, we lost our freedom due to irrigation technology that allowed for agriculture, which made us give up hunting and gathering, the life of travel and leisure, and confined us to the care of crops year-round. Later, the industrial revolution tied us to factories and offices. Information technology has deprived us of privacy and personal time. The fast pace and large workload resulting from shorter travel time and real-time communication causes drop-out and depression. Ethically alarming comments on social media comes from anonymity and lack of face-to-face communication of the Internet. Not to speak of climate crisis and nuclear threat, the impacts of science technology seem to be driving us to our end. (137 words)

Write your draft on this topic. Show it to each other. Write down questions or suggestions to each other’s draft.

 

 

DRAFT