The idea of progress : should we fear progress ?

The idea of progress: should we fear progress?

I’m going to talk about the « idea of progress ». to begin with, I’d like to state a definition of that notion. The idea of progress can be defined as an improvement, a development or change in technical, scientific or social advance which contributes to making the world a better place. However, some people can consider it as a negative thing because progress may go beyond ethical morals. So, we can focus on the question: Should we fear progress?

On the one hand, I think progress in essential to evolve and it is indispensable for our comfort, and to make our lives easier. History is made of progress and evolution that have allowed the world to be what it’s today. Thanks to advances in sciences, medicine has become much more efficient, accessible and has allowed to save so much lives thanks to more and more sophisticated techniques. More recently, science permitted to perform a transplant on people with burnt skin and so change their life. Robotics, science, technology and biology allow progress. Wonderful inventions are due to advances such as the development of robots like the Japanese robot which look like a woman and which is able to think and make some move like humans, cars are also the result of years of research, development and improvement which made possible to travel more easily and more quickly. And I think internet is also an economic, social and numeric revolution it gives access to information really quickly and really easily, it changed the way of life of the whole world.

However, the progress can be dangerous if we don’t pay attention about the ethic. as a matter of fact, the text “oh brave new world!” is illustrated by a picture where we can identical babies who look like doll babies, not human being. Furthermore, there are aligned, it’s really astonishing.

The text is about the DHC who presents Boranovsky’s process to a lot of students. The principle is to the growth of eggs, so they can divide until develop ninety-six identical embryos which will repress-end ninety-six clones in the future. The DHC sounds haughty and really thinks that Bokanovsky’s Process in a revolutionary idea for the world. He doesn’t even think about the ethics and morals issues the ninety-six identical human beings may cause.

As a conclusion, I’d say progress is neither all good or all bad. It’s not scientific knowledge that is either good or bad, but the application of it. Progress can be terrible if it is used abusively, but, in my opinion, progress is the result of a science more and more developed; thanks to that, medicine for example is able to save to improve so many lives. And not many people will agree to give up on it.

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