Technical Progress Written Expression

VAILLIER FRANCOIS Lena                                                                                                           TES1

Written Expression

Nowadays, every aspect of our society has been significantly transformed by technical progress. Every day, engineers, scientists and researchers work hard to keep up with the latest discoveries or inventions. Each new technology takes over the previous one, before it is replaced by a new breakthrough. So, one may wonder whether technical progress necessarily implies forgetting the past or whether our knowledge of the past helps us to make the world better ?

One the one hand, it seems that most people are so fascinated by new technologies and new awesome and unusual gadgets that they tend to get rid of old technological items, which is do not look better than the new ones. For example very few people still use floppy disks. Most of us have MP3 or listen to music on the platform like « deazer » or « spotify » directly on our phone. Likewise, nobody ride a horse anymore to go from one place to another (except for leisure or sport). Why use it if e have a car or all the public transport ? People take advantage of all technological progress which makes their lives easier and more comfortable : it’s very difficult for anyone to go against that.

However we just have to keep in mind that technical progress is linked to the past. Human being have always sought to improve their living conditions. Innovations from the past led to today's innovations. That’s why previous discoveries cannot be ignored : they are like the foundations of a house. Before the famous « MacBook » there were the firsts computers, and even before that there was the typewriters. So inventions  from the past have built today's world and in the same way, today's research will help build tomorrow's world. There’s still a footprint of the past in our world and that’s why we cannot ignore it. Actually, people who collect coins can keep memories of the past centuries . Indeed, coins can also reflect technical progress as coins with the different materials which were used to made them through the centuries. We can see precisely details on today's coins more than we could see before, like at the middle age.

Nevertheless, it is also worth remembering that technical progress does not always mean actual progress, and that sometimes doing things better means keeping skills from the past. In fact, farmers are increasingly going back to more traditional land-based farming, which is more respectful of humans being, animals and the environment. So, if we want to understand the world we live in, and to make the best of technological progress, we cannot ignore the past and neither can scientists. Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors.

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