The dark side of technology / Peter Townsend.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-306).

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE. Technological progress comes with a Dark Side where good ideas and intentions produce undesirable results. The many and various unexpected outcomes of technology span humorous to bizarre, and even result in situations which threaten our survival. Development can be positive for some, but negative and isolating for others (e.g. older or poorer people). Progress is often transient, as faster electronics and computers dramatically shorten retention time of data and knowledge (e.g. documents, data, and photos will be unreadable within a generation). This is also destroying past languages and cultures in a trend to globalisation. Advances cut across all areas of science and life, and the scope is vast from biology, medicine, agriculture, transport, electronics, computers, long range communications, to a global economy.

Have we the knowledge, willpower, and determination to survive? -- Technology and survival: are they compatible? -- Natural disasters and civilization -- Good technologies with bad side effects -- From trains to transistors -- Food, survival, and resources -- The 'Silent Spring' revisited -- Medicine: expectations and reality -- Knowledge loss from changing language -- Decay of materials and information loss from technology -- Technology, the new frontier for crime and terror -- Technology-driven social isolation -- Consumerism and obsolescence -- Rejection of knowledge and information -- Hindsight, foresight, radical suggestions, and a grain of hope.