Technology is a double-edged sword. What does this sentence mean?

Science and technology is a double-edged sword, because it can not only benefit mankind by promoting economic and social development, but it may also bring negative consequences to human survival and development under certain conditions.

The realization of the role of science and technology is affected by certain objective conditions, such as social systems, interest relationships and other factors, as well as certain subjective conditions, such as people's concepts and levels of understanding. Science and technology are practical activities that humans carry out on nature in order to better understand nature, transform nature and live a better life. However, the lessons of history and reality tell us time and time again: while science and technology improves the quality of human life, it will also bring harm, and this harm is increasing day by day with the development of science and technology. Nowadays, with the development and advancement of science and technology, everyone can enjoy things that historical figures cannot enjoy. However, with the development of the economy, the acceleration of people's pace of life and the improvement of living standards, the amount of plastic used is increasing day by day. In 1996, my country's plastic packaging consumption reached 2.43 million tons, with an average annual growth rate of more than 20%. In particular, plastic waste in garbage in cities, along major transportation lines, and tourist attractions has increased rapidly. According to surveys, Beijing's annual domestic waste production has reached 3 million tons, of which waste plastic accounts for about 3%, with an annual growth rate of 48%. The plastic content of garbage in coastal cities is higher, reaching 8-10%. The proportion of these waste plastics in the garbage has reached more than one third if calculated by volume, and it has greatly increased the difficulty and cost of garbage disposal. Since waste plastic is difficult to degrade for hundreds of years, if it is discarded in the natural environment, it will provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes, flies and bacteria to survive and reproduce; if it is buried underground, it will easily pollute groundwater, hinder the growth of plant root systems, damage soil quality, and affect Crop harvest; if burned by fire, a variety of toxic gases will be produced. "White pollution" has become a major public hazard that harms our country's social environment and has seriously hindered the sustainable development of our country's economy and environment.

Human life is increasingly dependent on technological products, and the quality of life and survivability are greatly reduced when the support of technological products is lost. Products with higher technical content do not necessarily have higher stability. Especially with the rapid development of the information revolution, the dangers of hackers, viruses, and poorly considered program codes are increasing day by day.

Technology is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can smash ignorance and backwardness; on the other hand, it can also bring endless disasters to mankind. At this time, we emphasize the pain and disasters that technology has brought to mankind precisely so that this double-edged sword can maximize its positive role in benefiting mankind instead of the other way around. It is said that good medicine tastes bitter but is good for diseases. Science and technology are a double-edged sword because rational and comprehensive thinking about science and technology can keep technology under the control of mankind and not harm mankind in turn. The technologicalization of war has made war more and more harmful, and the possible disasters it can bring to mankind have long exceeded human imagination. The Franco-Prussian War more than a hundred years ago only resulted in the change of ownership in Alsace and Lorraine, but a war of similar scale today is likely to end in a global nuclear war, which is the destruction of human civilization. The harm caused by accidental mistakes in non-war scientific activities has also become a geometric progression trend. In the past, when humans were transforming the world, an accidental negligence was nothing more than a collapse of a river embankment and the release of gunpowder out of control. Now, it may be a nuclear leak. Although a current technological negligence cannot bring devastating disaster to all mankind, the trend of this growing danger cannot be denied. The potential threats in scientific and technological activities cannot be ignored. Although human foresight can prevent this situation from happening to a certain extent, human foresight is limited after all. Some behaviors that seem harmless today may appear to be unsafe in the future. Predictable dire consequences include the over-exploitation of forests, the large-scale use of Freon for refrigeration, and the embryonic gender determination that was once popular all over the world. Although human beings can rationally and partially correct such short-sighted behaviors after the fact, the consequences of these behaviors are difficult to completely eliminate, and nature’s fault tolerance is also limited. The possibility of one mistake leading to eternal hatred, as humans do this The impact of behavior on the world grows. In addition, we can also find that the development of atomic physics theory enabled mankind to master nuclear energy technology, but it also brought about the nuclear disasters of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and brought about fifty years of "terrible peace" for mankind. Has the ability to destroy itself.

There are also endless nuclear accidents, with Chernobyl in the Soviet Union being the most famous. The development of chemistry has given us unprecedented capabilities to transform nature, but our gunpowder and explosives have also harmed tens of millions of fellow human beings.

Our chemical synthesis technology has allowed us to create things that do not exist in nature, but now we are also troubled by white waste and poisoned by chemical pollution. Why are there so many children in our country now? A very important factor in suffering from leukemia is the chemical adhesives used in home decoration, as well as Freon, which destroys the ozone layer. The development of oil exploration technology has greatly accelerated the pace of human progress. We can now fly at speeds exceeding the speed of sound. However, this has also brought too many wars and too many disturbances, and has also caused the earth to start to catch colds and fevers. The development of biotechnology has given us the power to create life that was previously monopolized by God, but it has also brought about ethical chaos. In short, scientific progress is always accompanied by corresponding disadvantages and dangers. Today we must face up to these negative effects, otherwise we humans may eventually be destroyed by our own hands.