The idea of progress: to what extent can progress be consideres as a positive change?

Progress

The notion I’m going to tackle is « Progress ».
Progress can be defined as an improvement or a change. It can be an alternative way of life, technological, medical or social advance which contributes to the betterment oh the world.
Progress implies changes that evolve from an old version to a new one which is not adopted by everyone. In fact, as the rythm of progress seems to have accelerated over the past decade, it is at the heart of a debate between those who approve the changes that it brings and those who still fight to keep  the traditions. One must wonder :
TO WHAT EXTENT CAN PROGRESS BE CONSIDERED AS A POSITIVE CHANGE ?
In order to illustrate this notion I will talk about the technological progress then continue with the medical progress.

Let’s talk about the technological progress. Technology has enormously evolved this century. Nowadays eletrical devices such as phone, laptops, Ipods and Ipads are essentials in our quotidian life. Like we see in in class  a reporter did a survey  about the experience life of some students without technology. As we predicted, there are mixed reviews for this experience. For some students, it’s a hard time because they are addict to their electronical devices. It’s a kind of company for them, without these they feel alone. For some other students it’s a very good idea because it makes them more open to what is the real life outside the social one. Furthermore, these students realize that technology is just a kind of help that is becoming bigger everyday and affect a big part of the new generations that are exposed too early to the media.
However, the most heated debate concerning technological progress is definitly the one about machines replacing men. Since the beginning of the 20th century, machines have taken an important part in our world and helped ease our lives. These new technologies are a double-edge weapon as it can help industries producte more and at the same time, they slowly replacing men, thus creating unemployment.

On the other hand, the medical and scientific progress has improved standards of living. In fact, many medical advances and descoveries have helped curing illnesses such as AIDS and types of cancer. Moreover, on a scientific level, innovations such as GMOs and Cloning are considered as exeptionnal breakthroughs but these techniques are still not embraced by all due to the fact that some think that they mess with nature.
In addition to this, the « designer babies » which is technique that allows the parents to chose the physical traits of the baby, is disputable. For instance, some are appaled with fact that it tampers with Mother Nature. For example, Molly Nash, a 15 years old girl was cured in 2000 by a bone marrow transplant from her brother Adam, who was the first case of baby selected as an embryo in a fertility lab beacause of him being an ideal transpla,nt candidate for his sister. This technique is called « pre-implantation genetic diagnosis » (PGD) and is still at the heart of a heated debate. So even in the medical and scientic field, even ,new discoveries band inovations can heal diseases and cure illness, some techniques are still nog accepted by all. It’s  creating debates about if they are really a positive change in our world.

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