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Arpit Raorane
English 1302-001
Debbie Olson
05/10/2015
A Dive into Technological World
With increasing number of machines, the technology is gradually taking over every
aspect of our life. The advancement in technology is changing the way we live and work. The
key point which distinguishes humans and machines is intelligence. With the exponential growth
in the modern technology and artificial intelligence the day is not far when machines will take
over our lives. Human, using their intelligence crated computers, and now computers has
revolutionized the way information is processed, the way things are done. Technology has paved
its way in all sectors of economy. The computer technology has tremendous power, they can be
used for purpose of entertainment to controlling missiles. They have become so common that
almost everyone has one form or other of it. After the development of computers, scientists
started to develop artificial intelligence and give computers the power to think and work
accordingly. The issue I chose is Advancement in Technology. The world in which we
currently live runs on technology. There is a new technological development every single day.
The way in which technology is affecting human is life is something which should be paid
attention to. So that we actually know how helpful it really is. This interests because it opens a
whole new world of possibilities to mankind. Technology mainly artificial intelligence can take
things to a new level with everything automated, but this raises a question of security and also it
might affect human jobs. This issue is important to everyone because in near future machines
will take over all human resources. Technology may govern the way of life. As the technology

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goes on becoming an integral part human life. Its mandatory for us to know the advantages and
disadvantages of these technological advancement.
Scholars like, Prof Stephen Hawking, one of Britain's pre-eminent scientists, has said
that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence. He told the BBC:
"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race" (32). Nick
Bostrom, Swedish philosopher is the director of the Future of Humanity Institute at the
University of Oxford, where hes spent a lot of time thinking about the potential outcomes of the
singularity. In his book Superintelligence, Bostrom argues that once machines surpass human
intellect, they could mobilize and decide to eradicate humans extremely quickly using any
number of strategies (deploying unseen pathogens, recruiting humans to their side or simple
brute force). The world of the future would become ever more technologically advanced and
complex, but we wouldnt be around to see it. A society of economic miracles and technological
awesomeness, with nobody there to benefit (122) he writes. A Disneyland without children
(78). But, there are few scholars who believe that technology and AI is beneficial. Not all view
the future of AI as injurious to humanity. In fact, it could save lives on a massive scale. Machines
of the future could help create an abundance of resources in parts of the world where they are in
short supply, producing crops and operating on patients in third-world countries, among other
endeavors, write Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, in their book Abundance: The Future is
Better than you Think. The authors remind us continually throughout the book how far weve
come: this generation of human beings has access to more calories, watts, lumen-hours,
square-feet, gigabytes, megahertz, light-years, nanometers, bushels per acre, miles per gallon,
food miles, air miles, and, of course, dollars than any that went before, they write. In the next
few decades and beyond, smart technology can only multiply this progress exponentially, to

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relieve our worlds problems in ways we can barely even imagine today, the authors contend. Its
rosy picture to paint in the face of seemingly so much economic, agricultural, civil and medical
unrest in so many parts of our world, but it doesnt hurt to wonder: if robots could solve all of
these problems, oh, what a wonderful world would this be?
The media shows the two extreme sides of the issue. Technology is either portrayed as
the best thing that can happen to mankind or as the most harmful one which will disturb the
balance of life. Most of the times media portrays technology as something bad. Its said that
technology will come up with robots and Artificial Intelligence which will take over human jobs.
Channels like Discovery show how mankind is in danger because of the fast development of
artificial intelligence. News channels hosts talks and discussions which evaluate the future of the
technology and how it can be harm mankind. People who believe that more progress in
technology will bring a downfall to human civilization and mainly based their views on the
science fiction works, movies and other TV series.
Hollywood and other movie industries portray technology and in a disastrous way. This
causes a negative impact on the audience and make them form a prejudice about technology and
artificial intelligence. For example, in the movie Transcendence (Wally Pfstr 2014), the director
has shown how technology can advance to a level where humans themselves become robots and
how human life can be transferred into robots after death. This whole idea itself is scary and
makes audience fear that one day such things could happen in reality. In transcendence it is
shown how a human preserves his life through transferring his memory and brain into a robot.
He then goes on to make a whole army of replicates to take over the world. Also, it is shown that
humans are submissive to technology. It is not only Hollywood, other film industries like
Bollywood too depict the same picture. In the movie Ra-One ( Anubhav Sinah 2011) it is shown

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that a developer develops a game with a bad character as its lead and then the character comes
into reality as a robot and has access to all the information across globe. Then its shown how it
causes destruction and messes things up. Other hit movies like Terminator, Matrix and Tech-bee
put forward a similar view. This view has now become a general viewpoint of common man.
Thus, there are different ways in which technology is portrayed and it is a general notion that it is
harmful.
In addition to this many, many Hollywood movies and television series have been
presenting technology as a very serious issue and the process in which humans are exposed to the
technological threat. Films such as Her (Spike Jonze 2013) and series such as The Flash (The
CW 2014) reflect the development of technology and how your lives are changing because of it.
Although most people would believe that the series The Flash shows an anti-technological
notion, I would argue that the series supports technology and contradicts the notion that the
technology is harmful and destructive towards the world. This series also includes numerous
elements that shows have technology if developed in a systematic way can lead to betterment of
the world.
In the start of the series The Flash, in its first episode The Flash is born, the scientist
develop a nuclear reactor which is supposed to make a revolutionary technological breakthrough.
The first phase of the plans goes well and leads to discover of many other machines which help
to save lives. They make a Nano-technology particles which when injected into human body can
cure clotting of blood and can destroy bad cells. This invention lands in wrong hands in staring
but then the Flash recovers it back. This depicts how if technology when used in proper manner
help save many lives. As said by Agah , Technology will be the new medicinal cure to all
diseases and revolutionize the way medical industry will function (2), the advancement in

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technology with focusing on biomedical engineering can cure problems out of many patience
and help them start a new life. With new advanced machineries coming up and various computed
operations, health care sector will have many advantages and thus in end it will result in
increased life expectancy of humans. Thus this shows that technology when it right hands and
developed in proper manner is always beneficial to humans.
During the second phase of the development of the reactor the process goes wrong and it
blasts off, creating Meta humans, cyborg creatures. These creatures have special technology
powers and can do various things. During these scenes the whole TV frame is shoot in the dark
mode and after the explosion occurs, thunderstorms is shown. This thunder storm and the dark
mode scenes depict start of bad times and beginning of the technology going in wrong way. The
Meta humans which are born, have advanced powers which can destroy the world. This
represents the real fact that what will happen if the technology which we are developing falls in
wrong hand or it leads to something destructive. Later in the series the scientists develop another
cyborg which has many capabilities. This cyborg is shown as the hero, against the other villain
bad technological machines. The cyborg with the help of the scientist and their inventions like
the light gun and other weapons manage to take over the bad machines though use of good;
technology. This whole process gives out a hidden message and that is if in future when if the
technology is developed to such an extent that it might possess a threat to humans or nature then
there will be something which will oppose it and stop it from developing it. There will be a cure
to the technological problems too. There are two sides to a coin and so to technology and we
must look at the brighter side (266). As everything in life has positive and negative things we
must look at the how those positive things will help us and how to reduce the negatives.
Similarly, if there is a situation in reality where technology out powers human then it can be

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counter-attacked and things can be brought in control. Also, it is not sure if the singularity is
actually possible to achieve. There are people who argue that the development of conscious
machines may never be possible. As it is mentioned in t by Dennis Bray, Many biologists are
skeptical about claims to build a human brain on a computer (1). In this essay Bray explains that
human brain is too complex to me imitated by machine. Thus, we can go ahead with developing
the technology keeping ethics in mind.
The series Flash when viewed in detail gives food for thought that the machines will
always be under the control of man as they are invented by humans. Also, when we make
something we also know how to stop it and not let it outlaw with power. So, by any chance if the
technology overpowers mankind then we will have means and other advancements to stop it. In
the Flash we are shown that development of technology is process of life evolution and there is
no means we can stop it. But, what we can ensure is that it is developed in proper manner so as
to benefit us. As, shown in Flash, the right people, Dr. Wells, Cisco and Berry get together to
stop the disaster which could have caused due to machines getting in power. Then they realize
how if we can use technology in the right way it can help every sector of industries. In The Flash,
the team of good people work on machines which help the police and law system to get hold of
criminals. They build a dream monitoring machine which helps doctors to let practice who have
regular bad dreams, to control the bad dreams and get over the fear. They make many other bio
medical advancements which can save lives. Thus, Flash shows us all the ways in which
technology can be useful. Author Antonov said New knowledge obtained with the help of
human super intelligence will allow significantly improving the life quality, solving regional and
global environmental issues, solving the energy supply problems and many others. It is necessary
to develop the human multi-factor intelligence systems based both on super computers and

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personal computers (19). All this tells us that we should look at technology as something which
will benefit us and simplify our life.
The issue of technology has always been in spotlight through films, series and news.
Most of these showing the downsides of technology, this has brought a negative notion in minds
of people. But, the series I choose has very well shown how technology can help mankind and
make them live in a better world. Technology if developed in a proper and controlled way can be
the best thing that can happen to this world. Thus the portrayal of the technology by the media is
absolutely contradictory to the idea that the series presents in regard to the actual situation.
Hence the series, Flash must be viewed as a series that supports technology and reflects the fact
that if technology if developed in systematic way can lead to betterment of the world.

Work Cited:

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Allen, Paul. The Singularity Isnt Near. MIT Technology Review (2011). Web
Bostrom, Nick. How long before Superintelligence? International Journal of Future
Studies 2. (1998). Print
Brooks, Rodney A. Intelligence Without Reason. Artificial Intelligence 47. 1-3(1991): 139159. Web
Davis, Ernest. The Singularity and the State of the Art in Artificial Intelligence: The
technological singularity. Ubiquity. An ACM Publication (2014). Web
Kurzweil, Ray. The Singularity is near: When humans transcend biology. New York: Viking,
2005. Print
Vinge, Vernor. The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human
Era. VISION-21 Symposium (1993). Print
Eden, Amnon, James Moor, Johny Sraker and Eric Steinhart, eds. Singularity Hypotheses:
A Scientific and Philosophical Assessment. Berlin: Springer Heidelberg, 2012. 15-35. Print.