The Government was afraid of improved technology because the air pump and electrical machines gave normal people the power of revolutionizing technology and improving it. This gives more power to the average person, instead of the government. This helped sperate the power of technology and allowed for more thought and designs of technology to form. Priestley wanted to separate the groups of technology and keep it vastly diversified so that the power of technology couldn’t be solely contained. Governments want to know everything, and this freer technology for society was imposing a risk on how government can run society as they see fit. This would cause the government to try to impose on the free society of technology.
Johnsons work helped shred light on many different scientific and technological research, but with this research, political and social climates want to attack it because it interferes with their social and political view. One example of this is the advancement of robotics in the work force. With an advantage of faster work pace and consistent work, it also comes at a price of taking human jobs. This would hurt people’s lives and hurt the economy because of unemployment. Also, when do we get to a point when robotics gets so advanced that robots form their own thought and become independent? With these unknown consequences, society fears the unknown and what could possibly happen. This charges political backlash when it comes to advancement in unknown technology and how much power that certain technology can create in societies.
3 thoughts on “Govermental Fear of No Control”
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In my blog post, I mostly talked about why religion should fear technology, so it was nice to read about why the government should fear technology. I think you wrote this in a way that explains it incredibly well, and it is definitely true that the Government is afraid of having no control.
Hey Kaylor! I really liked how you talked about how new innovations give more power to the people and that’s why the government is afraid of it. I never really thought about it in that way when I was writing my blog post but it makes a lot of sense. And I like your example in the second paragraph of robots in the workplace. I chose a very similar idea which was artificial intelligence. I think this is really going to become talked about in the coming years. Good work!
Hey Kaylor, love the post but I disagree slightly on why the government should fear air pumps and electrical machines, or at least I think it’s slightly more complicated than you present it as. At the end of the day, government officials are as much a part of a society as it’s citizens. So I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to paint them as inherently concerned with their constituents gaining more information, and therefore having more freedom in the process. I think any good person in power wants his/her people to prosper, and for the most part this is proven true by how much our government funds scientific endeavors. I think the real reason why governments should fear these, is because they have the potential to create new scientific revolutions, and therefore a paradigm shift in society. Thus a society fueled by a new set of ideals and values based off of these scientific developments could possibly need a government to match these ideals, and any politicians holding office would have a hard time adapting to these
new demands of it’s society.