Similar issues around technology arise in health care. We spend a ton of money on medical technology and research relative to other public programs. I think one reason is to help assuage our discomfort with our finitude. Technology's claimed promise of cures, prolonged life, and indefinite existence seems to give us an illusion of control over our fate, or at least the hope of control...
Our world spends 90% of all its health research money on problems that affect only the richest/healthiest 10% of the world's population. Perhaps if we didn't see technology as a means of gaining control over our finitude, we would use our research funds more justly.
Here's a related article that does a pretty good job of comparing the secular/scientific aspirations vs theological perspectives regarding mortality and technology. The author, Callahan, is a renowned Christian bioethicist. http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/bulletin/articles/callahan.html
Thanks for posting, Kyle. I liked the article.
ReplyDeleteSimilar issues around technology arise in health care. We spend a ton of money on medical technology and research relative to other public programs. I think one reason is to help assuage our discomfort with our finitude. Technology's claimed promise of cures, prolonged life, and indefinite existence seems to give us an illusion of control over our fate, or at least the hope of control...
Our world spends 90% of all its health research money on problems that affect only the richest/healthiest 10% of the world's population. Perhaps if we didn't see technology as a means of gaining control over our finitude, we would use our research funds more justly.
Here's a related article that does a pretty good job of comparing the secular/scientific aspirations vs theological perspectives regarding mortality and technology. The author, Callahan, is a renowned Christian bioethicist. http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/bulletin/articles/callahan.html