Are Technological Innovations Good or Bad?

Last week, as I was trying to get a laptop to project onto a tv, I found myself wondering if technological advancement is always a good thing.  I’ve connected the laptop to other devices in the past but as software upgrades are made to some devices/programs but not to others, compatibility problems arise.

Yesterday morning, we noticed our email was acting up in the office.  Later, I read a news story (Picchi, Aimee, “Microsoft 365 is experiencing an outage. Here’s what to know.” cbsnews.com.  November 25, 2024.  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/microsoft-365-down-outage-what-to-know/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h) that indicated Microsoft had done an upgrade that didn’t work.  It made me ask, “are all these upgrades necessary.”

It’s not that I think all technology is bad.  If I did, I won’t have my own website and blog.  What we need to do is regularly evaluate the benefits of technological innovations to ask if they help or hinder us.  For example, this is the question I asked about artificial intelligence (A.I.) in my article, “Is It a Good Thing?”. 

This is not a question only for computers and the internet.  If we look back in history, the invention of the printing press brought a great step forward for society, making books affordable, which in turn led to the general population being able to read.  However, not everything that has been printed since has always been good.

The industrial revolution brought a greater availability of products but also a disassociation between the product and the person(s) who made it.  I think there would be general agreement that the industrial revolution was a good turn for society but it did not come without challenges (in addition to the depersonalization, there is also labor issues of safe working conditions, etc.)

When tv was first introduced in the home, watching it was something special and families did it together.  Now we see a moral degradation of the content on tv (and the internet).  There is now so much material available out there that we live in a world of distractions and where silence is hard to find (if even sought).

I think one of the greatest challenges with technological innovation today is the speed of the innovations.  The innovations come so fast that society is not taking the time to stop and ask if the innovations are always good.  Sometimes, it isn’t the innovation itself that is the problem.  It is what we do with the innovations.

For the internet, I think an obvious good from the internet is the availability of good religious information.  A corresponding challenge is that there is so much false (or unsupported) information on the internet, how do we know what is true (see “Many Voices:  Who Should We Listen To?”, January 22, 2021.  https://renewaloffaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Morality-Many-Voices-Who-Should-We-Listen-to.pdf),

Of course, there is also morally corrupt material available on the internet such as pornography and information used by terrorists.

There is also the challenge of the speed in which information and people move today.  With modern communication, something can happen on the other side of the world and we can immediately know it.  In general, this should be good but sometimes it causes challenges in the volume of information out there and the unfiltered nature of some of the information.  We know something has happened but we don’t hear the whole story.

We need to ask how we keep technological innovations in check with what is good for society and for the good of each person.  Just because we can do a thing doesn’t mean that we should do it.

Some of these concerns as well as others were presented in the Second Vatican Council document, Gaudium et Spes (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.  December 7, 1965.  http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_cons_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html).

For instance, in paragraph 18, we read, “All the endeavors of technology, though useful in the extreme, cannot calm his anxiety; for prolongation of biological life is unable to satisfy that desire for higher life which is inescapably lodged in his breast.”  We need to constantly review what is happening to determine if it is good.

Paragraph 33 speaks of how modern innovations have brought us today, “Through his labors and his native endowments man has ceaselessly striven to better his life. Today, however, especially with the help of science and technology, he has extended his mastery over nearly the whole of nature and continues to do so. Thanks to increased opportunities for many kinds of social contact among nations, the human family is gradually recognizing that it comprises a single world community and is making itself so. Hence many benefits once looked for, especially from heavenly powers, man has now enterprisingly procured for himself.”

The speed of worldwide communication today can bring us together.  However, if technological innovations are not regularly evaluated for all their effects, we allow society to suffer.  Paragraph 56 of Gaudium et Spes reads, “How is the dynamism and expansion of a new culture to be fostered without losing a living fidelity to the heritage of tradition. This question is of particular urgency when a culture which arises from the enormous progress of science and technology must be harmonized with a culture nourished by classical studies according to various traditions.”  We need to ask how we bring together the good things of the past and the good in new innovations for the betterment of the people. 

The driving force of society should never be the technological innovations themselves.  We must always ask the question, do the innovations help us to grow in our personhood or are individuals lost  in it.  Gaudium et Spes reads, “When man develops the earth by the work of his hands or with the aid of technology, in order that it might bear fruit and become a dwelling worthy of the whole human family and when he consciously takes part in the life of social groups, he carries out the design of God manifested at the beginning of time, that he should subdue the earth, perfect creation and develop himself. At the same time he obeys the commandment of Christ that he place himself at the service of his brethren” (57).

With this in mind, we need to ask God to guide us in the use of innovations.  To conclude, I think we can use the following words from Gaudium et Spes in prayer so that we may work to ensure the good use of innovations, “May the faithful, therefore, live in very close union with the other men of their time and may they strive to understand perfectly their way of thinking and judging, as expressed in their culture. Let them blend new sciences and theories and the understanding of the most recent discoveries with Christian morality and the teaching of Christian doctrine, so that their religious culture and morality may keep pace with scientific knowledge and with the constantly progressing technology. Thus they will be able to interpret and evaluate all things in a truly Christian spirit” (62).

Peace,

Fr. Jeff