Social Implications of Advances in Science

Social Implications of Advances in Science

Advancements in science and technology have resulted in a high rate of dynamism in social life. Currently, people have to adapt to certain changes in health, communication, education, and many other fields due to a shift from traditional methods of operation to more advanced approaches. Various developments in science shape human life today. The impacts of such developments in social life can be positive or negative, depending on a particular field. For example, advancements in health science have improved the quality of life while there are several controversies in some developments, such as genome editing. The field of communication is not left out since there are notable advances that improve the ability of individuals to interact. Science improvements in communication have made the world be united as a common village. Undoubtedly advancements in science have major impacts on society, and the effects are growing at a higher rate. Science makes life easier, allowing people to pursue societal issues such as aesthetics, education, justice, health culture, and improve the general human condition.

K.D.Stephan et al. (2012) advancements in science impacts society through its knowledge and world view. In the current world, science knowledge and processes define the way people think about themselves and how they relate to others and the environment. Scientific knowledge has helped individuals to create new ways to solve practical problems. Through science knowledge, informed decisions can be made collectively or individually. Artificial intelligence and the internet of things are some of the current developments in science that have significant societal impacts (Fred, 2014). The integration of artificial intelligence and robotics have improved job automation, replacing the traditional labor force that enhanced repetitive and job autonomy. Complex job descriptions are nowadays done through technology, which is more accurate and faster than the use of traditional methods. It is noted that robots have a higher working speed than human beings; therefore, the rate of production is increased. Consequently, more wealth has been created since the introduction of robots in production processes. Scientific research shows that the use of robots for household duties has improved the quality of life by reducing the performance of repetitive jobs over and over again.

Further, when robots are used to develop self-driving cars, human efforts are channeled to other more creative and productive areas. Fred (2014) noted that artificial intelligence is applied in several areas such as business, expert systems, speech recognition, and vision. Current society has benefited a lot from artificial intelligence since it makes work easy. Businesses have been expanded to increase the rate of production; hence people’s living standards improved. Artificial intelligence has significant impacts on people’s lives in society at large. Despite the positive implications of artificial intelligence and robots as scientific improvement, there are several controversial issues.

By replacing human labor with robots, people are left jobless. Research shows with the introduction of robots in the job market, 52% of job opportunities will be left for robots (Janna & Lee 2018). This means that 52% of the employed individuals now will be jobless. A high rate of unemployment has several adverse impacts on society. Increased unemployed people hurts the economy as people have less money to spend. Unemployment affects people’s health, and the mortality rate may rise. It is also recognized that the constant use of robots to perform most tasks creates a culture of laziness and makes people idle (Janna & Lee 2018). Another adverse social impact of artificial intelligence and robots is that it creates the risk of uneven wealth distribution. With robots in the production industries, wealth cannot be distributed across all social groups, and some societies may be marginalized due to the inability to access technological advancements. One of the current controversial subjects today is the use of robots in the military. It is noted that military robots powered by artificial intelligence lack human emotions such as pain and empathy. War experts note that military robots may acts inappropriately in certain situations; therefore, endangering civilians. Humanoids are being developed to increase social interaction with human beings in several places such as medical care facilities, personal assistants, and as companions (Janna & Lee 2018). These developments are expected to result in new social interactions that will need new defined ethical and legal ways. If not controlled, psychological aspects of such communications may be fatal in the long run, given the humanoids lacks emotional feelings.

BIANCA BANOVA (2019) reveals that scientific advancements have increased the rate of social interactions through the internet and communication networks. It is noted that advancements in science and technology in the past years have resulted in a significant impact on how people work and interact with one another. Through the internet, the world has been turned into a global village where people can interact and share ideas irrespective of where their geographical locations. It is noted that in the year 2020, 5.19 billion people, which represents 67% of the world population, interacted through mobile networks (BIANCA BANOVA, 2019). This implies that social interactions have increased profoundly, which is very helpful in sharing information. For example, the current pandemic, which is COVID-19, would be fatal if there were no social interactions through the internet. Social interactions are beneficial since it helps people share ideas and solutions to solve common problems. Science and technological developments have also improved network communications. Advancements in network promote automated data gathering and remote access to computer servers that can forecast weather. The use of satellites and terrestrials radio systems have enables people to create conventional network systems that share similar data. Communication systems have been greatly improved with new innovations. Effective and efficient communication in society ensures the smooth running of various services and processes in society. Where people can communicate and pass information effectively, there is a high rate of progress, and further developments may probably occur. Even though social interaction is beneficial to humans, there are adverse impacts of social interactions that endanger human life.

Through the internet and physical interactions, people get influenced after sharing bad ideas that are not helpful in society. Several studies reveal that most youths interact over the internet, and they get bad influences from their peers. This changes their behavior and characters and becomes more destructive and unreasonable. Social media influence on schooling children is one of the major problems that parents and teachers have to deal with every time. There is a high rate of sharing negative information such as porn activities over the internet that have no social benefit to anyone. In another view, physical interactions may also be destructive, especially during pandemics such as COVID-19. In this case, science and technological advancements in networking and communication have adverse societal impacts. Nevertheless, the negative effects of social media can be controlled and monitored to ensure that only positive and beneficial effects are experienced.

In the field of medicine, the implications of scientific developments are overwhelming. The use of robots in medicine to assist doctors in transport, testing, and manufacture of drugs has increased significantly in the recent past (BIANCA BANOVA, 2019). Robots help in static tasks shifting dependence on human expertise. Robot performed jobs do not consider ethical issues since there is no human involvement. Surgical robots ensure greater precision in delicate areas such as the brain, heart, and lungs. It is essential to note that despite the use of robots in the surgical rooms, human surgeons control the outcome of the entire process.

Nevertheless, the use of robots in the surgical process has social impacts that are worth highlighting. First, the surgical process that involves the use of robots is costly. The robots are expensive in terms of money, and their mistakes made during the process can be more costly. Mistakes made by robots can risk patients’ lives and may lead to deaths. Robots cannot be trusted to perform the delicate surgical process on human beings since they lack social responsibility. Due to such reasons, robots would continue to be criticized, and all operations that engage them are termed as risky. There is a significant difference between robots and humans since humans can undergo training and learn more about medicine, while robots cannot objectively learn. This makes robots operations riskier than human performed surgical procedures.

K.D.Stephan et al. (2012) pointed out that advances in science may lead to disparities in access and affordability of the new advances by the members of the society. For example, the latest technologies and approaches for treating and curing particular diseases often customized for each individual always have a high cost associated with acquiring and accessing them. This will make only the wealthier people in the society to afford and access them disadvantaging the poor. This leads to social inequalities and stratification in society because the latest advancements in health sciences are primarily available only for the richer members of society. As individuals with little income in the society cannot afford the quality and expensive drugs, they turn to cheaper and ineffective offers, which may be counterfeit medicines. This affects the poor because the medications are likely to be ineffective for healing purposes. Besides, the counterfeit drugs may also be poisonous, causing harm to their health and deteriorates their immunity (K.D.Stephan et al., 2012). The affordability and access to advanced medicine may influence other Medicine Production companies to produce ineffective products to the society because of competition. Interpolating this phenomenon globally, wealthier countries may benefit from advances and improvements in healthcare because they can comfortably afford advances to their citizens. This would be unaffordable to less developed countries because of a lack of funds and credit facilities to provide them.

Notable progress in health sciences has an impact on the workforce. The new advances in science and technology require a different set of personnel and skills. The implications of advances in science have exponentially increased the rate of services in the health sector and the speed at which services are offered. It has helped workers to become more efficient, and operations that could take hours can take minutes. However, advances in science have replaced specific jobs that have displaced some workers or have led to the retraining of the workers. Robots may also replace some works (Fred, 2014). The use of medicinal machines has increased efficiency and performance by eliminating human errors. This has destroyed employments of unskilled personnel in the health sector. If personnel are unable to cope with the advancements, there are chances that they may face unemployment. Moreover, scientific advancement in health care needs to be governed and regulated to ensure that the new methods are safe.  The governments should make sure that that technology is available and affordable to its larger population, not a subset of privileged individuals in the country.  The adoption of new advancements may differ by country due to the belief systems and cultural norms that may affect the approach given to the advancements by the locals.

Developments in science may also affect antibiotic development through resistance. There is less production of antibiotics to counter high priority pathogens.  According to the World Health Organization, the antibiotics produced are innovative (Fred, 2014). Doctors have prescribed antibiotics with situations that have symptoms of bacterial infection which later affects the immune system of the patients to resist antibiotics. A microbial resistance from an individual may affect people worldwide. The advance in genetically modified plants has also resulted in antibiotic resistance.  The antibiotic resistance gene that is sometimes used in genetically modified plants transfers the resistance genes to humans through Horizontal Gene Transfer. Antibiotic resistance can affect patients who have never had an infection with a resistant organism because of the increasing rates of resistance in pathogens (Fred, 2014). The resistance may lead to higher medical costs to patients, prolonged stay in hospitals and increased mortality rate. Infections caused by antibiotic resistance may lead to microbiological unfitness and antimicrobial therapy. The diseases caused by antibiotics resistance require toxic treatment that can lead to adverse effects. Patients who use colistin for pseudomonas infections have a high risk of renal dysfunction.

BIANCA BANOVA (2019) noted that technological advance in science has also led to genome editing. This is the genetic modification of plants and animals. Social adoptions of some genetically modified products have been modified with the pesticides which have fatal effects on human health. As the newer generation becomes more familiar with the concept of genetically modified products, they will advance more using hazardous components that affect human life. Besides, the genetic cloning of pets has raised a lot of concern due to advancements in science. Cloning of pets has concerns in the relation of treating host animals associating with the age of the genome used (BIANCA BANOVA, 2019). Even though it is done ethically, it is important to note legal regulation and scientific peer oversight when conducting cloning.  Genetically modified foods contain oxalic acid and phototoxic psoralens in celery that causes difficulty in breathing to coma and cermatitis and sunburn that may cause skin cancer, respectively. These modifications are dangerous because they are irreversible e in humans.  These genetically modified implications have unpredictable effects on human evolution. The recorded gene that is passed from generation to generation may cause different genotypes in humans, which may be resistant to some diseases. In the case of human gene modification, the negative genes hinder scientific research by influencing the power of evolution.

In conclusion, advancements in science and technology have resulted in a high rate of dynamism in social life. Today, people have to adapt to certain changes in health, communication, education, and many other fields due to a shift from traditional methods of operation to more advanced methods. There are various developments in science that shape human life today. The impacts of such developments in social life can be positive or negative, depending on a particular field.

References

K.D.Stephan, Katina Michael, M.G. Michael, Laura Jacob, Emily P. Anesta(May 2012), Social Implications of Technology: The Past, the Present, and the Future, Proceedings of the IEEE 100(Special Centennial Issue):1752-1781

Fred Guterl (November 2014), What Impact Will Emerging Technologies Have on Society?,

Janna Anderson, Lee Rainie(April 2018), Concerns about the future of people’s well-being,

BIANCA BANOVA (June 2019), The Impact of Technology in Healthcare, https://www.aimseducation.edu/blog/the-impact-of-technology-on-healthcare/