week 12

The Green Revolution goes into great depth talking about how some underdeveloped countries are marketing themselves to become more self-sufficient. The underdeveloped countries are hoping to utilize packages of tropical agriculture inputs of grain products, which then are able to produce wheat and rice at a much higher level per acre. For this idea to succeed, irrigation and fertilizer must be controlled. However, just because there is a great quantity of rice and wheat, there is also a drop off in quality as it simply isn’t as well made. One primary question that arises from this dilemma is whether or not programs such as the Green Revolution are actually contributing to the ecological crisis that plagues the United States. In my opinion, these programs are very much so hurting us in the long run as they are really only beneficial to a few areas in third world countries. Part of what we discussed in class was that when technologies are created, it is usually because the people who create them have some sort of idea what the outcome will end up being. However, there are always going to be side effects associated with newer technologies that were not as planned. For the most part these side effects prove to be negative on society in general. Despite these side effects being so common, it is almost impossible to determine exactly what and when they are going to be and happen. It will always be hard to predict the kind of social gain and whether it outweighs the social cost for new technologies, particularly because societies sometimes take a while to even feel the negative effects. New technologies often create tensions in societies. Tensions that may even take years before society can determine if they can even effectively integrate the technology into their society and the social structures. One important thing to note is that more often than not the frameworks of new technologies are connected to the elements of technology. Sometimes people only think about the possible gains of new technology, and often overlook the possible negative implications that they might carry as well. The real question is, does the gain out weigh the possible cost and negative impact on society?