Science and Technology Advancements

Changes in Science and Technology

• Substitution: Technology is replaced by a new or better one, e.g., software updates, creation of better technologies.
• Diffusion: The spread of adopted technologies from the source to receivers, influenced by:

  Factors of Diffusion

  • Modernity: The extent to which a culture is receptive to new things, affecting how technology is welcomed or received.
  • Homophily: The similarity of society members, making it more likely for innovation to spread.
  • Physical Distance: The shorter the distance between people, the more likely innovation will spread.
  • Opinion Leadership: Charismatic influencers, such as reviews or vlogs, play a role in technology adoption.

National Development through S&T

• A nation that does not prosper through S&T will struggle to sustain its people's lives and may have to depend on other nations for basic requirements.

National Development Indicators

• Economic Indicators

  • Gross Domestic Product (GDP): Measures income or expenditures within a country, including consumer spending, business income, and government investments.
  • Per Capita Income: Average income earned by a person in a particular place, measuring economic status and quality of life.
  • Gross National Product (GNP): The sum of all goods and services produced in a country by its people in a year, including income from abroad.

• Labor Indicators

  • Employment Rate: Measures labor resource utilization, with a high rate above 70% and a low rate below 50%. (Philippines: 95.2% as of Feb 2023)
  • Structure of Labor Force: The total number of men and women able to work, whether employed or unemployed.

• Human Development Indicators

  • Human Life Expectancy: The average number of years an individual or group can expect to live (Male: 68.7, Female: 74.7 in the Philippines).

• Urbanization Indicators

  • Percentage of Urban Population: The percentage of people living in urban areas, not relying on agriculture products.

• Income Distribution Indicators

  • Income Distribution: Measures how a country's GDP is distributed, highlighting the distribution of wealth among the rich and poor. (In the Philippines, 1% of the population controls most of the wealth.)

Information and Social Networking

• Oral passing of information compromised the certainty of facts, whereas online materials are validated and more reliable.

Convenience in Education

• Education is no longer limited to the classroom, with online classrooms and e-resources like e-books and e-journals.

Improved Housing, Lifestyle, and Entertainment

• Smart homes, like Siri, Alexa, and Google, can control features like temperature, Wi-Fi, and lights, making the entire house centralized and connected to phones.
• Virtual Reality (VR) technology has improved entertainment, with examples like VR Boxing.

Convenience in Traveling/ Transportation

• Modern technology enables fast and convenient travel from one country to another.

Change in the Health Industry

• Swift Ray-1, a device that creates medical-grade images using smartphones to diagnose wounds and monitor them.
• Other notable advancements include Artificial Retina, advanced prosthetics, anti-aging drugs, and tooth regeneration.
• Robotic nurses, like Grace and Sofia, assist patients and remove some workload from healthcare workers, using Lydar technology.

Efficiency and Productivity

• Machines can perform tasks with precision and efficiency, resulting in fast mass production and reduced labor costs.

Creativity and Innovation

• Online opportunities enable creative and innovative approaches to business and access to information that boosts creativity.

Disadvantages of Modern Technology

Job Loss and Human Displacement

• Automation leads to job loss as businesses invest in machines for efficiency and quality.

World Destruction Weapons

• Weapons like nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons have ethical implications and can cause significant damage to humans, infrastructures, or the planet.

Physical-Social Isolation

• Over-reliance on technology leads to isolation, causing absence in relationships with families and friends.

Increased Loneliness

• Dependence on modern tools and technology contributes to increased loneliness.

Reduced Intelligence

• Over-reliance on technology reduces creativity and innovation.

Emerging Technological Ethical Dilemmas

Real-Time Surveillance

• Real-time surveillance and imagery can be helpful but may violate human privacy.

Colonizing Mars

• NASA Mars One, a space mission to colonize Mars, raises ethical concerns about risk assessment and human experimentation.

Wearable Technology

• Smart watches and devices may expose private details.

State-Sponsored Hacktivism and “Soft War”

• Hacking government databases or organizations for valuable information is a form of terrorism in the ICT field.

Enhanced Pathogens

• Research on human pathogens like bacteria and viruses poses a risk to bio-safety and human life.