Give 5 risks and 5 benefits derived from scince and technology?

Answer 1

Risks: 1: Global warming -- our technology is killing our environment. 2: Possible network-wide failure because of a computer virus or malfuntion (like Y2K, except real). 3: Nuclear warfare and fallout -- our technology would, in theory, allow us to destroy the world as we know it. This is not a good thing, even if it helps us win wars. Also in that category: weapons of mass destruction, bioweapons, and so on (the fact that there is a "so on" is scary in and of itself). 4: Religious conflicts or wars -- since many religions hold beliefs contradictory to scientific fact, there is a lot of tension in that area. 5: Scary sci-fi-type stuff including horrific tortures, exploitation in terrible ways, governmental evilness from unstoppable technology, mindlessness from robotification or too much T.V., etcetera, which actually is possible given the nature of some horrible things humans already do. Benefits: 1: Longer life spans, less disease, suffering, dead babies, all that good stuff. 2: Greater understanding of the world around us and who we are and where we come from (which is awesome), and not being ignorant. 3: Space travel and/or warp drive, which is possible, which could allow us to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no man has gone before -- what's wrong with the kind of life they live in Star Trek? Seems pretty happy to me, generally. 4: More tolerance of others, because we know how similar to others we are. 5: Being able to live a happier life because you don't have to work reeeally hard to get food and not get eaten by predators and not having any fun at all. You can tell I'm a nerd. But, hey, where would we be without nerds?