This document discusses the negative impacts of emerging technologies from their inception to the present day and into the future. It argues that while technologies like the motion picture camera, television, computers, and advancing robotics and genetics began with potential benefits, they have negatively impacted society by eroding imagination, promoting sedentary and unhealthy lifestyles, enabling privacy violations, and potentially allowing machines or genetic experiments to control humanity. The document warns that unless the rapid development of technology is curbed, it could lead to the demise of human society.

1. Amanda Iliadis
Ms. Maynard
ENG3U104
Feb 26TH
2013
The Dawn of Technology
From the first flicker of technology, life has been blooming with toxic possibilities.
The window to electronic advances began with the first motion picture camera; the
beginning of our ruin. Television, a universal door to the world around us has closed our
imaginary minds. The invention of the first computer commenced the negative social
networking issues today. Finally, robotics and genetics are beginning to become
increasingly more useful; but soon we won’t even be the ones running our own lives.
Technology has and will continue, to have a negative impact on our lives because it is
becoming increasingly more scary and controlling. Therefore, technology; developing too
rapidly will be the end of mankind because through electronic advances we will become
entirely based on it allowing our minds to be useless.
The creation of electronic technology, which completely began in 1880, shaped our
world for the worse. Thomas Edison, a famous inventor of many useful things has also
created many destructible instruments to which humans lie so conveniently on. By
relying on his inventions we have been subjected to many problems for today’s society.
A lot of the things we use today have been passed down from him. Edison’s motion
picture camera has

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led to the invention of the modern day cam corder and digital camera making it easier
for people to be violated by predators. “In 1896 Edison started the National Phonograph
Co. with the intent of making phonographs for home amusement” (Bellis, 3). However
now, people have web cams and other devices allowing them to stalk people from their
own homes. It is a sickening world we live in, and if Edison had never invented the
camera, that risk of being stalked and watched would be lowered. Not only did Edison
unintentionally help predators, he also managed to invent something that changed prison
life for many years. Along with one of his researchers, Harold Brown, “Thomas Edison…
[Was] responsible for the use of the electric chair in prison (Beavertrees). Knowing that
he probably didn’t intend for things to turn out this way, they did. His inventions led us
on a dangerous path through the cycle of technology, and it continues to get worse.
Partly Because Of Edison, humans will continue to dive deeper into things we do not
fuller understand and advance the world around us in hopes of doing something right.
Television has corrupted the minds of children and adults alike since the invention
of the first. Philo Farnsworth’s invention of the first television in 1927 has made it
possible for humans to begin filling their minds with false images. Parents believe that
“television can be considered a bad influence” (Bizymoms). Horror movies, shows with
too much sexual orientation, and extreme violence contribute to those false images and
portray things as right when they are actually wrong. Not only adults and elderly people
can be

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affected; children are the number one victims. Scientists say that “[t]he first two years of
life is considered a critical time for brain development. TV and other electronic media
can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others; which
encourages learning, and healthy physical and social development” (KidsHealth). So on
the whole; television has damaged us all as a human species because it has changed the
way we look, the way we feel, and how we eat. Thanks to TV “far too many of us have
become overweight, and out of shape couch potatoes” (Mitchell). This is absolutely right.
But it is also eating in front of the TV that has encouraged it. We eat while we watch to
comfort us; whether it is during a sad movie or one full of action. That’s not what we
should be doing. Television has corrupted our minds, our eating habits, our physical
forms, and even our hearts because it is not what was intended in the first place for us.
Computers dating back since 1937 continuing to flourish have contributed to brain
deficiency, loss of memory, and early depression. Charles Babbage invented the first
computer in 1837; it was the first “analytical engine” (ComputerHope). Although it can
be argued that computers have actually helped humans, this is false. Computers have
given modern humans an escape and an excuse to not think for themselves. Children
who use the computer “may be at risk for developing vision problems” (Jernigan, 1).
Vision problems are only one of the several. It will also make their brains fuzzy, and
contribute to depression and a lack of social development. Adults have also given reports
on how they

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feel now after being exposed to so many years of computers. One woman states that
“over the past few years [she’s] had an uncomfortable sense that someone of something
has been tinkering with [her] brain, re-mapping neutral circuitry, reprogramming
memory” (Carr,1). All these things are what can happen to you by interacting too much
with the computer. The last and most scary point of all is social networking. By putting
up your address, phone number, or email for all to see, you are reeling in the online
predators without even realizing it. Overall, computers (or whatever they’ll be called in
100 years from now) are dangerous for one’s safety and health.
The future is coming. Soon, we won’t even be the ones running our own lives.
We’ve all seen movies like ‘I robot’ and ‘the matrix’, but what about movie like ‘I am
legend’ or ‘planet of the Apes’? In one case, robotics threatens to take over, and in the
other, man-made genetics ends up destroying the world. Why do you think directors and
producers decide to make those movies? There must be a reason…luckily there is. With
robots being made in Japan and the U.S that “can roll around and speak…it blinks as if
surprised, stops moving, and turns its gaze toward the person who touches it. It will also
try and grab a toy dangled in front of it.” (MailOnline). Who’s to say that one day the
robots might flick the switch by themselves and become so advanced that even we can’t
stop them? Genetics have come a long way too. We’ve gone from mutations, to test-
tube babies, to cloning, to Goodness knows what else. Who’s to say a virus won’t break
out loose in a lab and infect

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us all like in ‘Resident Evil’? Or an ape won’t develop enough human behavior to become
more than just our common ancestor? No one really knows and that’s the scariest part.
That’s why people like Leonard Cohen wrote “the future” in which he states “And now
the wheels of heaven stop, you feel the devil's riding crop, Get ready for the future: It is
murder” (Cohen). If television, media, and computers don’t murder us first, robotics and
genetics surely will be the end.
Since the dawn of technology, humans have been slowly meeting their demise.
The invention of the first light bulb was the beginning of a global disaster because
suddenly people knew they could push their limits. The television sparked a new vision
for people and guided them away from reading and natural development. Computer
technology has been increasing since the late 20th
century and now it has forced us to
use it instead of our own minds. Now and in the future who’s to say that robotics and
genetic experiments won’t blow out of control like everything else has. Personally I think
they will. We as a human species are getting into the worst war we’ve seen in centuries.
Works Cited

6. ‘Baby robot that can walk, talk and feel.’ MailOnline: Science and Tech. 7 June, 2007.
www.dailymail.co.uk/scienceetech/article-460015/Baby-robot-walk-talk- f
feel.html
Beavertrees. ‘What are the bad things that Thomas Edison has done?’ Yahoo Answers:
Arts and Humanity, History.
<www.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?quid=200
Bellis, Mary. ‘The Life of Thomas Edison.’ About.com: Inventors.
<www.inventors.about.com/od/estartinventors/a/Thomas-Edison-4.html >
Carr, Nicholas. ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?’ The Atlantic: What the internet is doing to
our brains. July/August 2008 issue.
<www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-
stupid/306868>
Cohen, Leonard. ‘Bad Future.’ TvTropes.
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‘The Downside- the bad influence of TV.’ Bizymoms: Entertainment home, TV.
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‘How TV Affects Your Child.’ KidsHealth from Nemours: Parents, School and Family Life.
<www.kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html

7. Jernigan, Katie. ‘Negative Effects of Computers on Children.’ 18 March, 2011.
LiveStrong.com: The Limitless Potential of you.
<www.livestrong.com/article/85306-negative-effects-computers-children/>
Mitchell, Terry. ‘How TV has Ruined Our Lives.’ CommenTerry. 30 September, 2012.
<www.commenterry.blogs.com/commentary/2012/09/how-tv-has-ruined-our-
lives.html>
‘When was the first computer invented?’ ComputerHope.
<www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000984.html