The problem of the negative consequences of technological progress arguments. The problem of the negative consequences of scientific progress according to the text by I. Ehrenburg (Unified State Examination in Russian)
In the story by A.P. Chekhov "Death of an Official" Chervyakov is infected to an incredible degree by the spirit of veneration: having sneezed and sprayed the bald head of the general sitting in front of him, the official was so frightened that after humiliating requests to forgive him, he died of fear.
Hero story by A.P. Chekhov's "Thick and Thin"", official Porfiry, met at the station railway school friend and found out that he was a Privy Councilor, i.e. advanced significantly higher in his career. In an instant, the “subtle” one turns into a servile creature, ready to humiliate himself and fawn over him.
Molchalin, negative character Comedy A.S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit" I am sure that one should please not only “all people without exception,” but even “the janitor’s dog, so that it is affectionate.” The need to tirelessly please is also his affair with Sophia, Famusov’s daughter. Maxim Petrovich, whom Famusov talks about for the edification of Chatsky, in order to earn the favor of the empress, turned into a jester, amusing her with absurd falls.
In the story by A.P. Chekhov "Chameleon" police warden Ochumelov grovels before those who are higher than him on the career ladder and feels like a formidable boss in relation to those who are lower. In every situation, he changes his opinions to the opposite ones, depending on which person - significant or not - is affected by it: the general’s dog or not.
N.V. Gogol comedy "The Inspector General". In this comedy, N.V. Gogol introduces us to the world of city officials. The writer exposes bribery, embezzlement, sycophancy, strict compliance bureaucratic subordination. All officials talk to Khlestakov obsequiously, with trepidation. They know that everyone takes bribes, so they immediately begin to think about how to bribe the auditor. It is characteristic that the merchants, who are in the play under the bureaucratic world, come to Khlestakov with “a body of wine and sugar loaves.” Officialdom is portrayed grotesquely in the play. So, the mayor’s tyranny is limitless. He embezzles the money allocated for the construction of the church and subjects the non-commissioned officer to the rod. The trustee of charitable institutions believes that an ordinary person “if he dies, then he will die anyway, if he gets well, then he will get well,” and instead of the required oatmeal soup, he gives the sick only cabbage. The judge, confident that in his papers “Solomon himself will not decide what is true and what is not true,” turns the judicial institution into his own fiefdom. Dr. Gibner is unable to communicate with his patients due to his complete ignorance of the Russian language. The ending of this disorder, according to the writer, is natural - the imaginary auditor leaves, but the real auditor arrives, who will be able to punish the guilty.
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin - “The History of a City.” This
the work is a bold and evil satire on the administrative arbitrariness that reigned in Russia. The writer creates grotesque images of mayors replacing each other in the city of Foolov. Each of them has its own characteristic feature, something different from the others. So, Intercept-Zalikhvatsky rode into the city on a white horse, “burned the gymnasiums and abolished the sciences.” Another mayor, Brudasty, instead of a head had a vessel with an organ that issued only two phrases: “I will not tolerate it!” and “I’ll ruin you!” Major Pimple had a stuffed head. Thus, Shchedrin’s city of Glupov is a grotesque image of all of Russia.
A.P. Chekhov's story "Thick and Thin". In this story, the author raises the problem of bureaucratic subordination and veneration of rank. Its plot is simple. Two old friends meet, at first they are very happy with each other, communicate easily, but then the “subtle” one learns that his old friend occupies an important government post. And all the simplicity of communication is immediately replaced by compliance with bureaucratic subordination. The “thin” one begins to talk to the “fat” one obsequiously, ingratiating himself with him. The second hero maintains equanimity and good nature throughout the entire story. Thus, the writer argues here against slave psychology of a person, leading to veneration, flattery and servility.
V.V. Mayakovsky - poem “The Sitting Ones”.
In this poem, the poet raises the problem of bureaucracy. We see employees reporting for duty at institutions and a pile of papers, from which “about fifty” are selected for the next meeting. Moreover, these meetings follow one after another, their topics are absurd: the theater department meets with the main department for horse breeding, the purpose of another meeting is to resolve the issue of “purchasing a bottle of ink by Sponge-operative.” Lyrical hero, vainly seeking an audience with officials, is sincerely outraged. He breaks into one of the meetings and sees “half the people.” The hero has this scary picture"The mind has gone crazy." The secretary calmly explains that the officials are “at two meetings at once.” This is how the phraseological unit unfolds in the plot of Mayakovsky’s poem: “I can’t be torn in two.” Realistic, life situation Mayakovsky merges with hyperbole, fantasy, and grotesque.
About scientific and technological progress
The question of the influence of scientific technical progress on the fate of humanity is very important. The development of technical thought throughout the world is very at a fast pace; one might say, through the combined efforts of scientists from different countries.
The main problem of the text can be indicated as follows. Currently, new branches have emerged in already established sciences, and completely new sciences have emerged, based on control using automation, cybernetics, and systems of programmed artificial intelligence. A doubt arises: won’t these extremely complex mechanisms harm humanity?
Commenting this problem, it should be said that scientists essentially test the fate of the discoveries they make on themselves, on their health, on their own nerves and the nerves of their loved ones. And this path is inevitable.
The author's position is as follows. A return to the previous, albeit proven, fundamental principles in science is no longer possible. AND scientific and technical progress, despite the most complex paths of its development, is always open in time and space. In other words, new scientific discoveries will always follow those that have already been made. The most seemingly perfect machines and mechanisms will become obsolete the next day. Moreover, they wear out not only in physical sense, but also morally they represent yesterday in the opinion of innovative-minded people.
However, the new cannot be accepted by everyone unconditionally: it must pass the test of time and prove its right to exist. At the same time, the mind must control new developments. People must understand the usefulness and necessity of each discovery. Reason is an image that expresses the activities of governments, ministries, and organizations related to future discoveries. Reasonable is necessary.
I confirm the correctness of the author’s position with the following first example. A number of talented works tell about people who are ready to go to great lengths in the name of science. The young scientist Sergei Krylov in Daniil Granin’s novel “I’m Going into a Thunderstorm” is looking for ways to identify the nature of atmospheric electricity. The work is dangerous, but the result is given only to strong and purposeful people. A young doctor-virologist in Veniamin Kaverin’s novel “Open Book” Tatyana Vlasenkova, studying the destructive effect of the plague on living organisms, travels to “hot spots”, to places of outbreak of this disease, to fight it, suppressing it at the very beginning.
The second example confirming the correctness of the author’s position can be cited from real life. In the middle of the last century in agriculture, quite conservative in nature, crop rotation technologies, the square-nest method, and crossing different individuals within the same species were used. These techniques have been replaced by others: the introduction of foreign genes into an established organism, increasing yields through fertilizers, and even the use of stem cells.
This is understandable: the world's population is increasing, but the comfort of its life should not decrease. Science serves this purpose.
In the process of creating an essay, review, essay, or oral expression, it is necessary to prove the main idea (thesis) with arguments, quotes and examples appropriate to the topic, which causes difficulties for schoolchildren.
Here are examples theses, quotes and arguments for the following dilemmas:
1. Education and culture.
2. Education of a person.
3. The role of science in modern life.
4. Man and scientific progress.
5. Spiritual Consequences scientific discoveries.
6. The struggle between the new and the old as a source of development.
Likely theses:
1. The knowledge of the world cannot be suspended by anything.
2. Scientific progress should not outstrip a person’s moral abilities.
3. The purpose of science is to make people happy.
Quotes:
1. We can do it as we know (Heraclitus, ancient Greek philosopher).
2. Not every change is development (ancient philosophers).
3. We were quite civilized to build the machine, but very simple to use it (K. Kraus, German scientist).
4. We left the caves, but the cave has not yet left us (Antony of Regul).
Arguments:
1. Scientific progress and moral properties of man.
1) The uncontrolled development of science and technology is increasingly and to a greater extent worries people. Let's imagine a baby who is dressed in his own father's suit. He's wearing a large jacket, long trousers, a hat that slides down over his eyes... Doesn't this picture remind you of modern man? Without having time to grow morally, mature, and mature, he became the owner of powerful technology that is capable of killing all life on Earth.
2) The population of the earth has achieved great success in its own development: a computer, a telephone, a bot, a conquered atom... However, it’s a strange thing: the stronger a person becomes, the more anxious the expectation of the future. What will happen to us? Where are we going? Let's imagine an inexperienced driver who is racing at breakneck speed in his own new car. How nice it is to feel speed, how nice it is to realize that a powerful motor is subject to your every movement! However, at one moment the driver realizes with fear that he cannot stop his car. The population of the earth is like this young driver who rushes into an unknown distance, not knowing what is lurking there, around the bend.
3) B ancient mythology There is a legend about Pandora's box. A woman found a strange chest in her husband’s house. She knew that this object was fraught with terrible danger, but her curiosity was so strong that she could not resist and opened the lid. Various bad luck flew out of the box and scattered around the world. This myth sounds a warning to the entire population of the earth: ill-considered actions on the path of knowledge can lead to a disastrous end.
4) In M. Bulgakov’s story, Doctor Preobrazhensky turns a dog into a man. Scientists are driven by a thirst for knowledge, a desire to change nature. However, sometimes progress turns into dire consequences: a bipedal creature with " with a dog's heart“- this is not yet a person, since there is no soul in him, no love, honor, nobility.
5) “We boarded the plane, but we don’t know where it will land!” - wrote a recognizable Russian writer Yu. Bondarev. These words sound a warning addressed to the entire population of the earth. Indeed, sometimes we are very carefree, we do something, i.e. “we board a plane” without thinking about what the consequences of our hasty decisions and thoughtless actions will be. And these consequences can be fatal.
6) Information constantly flickers in the press that an elixir of immortality will soon appear. Destruction will be completely defeated. However, for many people this news did not cause a surge of joy; on the contrary, anxiety intensified. How will this immortality turn out for a person?
7) To this day, debates about how morally legitimate experiments related to human cloning are are not extinguished. Who will be born as a result of this cloning? What kind of creature will this be? Human? Cyborg? Means of production?
8) It is naive to believe that some kind of bans or strikes can stop scientific and technological progress. So, for example, in Great Britain, during the period of rapid development of technology, a movement of Luddites began, who in despair broke cars. People had the opportunity to realize: many of them lost their jobs after machines began to be used in factories. However, the introduction of technological advances ensured an increase in productivity, so the performance of the followers of the apprentice Ludd was doomed. Another thing is that with their protest they forced society to think about the fate of certain people, about the cost that has to be paid for moving forward.
9) One science fiction story tells how the hero, finding himself in the house of a famous scientist, saw a vessel in which the scientist’s double, his genetic copy, was preserved in alcohol. The guest was amazed at the immorality of this act: “How did you have the opportunity to make a creature similar to yourself, and later destroy it?” And I heard in response: “Why do you think that I created it? It was he who created me!”
10) Nicolaus Copernicus after long periods research work concluded that the center of our Universe is not the Earth, but the Sun. However, the scientist hesitated for a long time to publish data on own discovery, because he realized that such news would change people’s ideas about the world order, and this could lead to unpredictable consequences.
11) Now we have not yet learned to cure many deadly diseases, hunger has not yet been defeated, and the most acute difficulties have not been resolved. But on a technical level, man is already capable of killing all life on the planet. At one time, the Earth was inhabited by dinosaurs - large monsters, true killing machines. In the process of evolution, these huge reptiles disappeared. Will the world's population repeat the fate of dinosaurs?
12) There have been cases in history when certain secrets that could bring harm to the population of the earth were destroyed on purpose. Namely, in 1903, the Russian doctor Filippov, who invented a method of transmitting shock waves from an explosion by radio over a long distance, was found dead in his laboratory. After which, by order of Nicholas II, all documents were confiscated and burned, and the laboratory was destroyed. It is unclear whether the ruler was governed by the interests of his security or the future of the world's population, however similar means transmission of atomic power or hydrogen explosion could really be disastrous for the world's population.
13) Not long ago, newspapers reported that a church under construction in Batumi was demolished. A week later, the district administration building fell. Seven people died under the rubble. Many residents perceived these actions not as mere coincidence, but as a stern warning that society had chosen the wrong path.
14) In one of the Ural cities they decided to blow up an abandoned church so that it would be easier to extract marble from this place. When the explosion occurred, it turned out that the marble slab was cracked in almost all places and became unusable. This example clearly indicates that the thirst for short-term gain leads a person to stupid destruction.
2. Laws of public development.
A) Man and power.
1) History knows many unsuccessful attempts to make a person happy against his will. In this case, freedom is taken away from people, then paradise is transformed into a prison. The favorite of Tsar Alexander I, General Arakcheev, when creating military settlements in the early 19th century, pursued good goals. Peasants were forbidden to drink vodka, they were supposed to go to church at the appointed hours, children were supposed to be sent to schools, and they were forbidden to be punished. It would seem that everything is correct! However, people were forced to be good, they were forced to adore, work, study... And the man deprived of freedom, turned into a slave, rebelled: a wave of general protest arose, and Arakcheev’s reforms were curtailed.
2) Alone African tribe, who lived in the equatorial zone, decided to help. Young Africans were taught to grow rice; they were given tractors and seeders. A year has passed - we came to see how the tribe, gifted with new knowledge, lives. Imagine the disappointment when they saw that the tribe was still living: they sold the tractors to farmers, and with the proceeds they organized a national holiday. This example is eloquent evidence that a person must mature to realize his own needs; you cannot make anyone rich, smart and happy against your will.
3) A severe drought occurred in one kingdom, people began to die of hunger and thirst. The ruler turned to the soothsayer, who came to them from distant states. He predicted that the drought would end when a stranger would be sacrificed. Then the ruler gave the order to destroy the soothsayer and throw him into the well. The drought ended, but from that time on a constant hunt for foreign wanderers began.
4) Historian Evgeniy Tarle in one of his books talks about Nicholas I’s visit to the Metropolitan Institute. When the rector introduced him to the best students, Nicholas I said: “I don’t need literates, but I need novices.” Attitude towards literates and novices in different areas knowledge and art eloquently testifies to the character of society.
5) In 1848, the philistine Nikifor Nikitin was exiled to the distant settlement of Baikonur “for seditious speeches about flying to the moon.” Naturally, no one had the opportunity to know that a century later, on this very spot in the Kazakh steppe, a cosmodrome would be built and spaceships would fly to where the prophetic eyes of the exalted dreamer looked.
B) Man and knowledge.
1) The most ancient historians say that one day a stranger came to the Roman emperor and brought him a gift of metal that was as shiny as silver, but very soft. The master said that he extracts this metal from clayey soil. The ruler, horrified that the new metal would devalue his treasures, ordered the inventor’s head to be cut off.
2) Archimedes, knowing that people were suffering from drought and hunger, proposed new methods of irrigating land. Thanks to his discovery, crop yields increased sharply and people stopped starving.
3) The outstanding scientist Fleming discovered penicillin. This pharmaceutical product saved the lives of millions of people who had previously died from blood infections.
4) One British engineer in the middle of the 19th century came up with an improved cartridge. However, the bureaucrats from the military department arrogantly told him: “We are strong even without that, only the weak need to improve weapons.”
5) The famous scientist Jenner, who overcame smallpox with the help of vaccinations, was inspired by the words of an ordinary peasant woman. The doctor told her that she had smallpox. To this the woman replied relaxedly: “It can’t be, because I already had cowpox.” The doctor did not consider these words to be the result of dark ignorance, but began to make observations, which led to an excellent discovery.
6) The Premature Middle Ages are usually called the “Dark Ages”. Barbarian raids, destruction ancient civilization led to the deepest decline of civilization. It was difficult to find a literate person not only among common people, but also among people of the upper class. So, for example, the founder of the Frankish country, Charles the Great, did not know how to write. But the thirst for knowledge is initially characteristic of man. The same Charles the Magnificent, during his campaigns, always carried wax writing tablets with him, on which, under the guidance of teachers, he carefully wrote letters.
7) For thousands of years, ripe apples have been falling from trees, but no one has assigned any significance to this ordinary phenomenon. It was necessary for the great Newton to be born in order to look at an ordinary fact with new, more sensitive eyes and discover the universal law of motion.
8) It is impossible to calculate how many disasters their ignorance has brought to people. In the Middle Ages, any misfortune: the illness of a child, the death of livestock, rain, drought, crop failure, the loss of some thing - was explained by intrigues evil spirits. A merciless witch hunt began and fires began to burn. Instead of curing diseases, improving agriculture, helping each other, people great forces wasted on a stupid fight with the fabulous “servants of Satan”, not realizing that with their blind fanaticism, their dark ignorance they serve the Devil.
9) It’s hard to overestimate the role of a mentor in a person’s development. An interesting legend is about the meeting of Socrates with Xenophon, the future historian. Once, having talked with an unfamiliar young man, Socrates asked him where to go for flour and butter. Young Xenophon answered smartly: “To the market.” Socrates asked: “What about wisdom and virtue?” The guy was taken aback. “Follow me, I’ll show you!” - Socrates promised. And the long-term path to the truth connected strong friendship famous teacher and his student.
10) The zeal to learn new things lives in each of us, and sometimes this feeling takes over a person so much that it forces him to change current path. Now not enough people know that Joule, who discovered the law of conservation of energy, was a cook. The excellent Faraday began own way a peddler in a shop. And Coulon worked as an engineer on fortifications and devoted only his free time to physics. For these people, the search for something new has become the meaning of life.
11) New ideas pave the way for themselves in a difficult struggle with old views, inveterate views. Thus, one of the professors, giving lectures on physics to students, called Einstein’s theory of relativity “an unfortunate scientific misunderstanding.”
12) At one time, Joule used a voltaic battery to start the electric motor he assembled from it. However, the battery charge soon ran out, and a new one was very expensive. Joule decided that the horse would never be replaced by an electric motor, because feeding a horse was even cheaper than changing the zinc in a battery. Now that electricity is used everywhere, the worldview of the famous scientist seems trustworthy to us. This example indicates that it is very difficult to predict the future, it is difficult to look at the abilities that will unfold before a person.
13) In the middle of the 17th century, from Paris to the Martinique Peninsula, Captain de Clieu carried a coffee cutting in a pot with soil. The voyage was very languid: the ship survived a fierce battle with pirates, a terrible storm almost crashed it into the mountains. The ship's masts were broken and the rigging was smashed. Supplies gradually began to run out fresh water. It was given out in strictly measured portions. The captain, barely able to stand on his feet from thirst, gave the last drops of precious water to a greenish sprout... A couple of years passed, and coffee trees covered the Martinique peninsula. This story allegorically reflects the difficult path of any scientific truth. A person carefully nurtures in his own soul the sprout of an as yet unknown discovery, waters it with the moisture of hope and inspiration, shelters it from prosaic storms and storms of despair... And here it is - the saving shore of final insight. A mature tree of truth will produce seeds, and entire plantations of theories, monographs, scientific laboratories, and technical innovations will cover the continents of knowledge.
Other selections of theses, quotes and arguments for essays on the site:
Source of material Internet site
Additionally on the site:
What consequences can the scientific and technological revolution lead to? This is precisely the question that arises when reading the text of D. A. Granin.
Revealing the problem of the influence of the scientific and technological revolution on spiritual world person, the author relies on his own reasoning and gives many examples from life. The danger of the scientific and technological revolution, according to the writer, is that a person can become complacent and limited, reducing all the diversity of the world only to a subject for scientific research.
Despite the fact that every year everything comes to museums more people, art becomes only a sphere of consumption: sightseers hastily walk around the halls, not having time to understand, feel and experience art. Books are read only to obtain information. A utilitarian, primitive approach to art as an object of consumption leads to a loss of aesthetic taste. And for Darwin, for example, this is tantamount to a loss of happiness and has a detrimental effect on moral qualities, weakening the emotional side of human nature.
The development of science and the improvement of technology can lead to the spiritual degradation of a person and slow down his development.
To confirm this idea, let's turn to the dystopian genre. Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 predicted many technical advances future. Before us is a consumer society, completely unspiritual, living only by material interests. Books that make you think are prohibited here. But the walls of the houses inside are equipped with huge television screens with endless series, where the characters become almost family members, and interactive communication is possible. Main character- fireman Guy Montag, who, as part of his duty, burns books if they are found in houses.
Let's remember another dystopia. This is E.I. Zamyatin’s novel “We,” which also depicts the future. One State separated from nature by a transparent wall, people in identical uniforms are numbers, subject to a single routine. Love here is only “pleasant - useful feature» with pink coupons. This society is soulless. And when the main character, the builder of Integral D-503, “forms a soul” because of his love for I – 330, he is subjected to surgery to cut out his fantasy. Literature as the highest form of art does not exist here; it is replaced by useful works written at the request of the state.
We have come to the conclusion that scientific and technological progress really does pose the danger of creating a soulless society.
Effective preparation for the Unified State Exam (all subjects) - start preparing
Updated: 2018-01-29
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Useful material on the topic
Confrontation of the power of human courage, courage, self-sacrifice destructive force soulless iron and steel especially stands out in the text written by the Russian prose writer and poet of the twentieth century, I. G. Ehrenburg.
The author’s position is that machines and technology created by humanity for creation, but aimed at destruction and destruction, will never be able to prevail over the will of a person who does not want to give his happiness, future and the future of his descendants to an instrument for destruction. The power that lies within brave heart, much stronger than the terrifying power of tanks and airplanes.
I completely agree with the position of I.G. Ehrenburg. A machine, of course, can become a good tool for a person if he decides to create a worthy future in which morality is not an empty word, and life is priceless. But a machine will never become a reliable support for him if it is created for the purpose of destroying everything objectionable and for the forced subjugation and control of all humanity.
In R. Bradbury's novel “Fahrenheit 451,” a machine that destroys one of the main values for a person, a book, began to tower over a person, turning him into a silent empty shell, deprived, along with the ability to know, of something more than something material and tangible, to the ability to fight and strive for one’s spiritual self-development.
The strength of the human spirit far exceeds the cold calculation of machines. Courage and self-sacrifice are not familiar to a lifeless piece of iron. This is a significant advantage of man over machine.
Ivan Samsonovich Gavrilov, participant of the Great Patriotic War, showed personal example, how strong is human reluctance to submit to the enemy, who has in his hands the most perfect at that time military equipment to protect everything that is so dear to every person.
Together with his squad, he was one of the first to cross to the right bank of the Dnieper, so that later, diverting the attention of the enemies to himself, he could help the remaining units cross the Dnieper.
Thus, I. G. Ehrenburg turned out to be right, and even the most durable armor is not capable of becoming stronger than man, she will never defeat the power of human will, courage, and most importantly, a person’s love for life, honest and worthy.
Effective preparation for the Unified State Exam (all subjects) - start preparing
Updated: 2017-04-02
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