Our ancient ancestors lived in damp cold caves,
While we inhabit large climate-controlled houses.
That's the benefit of technology, you told me,
How can you dispute its benefits to humanity?
The problem with technology, as you will see,
Is that the benefits are not shared equally.
There are many more losers than beneficiaries,
And for every benefit there are risks aplenty.
Our cave-dwelling ancestors had little technology,
shared everything, and were free of slavery.
They were not much different than the chimpanzee,
With whom they shared their pedigree.
Stone shaping technology, changed humans gradually.
With stone arrow heads and knives they killed more efficiently.
They killed all sorts of animals and shared the wealth freely,
But the new tools could, and did, kill humans indiscriminately.
Metal working technology changed them more rapidly,
As did the wheel, navigation and the saltpetre discovery,
From which came firepower, shotguns and heavy artillery.
They changed the course of history, remarkably and irrevocably.
Humans with firearms exploited those lacking the technology,
As the Aztec of Mexico and the Inca of Peru discovered alarmingly.
The new technology benefited the conquistadors mightily,
But millions of freedom-loving people fell into slavery.
The enslavement of Amerindians made European monarchs wealthy.
With New-World spoils, they colonized the rest of the world sthealthily.
Asians, Africans and others were savagely pressed into slavery.
While the colonizers lived in luxury, the colonized suffered in misery.
Even in today's enlightened world, technology creates immense inequality.
High-tech billionaires, like Bezos, treat labourers like bozos discriminatingly.
They make in less than one day, what their repressed workers take home yearly.
That's inhumane exploitation by any other name, I'm sure you will agree.
The current pandemic is another case in point, as you will see.
Covid vaccines, funded by governments, enriched the moguls excessively.
Drug behemoths priced desperately-needed vaccines astronomically,
Shamefully exploiting a global tragedy; and the poor suffered unnecessarily.
Yes technology brings benefits, like vaccines during an emergency;
But all too often, benefits accrue only to the powerful and wealthy.
What then, I ask you, is the purpose of technology?
Is it to enrich the powerful and increase inequality?
You ask, is space-age human life no better than in the cave age?
Would today's city dwellers prefer life in the Amazon jungle?
Has technology not provided a net benefit to human life?
Is technological progress not the purpose of life?
That progress, I say to you, consistently caused human inequality;
Decreased social responsibility and degraded our humanity.
It despoiled Nature for the benefit of a powerful minority,
While the vast majority now live in abject poverty.
That progress you talk about also contaminated everything you see.
The air we breathe is hazardous to our health and that of our progeny.
Global warming is a consequence too: our planet burns and floods indiscriminately.
Progress was achieved irresponsibly, by mountains of debt to be paid by posterity!
The purpose of life, you see, is not to enrich the captains of industry.
It's to ensure survival of the specie, while living in harmony.
But as brutal war rages in Ukraine, nuclear holocaust could be near.
Visions of mushroom clouds cause peoples immense fear.
Armies of intelligent robots taking over is another threat to humanity.
Thanks to technology, we live in fear rather than harmony!
I know we can't turn the clock back on progress and technology,
But can we at least slow it down significantly?
YOU ARE READING
Earth Poetry
PoetryI'm a dilittante poet, as you will plainly see. But I'm versed in the language of science, and I'm alarmed by what I see. Yes, planet Earth is in peril, and the day of reckoning is near. So, I have turned to poetry, to share with you what I see, fr...
