Industrial Production Technologies

Snow's quote turns technology into Brutus and collective humanity into the unsuspecting Caesar. The relationship is terminally symbiotic, and the price perhaps more than humanity can pat. The most dramatic examples, perhaps, stem from the creation and use of industrial production technologies. Such technologies have evolved far beyond the simple steam and human powered mechanisms that gave birth to the Industrial age: today, they allow goods of all varieties to be produced in such scales and speeds that single companies have the power to address the needs of every consumer on the planet. But what are the ultimate costs of such power? And what does this astronomical power to fulfill the needs and desires of mankind do to economies, societies, and the individual human psyche?

Pros:
+ Greater ability to meet agricultural needs; potential ability to "feed the world"
+ Increased productivity of individual workers
+ Increased capacity for knowledge and information
+ Globally increased efficiency and access to medicine and healthcare
+ Increased average comfort

Cons:
- Global destruction of natural space and species
- Stark division of global consumers; global class system
- Loss of liberties/human rights
- Shift from people-focused cultures to good-focused cultures
- Detrimental effects on human psyche, cognition, ability of newer generations to form substantive interpersonal relationships