The world is driven by invention of mankind, with every invention geared towards providing solution to an existing problem. For every age mankind has experienced, it is our invention that changes our manner of living, moving us towards a different age. In the Stone age, mankind made tools out of stones, knifes and other important tools were made to better the lives of mankind but it was not without its own short comings. The more we discover and invent, the more powerful we became, it never occurred to us how our ideas was reshaping the world and endangering every species on earth.
We were mostly concerned about manifestation of our ideas to make our lives a lot more easier than it used to be. It was an understandable justification for for every tools created by mankind. We didn't just grow in development but also in size. One of the major concerns of mankind have always been preventing our own extinction because at the back of our minds we know that we weren't the first creatures to walk the earth, the only way for us to not repeat the mistake of previous species that once lived is to keep evolving by creation of all sort of things to sustain mankind's survival.
But we never took time to analyse what the true threat to mankind is, we only thought of external factors that might endanger our existence but the greatest threat to humans has and will always be humans. It sounds quite ironic when you think about it, mankind has invested so much resources into security, to ensure lives and property are protected. It is one of the reasons mankind entered into the social contract, to collectively protect what is ours. We invented instruments of mass destruction just to achieve this but it took us too long to ask ourselves a very simple question, who are we trying to protect ourselves from?
I'm quite aware of other dangerous species that exist on the planet but our weapons was not just meant for them, we have won our war against these species a long time ago when we declared ourselves the apex of all species. The things we created to protect ourselves suddenly became surplus and in the midst of man kind monetising our inventions, we started selling our inventions among ourselves and slowly, the same inventions we created to better our lives is now what is endangering our existence.
We discovered herbs and created drugs to heal disease and illness, a righteous cause I would say but now 20% of every human society is addicted to drugs driving them towards the edge of madness. We invented these things to make our lives better, so what exactly did we do wrong? despite the great level of understanding and knowledge mankind have acquired about ourselves and our surroundings, it took us too long to understand humans psychology.
The true threat to mankind will always be mankind, so while we were inventing things, we were meant to have it at the back of our minds that our discoveries could also be used to make our lives miserable. We were meant to create a fail safe for every form of invention, by the time we became aware of this, it was almost too late.
Should inventors be blamed for the wrong use of their inventions? definitely but not entirely. I redefine this question because if I were to say something like, should inventors be blamed when their inventions is used for purposes different from the purpose their inventions was created for! it sounds too ironic because there are inventors who invent things to cause harm to people. So if such invention is now redirected towards doing something good in the society, will that be a bad thing?
I'm more concerned about inventors who invent things for the betterment of mankind but somehow along the line the purpose got lost and such things are being used for the wrong purposes. I believe such inventor should be held accountable but then it is not that simple. For most things invented during the modern age, there is always a warning about how some inventions could be used wrongly, the problem with some sophisticated inventions is monetisation. When a specific invention purpose is not just about creating solutions but to make profit, it is just a matter of time before it gets to the wrong hands.
We need to first reduce the rate of monetisation of some sophisticated inventions and create a fail safe for it. Some hard drugs were only meant to be produced within a very protected and restricted area but then, is there anything that can combat the corrupt nature of mankind. As long as mankind have access to the facility it is being produced, it is just a matter of time before someone smuggle it out. It brings us to one last thing, some sophisticated inventions were never meant to be invented.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled Take the blame in hive learners community.
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