by Pamela Kay

Created on: May 02, 2009

Technological advancements are all good, because knowledge and discovery are never a bad thing. It is only when you introduce a human vice, such as greed, into the mix that technology's impact on society can become a troubling thing. That being said, the transistor is the single most influential technological invention and its impact on society has been that many other inventions used it to change our world forever.

A Mixed Bag

As some technology caused horrible injuries to men and women in war zones, with the bombs, increased firepower and chemical and germ warfare it brought about, some led to new and wonderful ways to heal and repair the human body, ease pain and suffering and clone new life in labs across the world. In these and many other cases, technology's impact was both good and bad depending on who and where you were.

Medical

At the turn of the century, no one dared to think that man would be able to transplant eyes, kidneys and even hearts to give a patient a new lease on life. Then, we couldn't even take a blood pressure reading and now we can read DNA profiles and analyze blood work to find the cause of illnesses.

Who would have thought a man-made prosthetic would allow a man to compete in a marathon or a quadriplegic to actually work and earn a living? Technology gave us laser surgery inside the brain and even the eye as well as new pharmaceutical discoveries that led to vaccines that protect us from the crossover viruses found in animals such as swine flu and West Nile virus.

With the new knowledge of genetics, gained with technology, came the ethical problems of genetic engineering, in-vitro fertilization, stem cell research and cloning, which are all debated in court cases and medical boardrooms as well as in churches.

X-Ray

Though x-rays have been used medically since the early 1900, in the 50's we were still unaware of how dangerous they were. Thousands of soldiers and medical patients sickened and died from radiation poisoning or had to have limbs removed. Even shoe stores had an x-ray machine that allowed you to look at your foot in the shoe. This technology brought greater understanding of the human body but at a great price.

Computers

We live in a computerized society now, but it was only half a century ago that we gained the technology that shrank the size of the whole wide world and gave access to information that even the most prestigious university could not compete with. It sped up calculations needed for even newer innovations. As technology

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