It is easily said that ‘as we advance so does technology’, however it is valid to question, how far should we really go in terms of technology? As our everyday life changes alongside increasingly new technology that is deemed to help us, it can be argued that it reduces our autonomy and perhaps over-dramatises how ‘easy’ normal life should be.

With developments such as Sophia the Robot, Self-checkouts, Contactless cards, Online banking, e-books, e-tickets, self-driving cars and tons of other technological innovations, most people are worried that soon enough, technology will in fact control our simple lives and dominate our actions as humans. In Sutton, a poll revealed that over 60% of those asked believed that technological domination is evident in today’s society with unnecessary developments ‘taking away our role/jobs as humans’.

Negative stigmas on technology possibly roots from the great dependency of people on technology. This is evidenced in schools where ipads are used rather than laptops and in work where emails are used rather than letters. Using the example of self-driving cars, the problems that come about from this are as follows; it reduces autonomy because ultimately a person is not fully required to know how to drive meaning tests can’t be taken and that it reduces jobs within society for instance driving instructors and car manufactures (as less car parts are needed). Technology is taking over in terms of reducing the number of human input on simple, everyday life.

On the other hand, some argue that advanced technology is a positive contribution to humanity due to its promotion of a positive multiplier effect, within society in a variety of aspects. One factor being economically good is the fact that these advances boost the economy through a multitude of ways; creating jobs in the digital economy (with 1.46 million people in the UK alone employed by digital companies) and increasing competition within digital businesses strengthening worldwide cultural and trading links. Technology also helps those in society who may find it difficult to do normal everyday tasks thus improving their quality of life. In addition to this, the use of technology such as ipads, email and so on all improve the environmental status of the UK as less paper is used meaning a reduced greenhouse effect.

As a whole, technology has its positive and negative contributions but once again how far should humanity go in creating non-autonomous technology?