Script+and+Reflection

media type="file" key="development.mp3"

Throughout the history of the world, it seems that there have been two major technologies that propel the human race forward, for better or worse. These technologies are weapons advancements and communication advancements. These two technologies have been the driving force behind almost every major historical event from the internet to the A-bomb. The question is: which one is more beneficial to the development of human society. To find out, one must first look at the poorer countries,such as Russia and the African nations. In these countries, the weapons technology can be moderately advanced to quite powerful to nuclear. However, communication technology is often rudimentary and sparse. These nations are, however, obviously impoverished. in order to look at the true effect that the different technologies have on society, we must focus on the Human Development Index, or HDI. This index is a ratings system which ranks countries based on their level of development. The index ranks countries based on three requirements: Income, Schooling, and Life Expectancy. now we must look at how the two different technologies can influence these categories. First, there is income. The effect that weapons can have on a country's average income can be negligable to negative. The more advanced weapons have little to no effect at all, but the weapons owned by civilians can cause robberies to become more rampant. In terms of communications technology, the effect is ostly positive. The income of a worker with modern communications technology is likely greater than a worker with the same job but archaic technology. In terms of schooling, the effect of weapons is, again, negligable. The years of schooling are unaffected by the inclusion of weapons technology. Modern communication technology can create a more stable learning environment for school students, and increase the years of schooling. Finally, looking at the effect of technologies on life expectancy is easy. Weapons technology will likely lower the life expectancy in less developed countries, but may actually increase because of the heightened security in advanced countries. Good communications can be the difference between an ambulance and a gravestone. Consider the country of Finland: it is home to some of the most advanced communications technology in the world, but the weapons technology is basic compared to other countries. This doesn't matter, because Finland has the highest HDI rating of any country in the world. In closing, it is easy to see how the communications developments from around the world can influence the development of certain countries.

If you are interested in studying this topic further, please see the links in the scholarly articles tab, and also look through a list of countries by HDI, available on Wikipedia. This topic is not as well researched as many other related topics, but it is quite easy to do one's own research. Thanks for listening.