Southwest High School - Spirit Yearbook (Macon, GA)

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we Re eRe hots ae De 1% one 6 - Exploring High Technology

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Ms. Goldstein, we finally have a donor whose genetic make-up complements yours perfectly. He is a scientist from the Pfizer, Inc. laboratory and his IQ is even twelve points higher than yours. What a genius you will produce from this union! Your appointment is set for three o'clock. Impossible? Not so. The picture directly above shows Doron Blake, the sec- ond deliberately created genius High technology has made a genetically engineered human race a matter of choice. What will be the choice of the future? Whar should it be? Exciting, challenging, a little scary — high technology forces the new world it has created to answer a few questions, solve a few problems Are we willing to give up our privacy for the benefits of high technology? Computers today can record how much a citizen makes, where he lives, what he owns, whom he calls, what he reads, and where he has been. The Videotex system, a two way television enhancement of the telephone, television, and computer, provides us with lazy chair shopping, banking, mail- ing, and doing computations. However, this useful system is joined to only one telecable, possibly indicating the loss of con- fidentiality. Harnessed to big government, all that data could infringe on our privacy. Are we willing to become just another number? At birth we became 250-68-0537, in school 111 952, at the bank 582049 618724, and the list goes on and on. Numbers really are easier to deal with than humans. But at what point do we lose our identity? Exploring High Technology — 7

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SIGNS Never, young man, never did | feel the United States was in any real danger. | am 114 years old. | have seen disease. The world does not have diseases now — an ancient evil. | lived through wars — another ancient evil. This world is better and getting better every day. That is because we have guarded the rights, privileges, and — yes — even the responsibilities of our great democracy How far, how far? Yes, high technology has its good points — and some rough spots that will undoubredly be ironed out in due time But the question still remains — how much are we willing to sacrifice n the name of high technology? We are now at the crossroads where we must decide the extent to which we want high technology to invade our lives. We are at the crossroads in computer usage. How much should we allow an inanimate object to know and reveal about our lives? We are at the crossroads with advancements on the walkman radios and the big radio boxes. Are we going fo become so impersonal that we bombard others’ privacy with loud blaring music or are we to become so individualized that we com- pletely shut off the world? We are at the crossroads in cloning How far should we go into tampering with human nature. It is at this time that we decide whether we control technology or whether it controls US Yes, young man, humans will never give Big Brother a chance to peek over our shoulders. | surely do envy you young people who will live your entire lives in an exciting, free, and challenging BRAVE NEW WORLD Exploring High Technology — 9