Is technology good, or bad, for us?

What we have always suspected is partly true. Companies do manufacture products with limited lifespan so that customers keep buying their products. The Centennial light bulb is still burning after 115 years in a fire station in Livermore California and the Queen Mother's refrigerator is still working after 64 years at the Castle of Mey in Scotland. Its doors are 6 inches thick as opposed to the thin plastic of today. So are the companies ripping us off? Not always. Some products such as washing machines and cars have parts moving at high speeds which make them wear out and making goods lighter makes them cheaper which allows the vast majority of people to afford these luxuries. Children's clothes and shoes need to be replaced every few months so do not need to last a long time. Manufacturing household goods creates employment for millions of people, creating wealth. People will buy a luxury watch for an enormous sum of money because it denotes status but if they make a razor blade to last a lifetime at a cost of Rs 1000 each how many of us would buy it? Perhaps no one. Today, even illiterate laborers own smartphones which have more technology than an Orion rocket. Unfortunately, technology does not increase intelligence, as shown by the number of deaths from selfies. Also it is creating mountains of waste, toxic to the environment. Not just goods, we use services as well. With rapidly changing technologies we would expect an equally rapid turnover in the companies which provide us with these technologies. After all, with almost unlimited computing power, one would expect new companies to come up with new ideas, challenging the older ones. Already teenagers are moving away from Facebook, which is apperently being used by older people. But the older companies, like Google, Apple and Facebook, are thriving because of their size and ability to buy up start-ups because of their financial clout. Thus, teenagers may think that Facebook is not cool anymore but when they use Instagram they are using Facebook, which bought up the company for $1 billion. Unfortunately, human beings have an infinite capacity to pervert every scientific advance for warfare and killing. The wheel allowed people to travel great distances but also allowed the creation of the chariot. Navigation made it safer to sail the oceans but also made the slave trade possible. And while we chat on Sype or Whatsapp a whole army of cyber-warriors are at work, trying to hack into to government and commercial data. Even as we use technology to devise more lethal weapons Mother Nature tries to heal the wounds we leave behind. Technology has certainly enriched our lives. Will it kill us?