Dr.King Warned us not to Let Technology Overtake our Moral Conscience.
In our society today we are inundated with science and technology everywhere we look. For most of us that is a good thing, regular almost pass’e in our 2013 existence. However, Dr. King warned us about what would happen if we weren’t morally responsible with the tools we were creating and aligning ourselves with. Shortly after the Cuban Missle Crisis, the war in Vietnam starting to escalate, and other technological advances that were putting man on the brink, Dr. King stated that advancing technology could potentially erode our human conscience if were not extremely careful.
In 1964, the day after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King delivered a lecture at the University of Oslo. Where he argued that progress in science and technology had not been equaled by “moral progress” — instead, mankind suffered from a “moral and spiritual lag.”
In his Oslo lecture, King acknowledged the advances made by science and technology, but said that technologies growing abundance and availability was “undermining the human spirit.”
“The richer we’ve become materially, the poorer we become morally and spiritually,”. “We have learned to fly in the air like birds and swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.”
“Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul.” When the ‘without’ of man’s nature subjugates the ‘within,’ dark storm clouds begin to form in the world.”
At 35, King was then the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Much like Ghandi, Dr. King was recognized for using nonviolent methods, including civil disobedience and the boycotts to fight racial segregation and advance the civil rights movement in the United States. Everything Dr. King preached was the truth. In 2013 his vision of a morally separated humanity controlled by technology could be us…. if were not careful.
