In whatever direction men look they behold evidence of extraordinary development in almost every field of human interest and endeavor. No one need be told that never before in human history has there been so broad, so deep, so rapid an expansion of knowledge, of invention, of discovery, of adaptation, of utilization. And, great as these developments have been, their magnitude and their pace increase day by day. If we can be sure of one thing, it is that, for as far as we can see into the future, invention and discovery will play a growing role in men's existence.
Nowhere has this development, this change, been greater than in the field of technology. Even without that evidence which men's landing on the moon affords us, it is plain that technological development has wrought changes beyond the wildest imaginings of the most gifted dreamers of centuries past. Men are beginning to communicate one with another anywhere on earth almost instantaneously and are visiting each other in a matter of hours. Computers do in one-hundredth of a second what once required hours, days, and even weeks. New sources of energy endowed with incredible power are being harnessed. Laser beams are transforming our ideas of how metals may be handled and utilized. And, in a thousand humbler ways, men's lives are being altered by the technological revolution.
As this profound modification of life on earth proceeds, men are more and more asking themselves how they are to regard this technological upheaval. Is it good or is it bad? Is it enriching men's lives, or is it a kind of Frankenstein monster threatening to overwhelm mankind? Will humanity be able to control technology's headlong pace, or will humanity end in a kind of thralldom to the scientific and mechanical giant it has created? Since technological change is certain to become ever more pervasive, it is important that answers be found to such questions as these.
