Conclusion: Technology’s Impact on Global Business

One thing should be clear from reading this text: the fundamental methods through which people adopt and employ technology today follow a similar pattern throughout history and, more importantly, across cultures. The advance of technology merely reflects the ability of humankind to excel at applying physical devices to increase the quality of life and the efficiency of business. What can also be observed is that technology creates a condition in which our social, moral, ethical and business values are tested, and our perception of what is valuable to society is sometimes dictated by culture and personal choice. Throughout history, technology has played an important role in shaping our society, beliefs, values and business activities by continually giving us cause to re-examine them and understand their interrelationships. Pacey reveals the paradox of our relationship with technology: Modern man, it often seems, is divided man. There are no universally agreed goals, no wholly comprehensive systems of values: ‘the modern mind is divided — in tension’. Again and again there are attempts to resolve the tension by suggesting a rejection of high technology and reversion to a simpler, more rural way of living. But many of the finest achievements of western culture are the products either of high technology or of the virtuosity values that have impelled it. One thinks of the idealistic engineering of medieval cathedrals, the work of Renaissance artist-engineers, the constructions of Brunei and Eiffel, and the marvels of microelectronics or of space exploration. To disown all that would be both Luddite and Philistine. But to assert the importance of meeting basic human needs, and using technology to that end, is an inescapable obligation.171