New technologies often hide problems that are only revealed later.

Write a unified essay in which you perform the following tasks. Explain what you think the above statement means. Describe a specific situation in which the benefits of a new technology might not hide later problems. Discuss what you think determines when the benefits of a new technology outweigh potential problems.

Instructions:
In 30 minutes, write an essay for the prompt and instructions above.

Use the Notepad accessory on your computer so word processing functions are turned off.

Note: Do not read other essays replying to this prompt on the Forum until after you have written and submitted your own essay.

Scorer: Nickie Lovat is a medical student at the University of Manitoba who can be reached by email at nickielovat@gmail.com.

How to submit your essay for scoring:
1. Post your essay in this thread on the Forum and Nickie will post her comments and score here.
2. Email your essay to nickielovat@gmail.com and Nickie will email her comments and score back to you.

Deadline to post or email your essay: 11:59pm Monday July 19

I also found this prompt pretty tricky. It kind of sidelined me a bit for most of the 30 minutes, and I think it definitely shows. I've got a ways to go before I master this format, please let me know where I should start.

Since the beginning of modern civilization, society has improved itself by the adoption of infinite new technologies, that is, physical inventions and new ideas that have revolutionized their respective fields and simplified or enhanced the lives of their users. However, more often than not these novel conceptions are seriously flawed in ways which cannot be detected until the new technology has entrenched itself into society, potentially resulting in disastrous consequences. One novel technology that turned agriculture and international development efforts on its head was a new pesticide developed in the 1950s, DDT. Sworn to be biologically safe to humans, DDT proved to be the cheapest, most effective and most instantaneously rewarding means for eradicating crop infestations, resulting in higher yields of farm produce and cheaper, better quality products for consumers. It also advanced disease control in developing regions by leaps and bounds for its incredible success in fighting malaria. However, what was not known until much too late was the detrimental way DDT was affecting the ecosystems in which it was used, and so in turn human health and safety.The bioamplification of DDT's poisonous properties resulted in the extinction and serious endangerment of hundreds of species, causing catastrophic shifts in ecosystem balance around the world. DDT was, for a time, considered one of the most successful new technologies of the 20th century - it was only until much too late that its serious flaws were understood.
It must also be noted that not all technologies that are new have serious inherent problems hidden by their novelty. Take, for example, the printing press. Invented in the 1500s by a German by the name of Gutenberg, the printing press almost instantly revolutionized the way societies access information, hugely increasing literacy rates, knowledge dissemination and education levels of the masses in ways not unlike today's Internet. Still, despite its huge and comparatively overnight success, the printing press to this day fails to have serious negative implications.
No technology, great or small, life-changing or subtle, is ever completely free of flaws, and these flaws are often difficult to discern in the first heady days of a concept's success. However, the severity of these flaws and the degrees of their implications can vary greatly from one invention to the next. The chemical pesticide, DDT, and Gutenberg's printing press were both met with huge initial success, but only the more complex, less-understood of the two resulted in near-disaster because of its shortcomings. One might argue that the benefits of a new technology are more likely to outweight any problems when the mechanics and means of the technology are more simple to understand from the beginning. DDT was a chemical largely a mystery even after its introduction into the mass market; the printing press, however, functioned fully on wood letters and ink.

My essay:

A strong faith in human technology and progress has dominated modern thought. In HG Wells' didactic novel "Of Things to Come," a group dissent from their futuristic technological world and oppose launching a man to the moon, believing that progress should slow down. In Ayn Rand's magnum opus "Atlas Shrugged," the antagonists try to thwart the efforts of engineers, scientists and business people from growing the economy and introducing new technologies. The statement is opposed to such a positive view of technology. An example of this statement holding true is illustrated with oil extraction technology.Today, mobile derricks can drill far below the surface of the sea to reach ever more unattainable sources of oil. This technology has made oil for the time being fairly plentiful and societies do not feel the urgency to switch to other sources of energy, thus increasing the damage caused by climate change and the economic impact that will hit when oil becomes prohibitively expensive.

However, new technology does not always hide problems. In fact, technology can help flesh out an issue and lead to finding a solution. For example, fax technology helped the student protesters to organize and communicate with the world during the Tianemen Square protests in 1989. The world was shown a problem, the human rights abuses of the authoritarian Chinese government, not distracted from it.

If a new technology helps a person fulfill the basic necessities of life like food, water and shelter, then it can be thought of as relieving a problem and not putting it off until later. If a new technology helps to expose injustice or help fulfill human rights, then it is not putting off a problem, it is helping to solve it. If new technology helps humanity live in tune with our natural world, to ensure that the rate of resource extraction is less than the rate of resource renewal, then it is helping solve a problem.

The End

Feedback: 4/6
- Careful with run-on sentences
- Few spelling/grammatical errors
- NICE example regarding the MCAT format change
- Always define acronyms that you use.
- First sentence of conclusion doesn't make sense
- You have excellent points, but the writing style (especially in the conclusion) makes them hard to understand. For example, your criteria that define when technology may or may not disguise problems could have been better worded.

Feedback: 1/6
- Opening paragraph sounds much more like a conclusion than an introduction. You already make claims & state criteria without having supported these ideas. Remember the three paragraph format: first define what the statement means...and go from there.
- Your essay is focusing on WHEN the problems with a technology are discovered, but the essay should be focused on TECHNOLOGIES DISGUISING problems that are only later revealed...thus your essay is not dealing with the question at hand. When you don't answer the statement, its a huge hit to your score. Problems with technology is not the same thing as technology disguising problems.

Feedback: 2/6
- Limited spelling errors
- Your example of the car doesn't fit the criteria of a technology DISGUISING a problem only later revealed but rather causing problems later on. You could have spun your example to state that the car was designed to get people from point A to point B in a faster or safer way, allowing people to have more free time or live in a safer environment (whichever you choose). It just disguised the problem, as now there is the 'disguised problem now revealed' of car accidents or of increase working hours (with reduced commute times).
- Your example of the CT is again good, but you don't develop it in the CONTEXT of the statement, but rather from the point of view of learning from past mistakes.
- Your conclusion is not consistent with the statement, and doesn't build upon what you stated in your essay above.

Communication is very important in the professional world. People often judge us by how we hold ourselves, how we speak, and also by how we write. Grammatical errors and spelling mistakes do not leave good first impressions. The advent of new technology has changed the way in which we communicate with others. The cellular phone has allowed us to connect with others while we are “on the go”, and computers seem to have replaced the paper and pen, allowing us to type out emails that can be “copy and pasted”, “spell-checked”, or otherwise altered. Technology has made us more efficient, more productive, but it may have also made us lazy.

In some cases, new technology may hide problems. These problems may be revealed at a later time when, perhaps, the technology is not available to us. Take “spell-check” for example. Before the age of word processing, essays were written by hand or on a typewriter, and much care was taken to ensure that words were spelled correctly. In fact, a dictionary was always within reach for frequent consulting. Back then, checking the dictionary for the correct spelling of a word actually helped you learn how to spell the word. Nowadays, with tools such as spell-check, individuals are loose with their spelling because improperly spelled words can be flagged, presented, and corrected by the computer program. This convenience conceals a very big problem- that a growing percentage of the population cannot spell. If these individuals were placed in a situation where only pen and paper were available, this problem would be clearly illustrated.

However, technology does not always mask problems. In the case of the defibrillator, it can save lives. Sometimes it can introduce us to new realms of thinking, learning, and interacting. The internet for example, allows us access to all kinds of information. We can take courses over the internet, design web pages to share with the world, and make friends on Facebook. It can encourage us to adapt and develop new skills rather than harbor bad habits.

New technology is being developed every second, and it is important to evaluate how it will affect us-not only in the convenience it may afford us, but also in how it may change us. Although new technology opens the door to greater opportunities for learning, exploring and interacting, it may also be replacing fundamental skills that can only be developed the old-fashioned way. While email has made communication ever more convenient, it may be an interesting experience to write your next email with the spell-check turned off.

Feedback: 3/6
- Your first paragraph doesn't follow the format MCAT markers are looking for: remember to address task #1 first...that means what you say during your first paragraph should be in the 2nd paragraph.
- NICE example of spell-check. Very clever, and solid!
- Your 2nd example becomes garbled: internet and defibrillator are used. The internet argument is made weaker because you threw in that defibrillator comment. Remember to stick to ONE strong example and develop it completely.
- Careful with using four paragraphs: this should be a red flag to you that you've strayed from the desired format.
- Conclusion needs to state criteria that you could use to decide if a new technology will or will not reveal the problem it disguised later. Since you have such good examples, you could have made a statement along the lines of 'If the technology becomes a crutch it disguises problems, whereas if its used as a tool only if will not' or something like that.
- Overall, your content was excellent. Work on focus & format, and you will do much better.

Technology doubles every seven years. From iPads to netbooks to 'Flex-Fuel' cars, the technology industry is continually expanding with new discoveries being made everyday. However, Newton's third law of motion states that with every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, with the emergence of new technology, there is often an associated drawback that is at times revealed long after the introduction of that respective invention. This has presented itself most prominently in the automotive industry. With the development of the internal combustion engine in the early 20th century, scientists were thrilled to introduce the first of many gasoline-run cars. Today, cars have attributed to the depletion of oil reserves, mass pollution and the general deterioration of the planet. While transportation itself was revolutionized, scientists were unable to avoid the hidden problems that this single form of technology would eventually cause.

While some technology does present itself in a way that masks potential drawbacks, there are technological inventions that do not hide later problems. A strong example of this is the development of hydroelectric power. In the 1904 World Convention in Switzerland, physicists were eager to present the first application of hydroelectricity to power an incandescent light bulb. Despite the fact that this technology was groundbreaking, it did not manifest any later problems due to the fact that the technology relies on water, a virtually infinite resource that comprises approximately 70% of Earth's surface. Furthermore, the numerous years of research that went into this technology before it was publicly revealed ensured that the process of power generation was both economically efficient and safe.

The issue of new technology masking future problems is a longstanding one and is difficult to resolve. Nonetheless, history has determined specific scenarios that determine when the benefits of an emerging technology outweigh the associated drawbacks. If the resource that the technology relies upon is non-renewable and noticeably limited, the problems will eventually eventually reveal themselves later. However, if the resource is unlimited and the process is relatively safe, the benefits will be long lasting and stable.

The beginning of nineteenth century saw the boom in technological advancement and usage. To keep up with the fast life of globalization, machines were introduced in every sector of human life! Now, no area on earth is left uninhabited by machines. Starting from deep ocean floors drilled by oil wells to high speed jets flying across the clouds, machines have allowed human beings to access every portion of our mother planet. However, the excessive usage of such machines is proving to be detrimental to our atmosphere only. Cars were introduced to cover distances quickly, but over the ages have become an increasing concern to the global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions. To increase farm production by twenty folds, machines have replaced human beings and in result strengthened the vicious cycle of poverty in various developing nations in Asia and Africa. Even in the area of scientific advancement, creation of nuclear bombs and their usage has left behind the legacy of genetically impaired inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their pro-genies to suffer. Thus, in an attempt to modify and improve human life, technological advancements have dragged with themselves hidden problems that later on prove to be a hindrance to human existence itself.

However, nothing is perfect. If the technologies drag along problems for the future, the cure must lie within them. Advancement in computers and machines has allowed humans to use great their mechanical advantage to cope up with various natural disasters. If cars lead to global warming and global weather changes, computers have help predict these changes in advance through various weather satellites in space and machines help cope up with the approaching disaster. If the BP oil spillage in the Gulf coast has caused contamination of water, it is through machines that the oil well has been mechanically repaired and water cleansing as been possible on such a large scale. It is through scientific advancements only that humans have reached to a better understanding of their genetic makeup and can provide better medical aid to the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and allow human life expectancy to increase. The knowledge and experience of using machines help us to amend/deal with the problems lingering with their usage.

Thus the notion goes: ‘solution lies within the problem’. Heavy advancement in technological world since ages has now opened various challenges and problems in our world today, but the solution is also buried within them. Better technologies can allow us to predict beforehand the approaching problems due any machine usage. Thereby, if at one hand machines pose a threat to our world in the future, it is through technology that we can be made aware of this threat and can deal with it.