Technological Innovation for Human Development

The time of reckoning is coming when we must face the consequences of technological innovation geared to maximization of short-term profits regardless of social and ecological impacts. There is increasingly increasing objective evidence that we are systematically destroying the human habitat. Some (usually the most vulnerable) people are already experiencing the consequences.

Technological innovation is necessary to buy time for the human adaptation process to unfold, but the required human adaptation will not come to pass unless human development becomes top priority for all institutions, secular or religious. This entails overcoming resistance to change, fostering nonviolence and gender equality, and eradicating extreme poverty. Citizens worldwide must exert pressure to infuse government institutions with political will. Citizens worldwide must exert pressure on businesses – especially corporations – to stop the practice of treating natural resources as “externalities” that do not count as part of the cost of doing business, and get started on practices such as the triple bottom line. And believers worldwide must exert pressure on religious institutions to lead by example, especially by overcoming patriarchy, refraining from consumerism, and allowing women to serve in roles of religious authority.

Let us pray that technological innovation will buy enough time for human adaptation to hatch before it is too late, and let us all stop pointing fingers at each other and start working together for the glory of God and the common good of humanity.

Mother Pelican