Mankind has always used synthesis to improve their lives, even dating back to the beginning of the Bronze Age when humans first started combining copper and tin to create a stronger metal.However, like any other technological achievement, synthesis also has its negative side, and history has proven that the positives of technology always outweigh the negatives.When bronze first entered the annals of history, it was used for weapons. But that same metal also brought great works of art and furthered the creative mind of humanity. The same goes for iron and steel. If it weren’t for steel (a synthetic metal), skyscrapers like the Empire State Building would not have been possible and all those famous early Popeye cartoons where he is reeking havoc on a major construction site would never have been, and the world needs those cartoons to remind us of the prohibition era, which also brought upon synthesized alcoholic beverages like moonshine and bathtub gin that kept our country inebriated in a time of need.Now, man is concentrating its ever-adaptive mind on medical synthesis. Researchers are now getting pretty close to creating a synthetic blood that will someday eliminate the need for blood transfusions. Just about every single medical breakthrough was a direct result of synthesis. Without synthesis, man would be without vaccinations, and we would still be bringing out the dead for the Monty Python chaps to gather. There is always the threat that advancement in synthetic medicine will lead to more harmful and deadlier biological weapons, but the use of biological weapons is illegal by international law and most nations don’t even consider its use because of the ramifications it will bring from around the world.It may not seem that way because the current United States government likes to keep us on our toes and scared pantless, but the threat of biological weapons is relatively under control. Anyone who has ever used biological weapons has been dealt with severely by the international community.Saddam Hussein used biological weapons to kill his own people in the 80’s and he has been dealt with, though no biological weapons were found when the United States invaded but it gave us one helluva reason to go to war.Others will argue that synthetic food is unhealthy and not nutritious, but there is a reason why the synthetic burgers of McDonald’s are so popular: because it’s delicious, fast and cheap. Organic food takes way too much time to produce and is much more expensive, and they don’t have the chemicals that give you a nice high whenever you eat it.Every time you get a vaccination for hepatitis or go to war over non-existent weapons, you are taking advantage of synthetic materials, and every time you grow one of those hippie vegetable gardens in your backyard, you’re wasting all that human ingenuity that brought on synthetic materials in the first place. Don’t be a hippie. Hippies smell.
Synthetics, you’d probably be dead without them
By Eric Lee
March 19, 2007
0
More to Discover