Are Computers A Boon, Or Bane, To Mankind?

This is a debate that's prevalent in society, but for people like me, who work in computing, the answer is clear: Computers are a boon to mankind.

Computers have created opportunities across the world for new economic growth, and for personal and professional development.

However, computers are not without their drawbacks. For example, you could argue that they have contributed to mass redundancies in many industries, leaving many people with highly-specialised skills unemployed and needing to retrain.

The Benefits of Computers to Society

• Automation - repetitive, low-value tasks can be taken care of automatically
• Information - can be spread and shared across the globe, instantly
• Economy - computers create new investment and employment opportunities
• Learning - software can be designed to teach life-skills to children and adults alike
• Design - Computer-Aided Design (CAD) enables design modelling. For example, this allows cars to be designed to be more aerodynamic and fuel-efficient
• Communication - low-cost, instant communication of text, audio and visuals across the globe
  
• Data storage and retrieval - large-scale record-keeping has been revolutionised
• Health-care - computers assist with diagnosis and treatment, as well as help in developing new cures

The Disadvantages of Computers to Society

• Energy requirements - a single machine doesn't draw much power, but they are often left on overnight, and there are so many computers in the world that the cumulative effect of this is enormous
  
• Environmental impact - computers use significant amounts of energy, consume lots of resources during production, and create a lot of waste, which is damaging to the environment
  
• Waste - the sheer volume of computers that are produced, and the rate at which technology becomes obsolete, creates a lot of waste. This has to be dealt with in some way - and computers contain heavy metals which are damaging to the environment.