Technology refers to all those developments made by the application of the human mind, which disrupts how we conventionally look at something. From the discovery of Fire to the development of the wheel to inventions of Industrial Revolution machines, technology has accelerated human evolution. However, the application of technology not always had humans at the center, but very often has been driven by the want for power, greed, money, etc.
Charles Dickens has captured these two faces of technology in his ‘Tale of Two Cities’:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times;
It was an era of knowledge, it was an era of foolishness;
It was a time of light, it was a time of darkness.”

Thus, technology without humanity ushered ‘worst, foolish, and dark’ times. In this essay, we’ll analyze from various dimensions how technology proved to be a social sin, what are reasons behind, how it has delivered good when it put humanity at the center and how to reconcile two contorting directions of technology. Historically, whenever some new technology has arrived, it has driven humanity to new directions. In Ancient times, when iron smelting began, lighter and stronger sword and shields were created.
This drove many rulers from Alexander to Genghis Khan to wage wars in faraway lands, causing social sin of death, destruction, and misery. During Industrial revolutions, unsuitable desire of capitalists led to the search for new markets and sources of raw material and capital. Gandhiji in his critique of Western civilization finds it to be the prime reason for inhuman colonialism and imperialism by European powers.

Technology without humanity has been driven on principles of Utilitarianism and materialism. For Gandhiji, it not only reduces humans to the level of animals but also harms the environment. Thus he calls technology without humanity as sin and acts as ‘SATNIC’. Technology that doesn’t put human welfare at the center manifests in the form of loss of jobs to machines, humans reporting to apps like Uber and Swiggy, ecological degradation due to unsustainably extract minerals, oils, forest produce, disturbing the whole ecosystem.
In Geopolitics, the use of technology without humanity caused social sins like dropping of atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even recently, Drones (Unmanned) have been used extending from Afghanistan to Armenia to Iraq to kill opponents and destroy properties and critical infrastructure of enemy states.

The Internet, cyber-technology, social media have completely disrupted human-human, human-machine relations. Social media has often been used in inhuman acts of radicalization, spreading fake news, interference with electoral processes e.g. 2016 USA elections (Mueller report). Further, Technology such as Pegasus too used to invade privacy PRISM program of USA to surveil own citizens, Cambridge Analytica care showed profiling (social and behavioral) of citizens.

Closer home in India we have witnessed social impact of technology across sectors and segments of populace. Green revolution, which brought much prosperity initially due to extensive use of technology interventions seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, machines etc., is now showing its negative impacts.

The degradation of land, fall in water table (90cm/ year), increasing cost of production, lowering productivity, feminization & agriculture etc. have been caused due to a lack of humane-centric use of technology. Further, New Dam construction technologies, infrastructure development projects have led to huge displacement of Tribals and farmers. Further, the anonymity that internet provides and inhuman lack of regulations has led to abuse and objectification of women over the internet, child pornography, anti-India activities; trolling and bullying have driven many to anxiety and depression. Moreover, blind application and implementation of new technologies, even when they were meant to be a force for good has harmed many e.g. PDS ration not given to many due to non-matching of Aadhar data/ fingerprints.
The ongoing COVID pandemic and reservations of many pharma companies to share IPR to nations for vaccine development have highlighted how new bio-technology gains without humanity at the center have led to the death of thousands in 3rd world. But then the question arises have we ever been able to reconcile technology and humanity? The answer is yes. And whenever we’ve been successful in doing so it created a win-win for everyone. For example, social media was effectively used by IAS Armstrong Pame to crowdsource funds for road and connect two remote Manipur districts. Sushma Swaraj effectively used Twitter to reach out to Indian immigrants in distress and help them e.g. Evacuation missions in Yemen, Iraq etc.
Further e-Tribes portal helps tribals to sell their products to the whole country; similarly e-Assessment by Income tax officials has reduced complaints of tax terrorism. Similarly, the use of satellite, Blockchain and GPS is undergoing to map village land parcels and digitize records; this could reduce land-related litigations.
The use of e-filings and e-courts has expanded the reach and efficiency of Judges. Also, India has exhibited that technology such as submarines, helicopters that countries use in war can be effectively used against nations in the care of disaster rescue operations and to prevent inhuman acts of piracy. Thus, for socially responsible use of technology, the rules of their global governance can be strengthened.
There also is a need to promote ethics while writing codes of AI-run machines, to account for human-friendly behavior. Further, the focus of technology development should be to complement humans in their growth and not to eliminate them or replace them.
Going by Gandhiji’s Talisman the Ultimate test of a nation’s technology shouldn’t be on how far it can send missiles or how high skyscrapers it can build, but how its technology benefits the least advantaged and poorest of the poor; how ecologically sustainable and morally tenable results that it can produce.