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From the Heart
September 16, 2020

The Great Technological Divide

Author Affiliations
  • 1NYU Long Island School of Medicine, Mineola, New York
JAMA Cardiol. 2020;5(12):1327-1328. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2020.4123

Technology teases. Technology tempts us to perceive and imagine a near-perfect future. Technology seduces with offerings of a panacea for a better world. Yet, like the serpent holding the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, do the seeds of technology hold unknown dire consequences. Technology rules the present, but without direction, will it lead to a future that drives human interactions and connectivity further apart? Communication has evolved from the spoken word, to the written word, to the printing press, to a typewriter, and then to the personal computer. As the tools of communication have become more sophisticated, their applications may at times serve to divide us apart. Technology delivered the World Wide Web, which linked personal computers and established new levels of interactive communication. Yet, this web that envelops can also drive us into a silo or bunker. The internet simultaneously leaves us intertwined yet also isolated.

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