A couple of nights ago, I was scrolling through Apple News. Personally, the “Current Events” section is quite anxiety-inducing and at nighttime, I make it a point to avoid it. However, I do quite thoroughly enjoy the “Technology” and “Editorial” sections.

So there I was scrolling through the colorful tiles, until one headline practically jumped out at me. To be completely honest, I don’t remember the title word for word but it read something like: “Should we fear progress in science? Yes.”

I was intrigued by such a bold statement that I had to read on. In short, the author talked about how the stuff of 1980’s science fiction will become the world we live in and not fiction anymore and that we as a society must fear scientific progression because of it.

Although not directly called out in the article, I believe that the author may have been hinting at artificial intelligence technology. An example of this would be Elon Musk’s Neuralink technology which is an implantable wireless brain-computer interface that would essentially make your brain a virtual mouse among many other projected uses.

This device has faced many different forms of criticism. Of course one place this criticism comes from are people like the author of the aforementioned article who fear that our world is becoming too reliant on technology for our own good. Another place that this criticism comes from are skeptics. An example of this can be seen in WIRED magazine’s article that called Neuralink “impressive tech, wrapped in Musk hype.”

I believe that any new thing has always faced criticism of sorts and more importantly that any new thing that causes people to have to reimagine the future has always been anxiety-inducing.

However, I do not think that this is reason enough to discourage those that are trying to make scientific breakthroughs and work toward progress. Both juniors at Cypress High School, Eunice Kim, and junior at Oxford Academy, Lianne Cha, agree.

I argue that we should not be scared of scientific innovation because what are we doing if not working towards advancement? Mastering artificial intelligence technology is, in my opinion, the next step for science. Therefore, inventors like Elon Musk working to build technology like the Neuralink, should be encouraged (of course within ethical and moral parameters) to keep making scientific progress. Anxiety about a new future with breakthrough technology is the last thing that should hold us back from scientific innovation and advancement.

<Chanah Park / Cypress High School 11th Grade>