News: The Ethical Dimension; Men, Machines, and Power

news the ethical dimension each week at this time riverside radio presents essays by some of the most eloquent spokesmen of our day showing how ethical principles can be applied to major issues in the news today we hear robert j mccracken minister of the riverside church in the city of new york commenting on the subject men machines and power here is dr mccracken this is the machine age and we in the united states are living in the most mechanized nation under the sun machines have been tremendous power at the disposal of twentieth century man the voice before a microphone and behead or around the world the year through the medium of radio and pick up the vibrations of a woman singing on another continent the eye lens of a telescope becomes one million times stronger the thing got pressing a button sends a space ship on its way into interstellar regions

mathematicians tell us that an intricate differential equations of the second order may take weeks to stall but professors of the massachusetts institute of technology have invented and integrating machine capable of all providing the onset in an hour in the light effects like these it is absurd to despite a huge machines as such we are living in cities and communities that could never have been built by human muscle without machines we would not be enjoying the highest standard of living in the world's history machines library men and women from brute buttons they have contributed to a vast improvement in the closed the food the health the homes the education and recreation all millions of people what an effort secure a washing machine is what a time saver a telephone is in the

modern world life without machines is as unthinkable as life without air and water yet where machines a blessing they're not a nun mixed blessing for one thing they can breed materialism they can bring us to the place where we are more taken up with things that with values and with means that with aliens william temple once delivered a lecture on the post of a purely scientific education in which he predicted that such an education would ultimately produce a generation and it in dealing with things but indifferently qualified to deal with people and incapable of dealing with ideas this is the danger of a setting as no on the one hand we have incredible advances in mechanical

invention on the other an abysmal ignorance of human nature resulting in a failure of man to keep peace with the machine think about the significance of the title all out as turks lee's novel i less indies that our generation could easily become like a blinded sense of bringing down the tempo of civilization in berlin we are a democracy but we are moving in that direction also techno and say we're spending billions of dollars on the perfect in both techniques whereby we may establish and expand our control all nuclear energy how much by comparison i we spending on the more education and development of our children in who's hands the power released by nuclear energy will mean life or death a blessing our archives

if we want to devote the same time determination ingenuity intelligence to the study of manners social and moral make sure that we do to the manufacturer or machines and the mastery of space i knew and brighter day might soon dorm for mankind we are far from doing any such thing for one student in our colleges studying ethics sociology theology that are hundreds studying engineering physics chemistry there could be no quicker there could be no show that way all that inviting trouble we're not employing our best brains for the highest work we're not screwing our best brains for the highest what engineering sense is one thing and moral sense is another month god help us and those who come after us if we go on cultivating the one and neglecting the other

the machine is undeniably a massive but not if it makes materialist of us nor is it an asset if it leads to the depersonalize edition and dehumanizing jim all the man who make and operate it havel alice was surely right when he argued that the greatest task before civilization at present is to make machines what they ought to be the slaves instead of the masters of maine so much depends on what we do with them and on our ability to match technical development with a corresponding moral development the even though lies not in the machine as such but in the abuse of its function for the most bought our troubles of you not to the machine feeling man but a man feeling the machine to the diabolical uses to which man turns his

machines this was what worried the order and juliet and writer kiplinger's mcandrews him we're creeping on we each viewing less weight and larger power over the local been annexed and fifty knots an hour fifty mr haub it has seen since ocean steam began leaves me no deal for the machine lot what about the man the man that counts we always runs one million miles or c four times the spam from as the moment how fatah warlord from the road to hero professor dara worthy of university is paved with good intentions shortly after the british jet plane crossed and re crossed the atlantic in a few hours old cartoon appeared in the new york times it pictured object traveling at

fantastic speed wherever it will have a man's scientific progress on the ground was a huge cattle moving slowly and conversely under that law have the man's moral progress in a vivid way that khartoum symbolizes the tragedy all the twentieth century not the power but the use of the woods the power is being billed as the problem and our motives in developing and extending power the control of outer space is a case in point such control may well be the key to the future for the sake of world peace even of human survival this must surely be a matter not of national prestige but all the collective security here in anywhere corporate of effort on the part of the nations is needed to

safeguard ode to space for peaceful purposes and to deny its use for the purpose of war yet to claim status a package backers are already hard at work and use actor reports that in france government lawyers are studying the very delicate problems of nationalizing outer space and some time ago one of our senators made a speech in congress can close bases it means control of the world follow us certainly far more told to make them any control that has ever awkward ever be achieved by weapons or by troops of occupation from space the monsters all the infinity would have the power to control the asked whether because the road and flood to change the tides and raise the level of the sea the urgent race we about when is not the race to perfect long range ballistic missiles that is something more important than any

ultimate weapon that is the ultimate position the position of total control over the lies somewhere around in space whoever against that ultimate position gains control total control for purposes often a law for the service of freedom our national goal and the goal for a free man must be to win and hold that position this is unilateral spatial imperialism without vengeance it leaves god almighty out of reckoning altogether the masters of infinity for some but not allowed to vote aren't implicit in this is the arabs the presumption the titan isn't that brings nemesis in exit ugly him awake judgment of history says have a better feel the historian force heaviest on those who

come to think themselves guards who fly in the face of providence and history who put their trust in man made systems and worship the work of their own hands and to save the strength of their own right arm gave them the victory the fed which all of us are too prone to forget is that we have someone far more powerful than ourselves with we're in a universe which god of dollars not we we are subjects of infinity not ma states that have had a century or will force or the predicament we're in today and put his finger on its fundamental cause what frightens me he said is the human presumption that has become so evident men and nations in their last four power tend to deify their own interests it is a dangerous activity he you'll use apps the grace of god sooner

or later it is the root cause of the modern building in all prayed about adam's we suppose that we can do without god and we are self sufficient but by our own efforts and skills we can orbit our affairs make ourselves security shape the course of events can throw the future what fools we are no man no nation and played the part of providence with impunity that are eternal morrow wars which is they are defied read destruction on those who defy the humanity is what we need the findings of the scientists should families with a sense of all the vastness of the universe should make as ashamed of the argument assumption that we are the route and crown of things and that the universe was so we made for our benefit and that we should complement the word of god to this generation is they keep

us when you were beaten and awful and of bill goodling i was is and live in them and when your silver and gold is multiplied and wove that you have is multiplied then your heart be lifted up and you forget it and say in your got my power and the might all my hand of god and be this wealth you have been listening to a commentary by robert j mccracken minister of the riverside church in the city of new york titled man machines and power his big

issue this has been used the ethical dimension a weekly series of radio essays placing current events with an ethical context but dissipating in these programs are representatives of leading institutions academic theological industrial and said news the ethical dimension is produced for npr and by riverside radio wor dr the metropolitan fm station other aside church in the city of new york and is distributed by the national association of educational broadcasters for the naacp radio network it's been