The author of the Skulls in the Stars blog has a vast and delightful collection of historical papers about science, technology and how those things affect human lives. In an 1887 issue of Science, he found a letter that brilliantly captures what always happens when you use technology to solve a problem—namely, you create a new problem.
Some disadvantage or evil appears to be attendant upon every invention, and the electric light is not an exception in this respect. In this city they have been placed in positions with a view of illuminating the buildings, notably the treasury, and a fine and striking effect is produced. At the same time, a species of spider has discovered that game is plentiful in their vicinity, and that he can ply his craft both day and night. In consequence, their webs are so thick and numerous that portions of the architectural ornamentation are no longer visible, and when torn down by the wind, or when they fall from decay, the refuse gives a dingy and dirty appearance to every thing it comes in contact with. Not only this, but these adventurers take possession of the portion of the ceiling of any room which receives the illumination.
Whoops.
Which brings me to my next point: Nothing is perfect. The goal of technology isn't to create a world where everything works exactly the way we want it to. At least, that shouldn't be the goal. Because it's completely and utterly unattainable. Instead, the goals of technology ought to be centered around mitigating problems and replacing them with problems that aren't as big of a deal. It's about balancing trade-offs. Finding a happy medium between what we want, and what we're willing to live with. In the long run, spiders turned out to be a small price to pay for the conveniences of electric light.
Image: Spiders, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from gramody's photostream
