For many people, computer technology has been nothing less than a disaster: for those who have been made redundant, replaced by machines; for those who cannot keep up-to-date with their information technology skills, and are thus not as attractive as potential employees; for those who do not have the opportunity to learn IT skills at all, and thus are left out of the game entirely.

In many ways, computers contribute, indirectly, to questionable ends.

Computers have been quite helpful to the world's arms industry, leading to the creation of "smart" weapons that are much more efficient-and effective-in killing increasingly large numbers of people. Computers are powering the Human Genome Project, an attempt to map the human DNA structure. That work will, in turn, lead to such things as designer babies. Parents will be able to test their yet unborn children for such things as predispositions to diseases, sexuality, obesity and the like-and terminate those pregnancies if they don't like what they discover.

Computers power the Internet, an explosion of information whose impact on the world is not yet clear. What is clear is that the Internet is increasingly a tool of the haves being used to increase their share of the world's wealth, leaving the have-nots at an even greater disadvantage. Information has a dark underbelly: so much information, but so little wisdom. And the information available on the Internet is like sucking on a firehouse, and about as practical. So much information, but finding what's useful and separating that from the nonsense is most difficult. And we must ask, "What sort of information is available?" And very often the answer is, "Western-based information presented in English, concerning Western ideas, culture and ways of doing things." It's rather a new sort of colonialism on a truly massive scale.

The Internet has flooded us with so much information that it's hard to decide what's relevant, or indeed, if any of it is relevant. The usefulness of information has been separated from its presentation. There's so much of it we, literally, have no clue what to do with it.

An example might make this clearer: This past week I have been following a story about "Muslim" rebels in the Philippines who have kidnapped 21 people and are holding them as bargaining chips, trying to free some of their comrades from prisons in various countries. Some of these unfortunate bystanders have been killed; two had their heads chopped off; and now information comes that a Catholic priest has been repeatedly beaten and now killed.

What do you do with this information? It incites you to rage at the hypocrisy of supposed Muslims who seem to know little about Islamic notions of justice and compassion. But what, if anything, is to be done with this information? We are left powerless.

There's no shortage of information on the atrocities and cruelties we humans are so capable of. We have developed a term for those who find they can no longer care: "compassion fatigue". If technology has left us unable to care about the cruelties around us, what does that say?Computers and networks were supposed to increase productivity; recent studies and media reports indicate this has not happened. Paperless office? Same story. Expected gains in profitability do not always materialise. Promises of what this or that piece of software will do often prove dubious, if not outright lies, as anyone who has ever bought a piece of software knows only too well. Ask housekeepers, for example, whether any of the technological gadgets they've dished out good money for-vaccuum cleaners and the like-have reduced the amount of time it requires to clean a house. The answer is no. Ask modern man, too, whether all his progress has made life easier and given him more time to enjoy himself and his family and friends, and the answer is, again, no. In the good old days on the savannah, hunting and gathering and all that, a man would spend about 20 hours a week providing for the needs of his family, often doing this together with his neighbours. These days, that figure has more than doubled, with many men-and women-working two and three jobs to get by.

Is this advancing?The relentless march of technological progress-and all the hype that goes with it-goes on and shows no sign of stopping. We continue to hear promises of what the computer and all its components will do for us; we're fascinated by the high-tech whiz-bang of it all. But all these screens and monitors that have captured our eyes keep us sitting in lonely cubicles or rooms, isolated, typing away, clicking on this and that, entertaining us but not really teaching us anything useful or practical-like what to do when the electricity fails and the screens go dark, or how to talk to the man who lives next door, or even the next cubicle over. It has not addressed injustice and cruelty. It's main beneficiaries are those who can afford it, not those who need it most. Technology has, in general, made itself indispensable to our lives. Indispensable, yes; free, no.