Despite the major technological advancements of the 20th

Century, 55 percent say technology will be both a positive and

negative force in the future. Slightly more than a third believe

future technological changes will be entirely positive, while only 7

percent said they will be completely negative, leaving the majority

of Americans in the middle.

"If Americans seem to bow to the god of technology, they do

so with a skeptical eye open to its downside," said Peter Hart.

"On the one hand, they believe they'd have a difficult time living

without some of the technological advances of this century, while

on the other hand, they're wary about what technological

breakthroughs the future may have in store."

While 42 percent said they are comfortable with new

technologies and 11 percent said they are slow to use them, 47 percent

said they are somewhere in the middle-neither entirely comfortable

nor entirely uncomfortable. And though a majority believe

there's a good chance scientists will clone human beings in the next 30

years, 58 percent said that possibility is what they would dread most

about living in the next century.

Americans also value the most recent technological

breakthroughs of this century, perhaps taking for granted those that

have been around longer. When asked to name one or two of the

most significant technological developments in the 20th

Century, nearly two-thirds cited the computer, almost twice as many as

its closest competitor, the automobile.

Just fewer than a quarter said television and only 13 percent

said the airplane.

<!--##############