Spidel Tech Solutions, Inc.

Ethics

Technology ethics is about the difference between can and should. As our powers to manipulate the environment increase, each of us should take time to reflect on what has been the outcome.

The word ethics comes from a Greek word meaning “Arising from Habit.” I would translate it as “Appropriate Behavior”. From this arise discussions of morality, right and wrong.

For technologists, engineers and scientists this subject has a little different face. While most ethics is about behaviors humans have been engaged in since the dawn of time, technology allows us to behave in ways never before possible.

So the question before us is not just can we do this but should we do this. It is not as if there is some invisible barrier that when crossed dooms us all. It is more about the unintended consequences of apparently innocuous technology decisions.

You can imagine a headline such as “In the presence of Global Warming, Was the automobile such a good idea?” In other words we choose a path only much later to find out it was not such a good thing. Please understand, this is not about the non-science of global warming, but if it were true how earlier decisions may have caused it.

Since we did not invent the idea of technology we can look back in time for a point of reference. The ancient Greeks considered openly the pros and cons of a written language. You see for them writing itself was considered by some to be a dangerous technology. What did they conclude? Only that the technology was morally neutral, but would have far reaching negative consequences.

That is not what I was taught in school.

But think for a minute. The ancients concluded that with everything written down, a student could pick and choose what he would learn. This would lead to lack of balance, since he would not have the wisdom of the teacher to help him have a broad understanding of things. He would delve very deeply into some areas at the expense of whole categories of truth. And what do we see today but specialists without a lick of sense. perhaps because of this lack of balance many people with advanced degrees have no moral compass or sufficient world view to explain their own behavior.

Now lets consider a more modern topic. Stem cell research has been a hot topic for a few years. What is the problem here? There are two categories of stem cells generally referred to as embryonic and adult. Now embryonic stem cells to be captured for study requires the death of a living being while adult stem cells can be recovered from various tissues without harming the source. I know a researcher who has been using his own stem cells for his research. So we have to decide, should we pursue both lines of research or is one full of ethical problems?

If you have previously concluded that either all life is sacred or none of it is, then embryonic stem cell research no matter what its promise is not worth the consequences of the devaluation of all life. If it is just tissue then there is no ethical problem. So the presuppositions of the technologist come into play though he is not normally aware of this. Our personal world view filters the facts we perceive enabling or disabling us to perceive the consequences

In conclusion, just because we have the power to do certain things we must have a basis to decide whether we should continue pursuing particular technologies lest we find we have created our own little Frankenstein.

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