cyborg can do anything better than you

Cyborg Can Do Anything Better Than You

Cyborgs have been in movies since the 1960's, and it finally looks like they will become reality. With technology advancing so rapidly, this looks like a real it might become a real possibility. This should sound exciting, being have robotic sounds awesome. You could almost do anything, if you were a cyborg. Just think a the possibilities, amputees would be able to have their appendages back, blind people could have a robotic eye and be able to see (again or for the first time) and many other amazing feats (and that's not including selfish things like being able to control house functions by something inside of you). Although I am for most of this technology but let's look at the issue closer so can judge this topic better.

Let's first look at the bad side of this issue. The phrase all men are created equal would almost be a laughable pun. If the poor didn't feel a divide in status from those that are richer, they certainly would now. These new improvements would cause an even bigger divide then there already is. Instead of plastic surgery people would get cyborg parts to enhance themselves. It seems like the rich have a hard enough time not getting plastic surgery, if they could get robots parts in them, they would go crazy! Ok, so some people are pretty much robots, what's the big deal? Well, there would almost be no point in playing/doing anything physically strenuousness. Doesn't sound to bad, but that's one thing I love in life. The ability to watch someone do something amazing because of hard work and the right type of training is something human love to do. Don't believe me, then why are the Olympics so popular! Playing sports would become a joke, now the fans watching at home could actually do everything that they see their sports hero is doing. That't not all, people think that guns are a problem, just think of gangs of half robots. And then at what point do these "people" not becoming people and start to become machine? I can't imagine a life that doesn't have a humanity side. These limitations can also be what makes us great.

I'm not going to talk to much for the other side, I think that it is pretty self explanatory. I think that most people have pretended that some part of their body was a machine and then were able to do amazing things. We could now do these amazing things, and I do think that it is a good idea. And for some this would give them not only intrinsic happiness but also instrumental, which would make these "upgrade" something worth investing in.

Nanotechnology, the Smaller You Go the More Questions There Are

Nanotechnology, the Smaller You Go the More Questions There Are

Nanotechnology has been in the news lately and will be more and more for the coming years. Everyone always comments on how small everything is getting. From the first computers to smartphones that can do more than a computer from the 20th century. Not only are these electronics getting smaller, but they are getting faster and able to do more! If this trend continues then soon we will have technology that cannot be seen by the naked eye even. Well guess what these already exist and we will only see more of this in the future.

 These machines give humans an almost unlimited possibility to do anything. From the medical field to the energy sector. These little things will be everywhere. Just imagine a world where humans can build anything, even a molecule. Where everything can be made cheaply, efficiently and however one would like it. Even batteries would be able to hold exponentially more energy. Now if we start to talk about the molecular level things really start to get fun. Being able to bio-engineering things would be incredible. Jurassic Park might not be something that is just a science fiction film. Then the medical field would be hit hard by these machines. From new smart drugs that could be administered in new ways, to nanobots that help our immune system fight off diseases.

The benefits are so numerous, it seems ridiculous to even consider a bad side to nanotechnology, but this is the most important part for discussion. There are, what Tavani calls the pessimistic view, six categories where developments in molecular manufacturing could result in disaster. These categories are: Severe economic disruption, Premeditated misuse in warfare and terrorism, Surveillance with nano-level tracking devices, Extensive environmental damage, Uncontrolled self-replication, and Misuse by criminals and terrorists. These are the major issues that arise when talking about what can go wrong with these nano-machines. Then there are the issues of privacy and control, longevity and runaway nanobots. Any one of these issues are full paragraphs by themselves, but I will just touch up on them. With nanotechnology being so small people would feel like they are being watched constantly which, so there will need to be some rules and regulation in which it will not be legal to tape someone. Longevity isn't a major issue, there will always be an equalizer here, which in the human case might be the destruction of all resources on the planted, killing everything on earth. Runaway technology is always a what if scenario that humans like to play. Many movies have been off this idea, I'm looking at you The Terminator and The Matrix. Once these issues are addressed and made so that they are minimized, then we will have the utopia that nanotechnology can give us.


Tavani, Herman. Ethics and Technology. 3rd. California: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2011. Print.

Why Autonomous Cars are the Ethical Way to go

One of the inventions of the future that has been synonymous with science fiction movies of the past have been cars that drive themselves. This would be great on the surface, not having to worry about driving would make those long road trip a heck of a lot easier. When we actually take a look at these types of cars bunches of ethical issues come up. The biggest one that people get into is "who is held liable if the car crashes?" Let's use professional ethics and put it on the company that sold them the car, or perhaps the programming company that sold the car dealership the driver program. These kinds of questions keep on popping up.

Although there are negative points associated with automated cars, I will try to argue for this technology (as long as it doesn't follow apple maps). The creators of this technology are sure to take into account the number of lives that could be at stake if one part of the code went wrong. No one would release a project of this magnitude before it is ready to be released. With this in mind, they wont release this program until it would be a better driver than the average person driving. Also this program would be affected by little things like, a strange noise, night time driving (a educated guess here), or emotions are just a few. This would lead to less car accidents, which in turn would save lives. Almost every single ethical standpoint indicates that this is what we should do then. Saving lives would be the an instrumental good that would weigh heavier than any other intrinsic good would. There are plenty of other benefits from these types of cars, but the only other one that I will point out is that with this technology more people will be able to get around then they would have in the past. Take a blind man for example. There is no way that he would be able to drive in these current condition, but with the help of these cars he now could go where ever he wanted to without solely relying on other people. This would be amazing for them!

 Well regardless, it looks as though autonomous cars are going to in our lives whether one likes it or not. In the state of California they have approved of letting the google self-driving car on the streets, there is a human in the passenger seat for safety measures though. Some have ever speculated that in as little as five years there will be these cars on the road. That's why this is an ethical issue that needs to be discussed now before it already happens.