In the grand seismic sea wave of modern technology and its fascinations and benefits, the risks and dangers are easily overlooked or disregarded in favor for reassurance of our discoveries. After all, it is easier to accept our advancements than our mistakes. Richard L. Jones has little reservations about nanotechnology overriding the human race, as he finds our race to be the product of a very thorough and testing trial of millions of years of evolution winnowing out the best of the best.
"Soft Machines" by Richard L. Jones.
Our immune system is a fine and vicious defense system that eliminates intruders in a manner that is hard to improve even today. We are, in essence, “Soft Machines” honed after years of trial and error developing the hard machines of silicon that are an imitation of the wonders of nature.
Surely, the ethical answer of nanotechnology should be black and white. Yes or no. Regulation or free reign. However, this is not the case. Even the inventions with the most innocent of causes can have an unforeseen turn for the worse in a matter of years or even days. The stance that most had was that research into nanotechnology should not be restricted as the advancement of technology is inevitable and unstoppable. While true, I believe that science should have even more stringent processes in order to be distributed among the public.
The Human Body according to Galileo.
Sometimes I worry that our world will become like in Wall-E, where the conveniences of technology will overstrip our use of our own biological “machines” and we will be reduced to a race of immobile masses of tissue and bone. However, until then, I will have faith in the scientists of today and tomorrow for our future.
A screenshot from the Pixar movie Wall-E with its projection for what the future may hold in robots
Links
http://www.ethicsweb.ca/nanotechnology/
http://www.nanotech-now.com/ethics-of-nanotechnology.htm
“Soft Machines” by Richard L. Jones
“Wall-E” by Pixar Studios
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/chen/nanotechnology.html