Ethics In Science And Technology As Development And Progress Engines

Ethics in science and technology as development and progress engines

Technology and science, are two development and progress engines. Both have propel significant changes in improving human life. For example, scientists have created innumerable medicines and treatments that have saved millions of people. But scientific advances did not have the same impact if they were not supported by technology. Actually, it is necessary to affirm that both go hand in hand. For example, modern medical equipment and artifacts would never have been created if not for the technological development we have seen in recent years.

Although all this is positive, there is a dark side of scientific and technological development, which is rarely examined. The flowering of technological and scientific advances have been carried out on many occasions outside ethical criteria. This gap between ethics, science and technology must be examined in depth. The purpose is not only to perform a simple analysis, but also to raise the way to a new approach in which ethics is the center of all technological and scientific advances. In recent years, with the rapid advances in science and technology, conversation has been accelerated around ethics regarding these advances: how far we can, or should we arrive, in the name of progress? To what extent is our duty to investigate and modify aspects of nature that present risks and challenges for human race? When is it science, and gets "play God"? In view of answering these questions, the fields of ethics and science are increasingly intertwined, looking for adequate balance between progress and respect for the human condition.

Undoubtedly, science and technology are, and have always been, the engines of progress;It is through these fields that we have connected to the world, increased the life expectancy of the human being, and agricultural production increased to be able to feed a growing population. However, this is just a currency face.

With each new technology that develops, ethical questions are immediately created. For example, the discovery of the potential of nuclear fission as an energy source was quickly misrepresented to be used in weapons of war: the atomic bomb. This is evidence that every new technology has the potential to be used for good, but also to be manipulated and twisted to fulfill antietic interests, all depending on the moment of history in which it develops, and in the hands of who falls. The need for a strong and marked ethics code is presented to avoid tragic damage caused in the name of progress, either to other human beings, such as their own nature.

Defining ethics in the framework of science, it is about working towards progress, with all the curiosity, honesty and integrity that demands a profession in these fields, always striving because it is supposed progress does not cause harm to human beings or to thenature. This must be a universal precept, applicable from the most basic tasks such as attending in a laboratory, to aspects of greater complexity such as experimentation, and issues that imply the alteration of physiognomy or the human genetic profile.

Every professional of science and technology must have an acute consciousness and a clear understanding that in their position it has the power to do much good, but, if it is neglected, also much damage, either by negligence or for pursuing the alleged progresseven to the detriment of the human being and the whole other life that the planet lives.

In the particular case of ethics in technological development, a series of alarming questions that are still far from being resolved have been presented in recent years. First, and what everyone probably thinks when considering the intersection between technology and ethics, is the development of the so -called artificial intelligence. It is questioned if it is a good idea, if it is ethical, develop machines with the ability to basically think for themselves, to make decisions and to "learn" from your own account;Although this is currently co -fled by our technological capacity, not yet advanced enough to create truly self-sufficient machines, as well as the full fact that we are not yet trying to reach such an extreme point.

A practical example of the ethical questions that arise within the framework of artificial intelligence we have in the field of self-conducting cars, where the navigation computer is responsible, depending on the chosen route and a series of sensors in the machine,driving the vehicle. The thought behind this type of car considers that, by excluding the human error of automobile driving activity, it is eliminated equally any risk of accident produced by the driver. While this could be true, a simple exercise of thought reveals the weaknesses of this theory. Let’s say that, on a road, an automatic driving car goes behind a cargo truck. To the right of the car is a motorcyclist without a helmet, and on his left, a motorcyclist with a helmet. Behind the car is another car. Consider then, a situation in which, of the load truck, by accident, a pack of rods is loosen, which will fall on the driver behind. If this car is automatic driving, the vehicle sensors will notice the danger that is coming, and, depending on how it has been scheduled, it will make a decision: it can, realizing that it is surrounded, sacrifice its own driver and stay still, avoiding harm to others, but hurting the consumer who has bought it, undoubtedly not a wise decision for any manufacturer; You can, seeing that the motorcyclist he has on the left has a helmet, turning in that direction, assuming that the motorcyclist will also be removed, and that in case not, it will be protected by his helmet, but this would be to penalize the security decision of another driver; On the contrary, it can turn right, understanding that if the motorcyclist has no helmet, since he does not value his security, but this would be to exercise a kind of street police; Finally, there is the option to stop, undoubtedly hurting the driver behind and very possibly.

Any of these results would be considered an accident if the car was not an automatic driving, because the decision would have been made by the driver at the time, without prior consideration, and therefore, no ethical debate enters into said decision. However, if we are talking about programming a vehicle to decide who to hurt in the event of an accident, we undoubtedly, a delicate debate in our hands.

We also talk about ethics in science when modification of the human genome: experiments and technologies through which the scourge of genetic diseases and congenital conditions seeks to eliminate. However, there are many critics of this technology, arguing that science is getting to play God. In addition, in the future these technologies are used in the future to be used for more frivolous and unnecessary issues, such as purely aesthetic alterations, initiating some kind of cleaning of breeds or filtration of any character that can be considered unattractive in a given culture. It is feared in the same as the adaptations that this technology facilitates to acquire the human being from its true nature, in a certain way generating an artificial evolution.

Certainly, the consideration of some ethical code in the sciences is necessary, where all progress is imposed on the service of humanity and nature;conduct with justice, honesty, honesty, and good faith at all times;personal responsibility for the acts of each professional;And, above all, as in every profession it should be considered, but more in the fields of science because of its impressive ability to alter the course of humanity, an unequivocal commitment to never harm, anyone or anything, deliberately. Such an approach, without a doubt, would guarantee a more ethical scientific and technological exercise, always at the service of human communities and nature in general, although never drowning scientific creativity or stopping progress.