h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's philosophy day today for me

Two related questions.

Firstly, what do you think the ultimate limits of technology are? For instance will technlogy one day be able to do things such as make us immortal, carry us into space etc etc?

Secondly, is technology good? What do you think of mans ability to use technology to modify nature?

Technology is like a knife. Give it to a murdered and he will kill people. Give it to a butcher and he will give you food. Give it to a surgeon and he will save lives. Technology is not something you can say is black or white, it is merely a tool. It is up to the person who uses it wether to use it for good or bad things.

As for the limits, breaking the laws of Nature. But besides that I don't see any real limits. I think it can make us immortal and carry us into space. If we keep on developing tehcnology the world will look quite different in a thousand years. It is kind of scary for me thinking about how it will be, but mainly out of a fear of change I think.

I agree with Xanatic that all information or knowledge can be good or dangerous depending on who uses it. The problem with continuing to develop technology is that you cannot guarantee that it will not fall into the wrong hands, and that makes it scary. On the other hand you can't tell people to stop thinking and learning "just in case" some mad man gets hold of the info.

But it is slighty worrying that we are developing nuclear weapons, while some people can't even tell you how a TV works.

I can't understand why countries keep building up their supply of nuclear weapons. Surely once you have the ability to destroy the world once it's irrelevant that someone else has enough nuclear power to destroy it twice or three times over.

As nuclear weapons age the chance of them not going off when triggered increases and this means that you need more of them to have the same deterent effect. Basically the deterrent effect only works if it is patently obvious that your enemy would not survive your attack nor you theirs.

Yes, technology will get us into space. I don't know how long it will take, though, and I don't know when we'll be able to do decent speeds (i.e., approaching light speed. I'm not sure that 'faster than light' is really possible.)

Technology will increase our life-spans - we've already reached an average of 80+, while not so long ago it was 70+. I don't know about immortality, though. Even if we *could* achieve it, I'm not sure it would be a good idea unless we could extend the 'life-span' of our internal organs. One reason for death is that the organs just reach the end of their useful life. I don't think a transplant every 70 years or so is a good idea.

I think the advance of technology will be limited only by the resources available. However, once a technological advance has been achieved, there will always be arguments about 'How do we use this?' or even 'Should we use this?' Personally I feel that just because we *can* do a thing (e.g., determine the colour of a baby's hair and eyes), it doesn't mean that we *should* do it.

I agree with Cheerful Dragon, just because we can, doesn't mean we should.

As a pagan Druid, thats kinda my faith as well. Not mis-using nature just because we can, as we do depend on nature, and one day she might get her own back - again!

As a uni trained scientist, this is an expression of my ethics and not my naivity!

I'd say technology can bring us into space and maybe grant us immortiality. Forever is a long time, but at least we could probably live for some million years. Not in this biological form though, more like a sort of biological robots. To be honest it seems like there isn't much that can't be achieved with an advanced tehcnology.

I also don't think we should do something just because we can't. But if we can help someone, it seems wrong not to. As Crick or Watson talked about recently, if we have the means to keep thousands of children from being born as handicapped we will be cursed by them for not having done so.

Some believe that humans will become more morally aware the more responsebility our increasing technology demands. Doesn't seem like it to me. In SETI research one of the things they talk about is the lifespan of a civilisation. If all populations with technology will wipe themselves out eventually with nuclear weapons.. On a cosmic scale that would probably be good, no space wars. But not if you happen to be one of the self destructing civilisations. We need to decide how to use that technology. Since we live in democracies that will in many cases be decided by the average people. The people that don't know how a TV works. Kind of scary.

Knowledge "should" be accompanied by responsibility but as we all know this is rarely the case.

The argument about helping people if we can is all well and good, you say if we can prevent children from being born handicapped we should and I agree. But what if the only way to prevent people from being born disabled is to prevent them being born at all? No-one has the right to decide whether another human being should live or die. Who are we to judge that they will contribute less to society because they're different?

Yes, but I was talking about genetic engineering and such. Abortion is another matter.

While I agree that, in theory, we don't have the right to determine who should be born, in practice my feelings are different. There was a programme a year or two ago that looked at the question of the decisions doctors make on keeping some babies alive. The babies in question all had severe handicaps. The comment made by a lot of the parents was, 'It's all very well the doctors taking the moral high ground and saying that it's their duty to keep the baby alive. They don't have to take care of the child for the rest of its life.' Some of the children needed special care that their parents could ill afford. In other cases, the parents (sometimes just the mother, because the father had left 'cos he couldn't cope!) didn't have a life of their own. I remember that one child was horrifically mentally handicapped to the extent that his 'quality of life' had to be non-existent.

As far as I'm concerned, any medical advance that prevents these sorts of situation *has* to be good.

Maybe if you feel that having a disabled child is too daunting, then you shouldn't be getting pregnant, at that time or maybe ever.

This may upset some people, but it was a personal decision I came to. We all have to come to our own decisions, which we can then stand by. Some people would make a decision different to mine, fair enough, so long as its an honest decision for them. Honesty for me, meant there was no room in my life for children.

At least by thinking ahead, you have some idea on what you would like to do, if your baby isn't quite all you wished. Having worked with disabled people, sometimes a disabled baby, can be better than what you wished for!

I do worry, about doctors who help their patients become pregnant no matter what their age is, or how many children they already have. I like to believe that nature has its own way of making sure people who shouldn't become pregnant, don't. To always go against nature, bodes badly for an overpopulated future.

You said you were a uni educated scientist, what kind?

Doctors go against nature all the time, that is their job. And having a handicapped child can be a big burden and might end up making both parties miserable.

Marine and fish biology

wouldn't choose to do it now though!

still read New Scientist to keep up-to-date, womens mags are so boring

What do you do now then?

Women mags make you rethink if giving them right to vote was a good idea. If they need to be told how to dress and act, how should they be able to make a decision about foreign policies?

Xanatic

I was brought up to be a marine scientist. I would rather have studied something media/arts/english lit

but I am glad that I understand a little science, and therefore can understand new Scientist. I believe in knowledge

I would have thought I'd get flamed for that.

Yeah, good mag. But it would cost too much to buy it every week. I wouldn't mind becoming a marine scientist.

Actually, I noticed that you said you wanna get hot, so maybe you wanted to be flamed?!

So, what do you do?

I'm trying to find out what to do. I hope to study astronomy. At the moment just working while trying to find out what to do with the rest of my life.