How do we allow scientific innovation without ruining the world?

[k2rugman]

I think there should be guidelines and rules for innovation. Every eventuality needs to be taken into account to make sure that everyone is kept safe but that progress can continue.

[Tsundoku_diva]

I think we are getting to the point that there will have to be more regulations and limits. It is hard to keep anything private and sometimes hard to protect ourselves emotionally. When we become over dependent on technology, I think we start to lose some of our lives. I think shows like Black Mirror and this book are clear examples of the dangers of technology being abused.

I agree. All innovations are great, it's always been. Innovations were planned and made to be helpful; they just became bad when abused.

[Tsundoku_diva]

I think there should be guidelines and rules for innovation. Every eventuality needs to be taken into account to make sure that everyone is kept safe but that progress can continue.

I agree too! This is to set expectations and limitations to avoid any misuse and abuse.

[londonmartine]

Starting the day with the deep questions!

I think it's a pendulum swing - something new and exciting comes into the world, and everyone leaps on it. The consequences start to kick in, and we have to develop new rules and ways of dealing with it. I'm optimistic that we will and do deal with stuff, even if it feels excruciatingly slow. For example, we had tons of deforestation in the wake of globalism and industrialisation. Then we realised, oops, we're destroying the planet. So we try and control it. Now it's plastics - it's taken an appalling length of time for people to realise how incredibly irresponsible our global plastic production is, but people are starting to kick up a fuss and implement measures of control. And don't get me started on the internet - we've still got a long way to go while we deal with the hate that goes hand in hand with social media. But we are starting to provide legal measures to try and deal with it.

We may be slow, but I think the world will be alright

[londonmartine]

No doubt, every new innovation has it's pros and cons. Now it's on us how effectively we use the particular technology for the benefit of mankind. Gun is an important innovation. But it is the negative use, which is devastating society. There should be an effective control on gun's usage to avoid its harms.

Yes, the gun thing. That is so weird. If ever there was a case to take measures and actions to control the negative effects of a piece of technology, this would be it. And yet here we are, with innocent people dying on a regular basis, and nothing being done to stop it. So strange.

[Faith Mbasani]

Scientists usually study ethics but lack people skills and will not think of the effects of their creations on others. They may not be necessarily evil; it just doesn't occur to them. The best way to maintain balance in innovations is of course by monitoring scientists; which is already being done. Some regulations like gun control, however, are government decisions. I've realized that everyone with great power should have a watcher. But who will watch the watchers? This issue is inexhaustible and we sapiens will probably cause our own extinction before we figure this out.

[ReyvrexQuestor Reyes]

We already have enough inventions that could not only ruin the world but could even wipe us all from the face of the earth. The acts of human beings seemed to have been bent at our self-destruction, wittingly or unwittingly. We have become industrialized, a very far cry from our stone age existence, but the very energy --the steam power -- that gave us the conveniences of our modern living also generated so many destructive by-products that can eventually destroy our planet from global warming. That is the delayed effect. If we want immediate annihilation, we can just detonate our arsenals of Atomic Bombs. Thanks, but no thanks to scientific innovations, we are no longer burdened with killing ourselves the hard and tedious way by knives and clubs, because all it takes now is just to press a button. And this sports watch to fill us with anxiety before our time actually comes, is like killing us many times before our death.

[GabbiV]

We already have enough inventions that could not only ruin the world but could even wipe us all from the face of the earth. The acts of human beings seemed to have been bent at our self-destruction, wittingly or unwittingly. We have become industrialized, a very far cry from our stone age existence, but the very energy --the steam power -- that gave us the conveniences of our modern living also generated so many destructive by-products that can eventually destroy our planet from global warming. That is the delayed effect. If we want immediate annihilation, we can just detonate our arsenals of Atomic Bombs. Thanks, but no thanks to scientific innovations, we are no longer burdened with killing ourselves the hard and tedious way by knives and clubs, because all it takes now is just to press a button. And this sports watch to fill us with anxiety before our time actually comes, is like killing us many times before our death.

Yes, science made the atom bomb, but it also provides us with the highest overall standard of living in human history. Unless you live completely off the grid, doing everything with your own two hands, science and innovation, I think, have done a lot of good in regards to our daily lives.

[kegoffeney]

This is, honest to goodness, one of my favorite philosophical discussions. But then again, I have a background in Anthropology, so all things pertaining to human development, society, and culture kind of interest me.

Short answer: We haven't broken it yet, we aren't likely to break it from technology at least.

Longer answer: Even with as quickly as technological breakthroughs seem to be happening these days, look at how quickly we adapt to them. Sure, maybe the older ends of the population might struggle to adapt to the technological things, but for every older adult struggling to log into their email, there's a two-year-old who knows their way around an iPad.

The thing is that nothing actually happens suddenly. Something new will be introduced to society, but its adoption still takes between months to years to become ubiquitous. This allows plenty of time for the entrepreneurial among us to develop alternatives or tempering elements to the more invasive inventions (think about all the new "encrypted" messaging apps that came out following the NSA thing a few years back).

And in the super long term, mankind has its own way of finding and maintaining balance. It's one of the coolest things that human society does.

[DrHyde_not_Jekyll]

This is a great post, and a lot of discussion is going to result from this. Good job

I like to think of this from a spiritual, scientific viewpoint, as I am spiritual, and I am a scientist.

Take CRISPR, the DNA editing technology. Scientists are developing this for the good -- to attempt to cure devastating disease for which there is no cure. The potential to change lives is astounding, and its significance cannot be ignored. But, already, people are discussing the possibility, the temptation, and the ethics of using CRISPR for more "cosmetic" purposes. Designer babies. You want the next Olympic hurdler? CRISPR to the rescue. This of course leads people to ask whether parents love "successful" children more -- and how will the child feel when they learn that their parents designed them for a specific purpose, especially if they don't want to be an Olympic hurdler but would rather be an organic farmer? We could go on and on.

Will we ruin the world? I think we'll get close. Here is where the spiritual part of me comes in. I do believe that the End of Days will arrive and God will clean up our mess before we completely ruin the world. I don't think we could totally bring ourselves and this earth to destruction. But, I could be wrong. It's up to us as a society to keep this from happening, but if history has taught us anything, it is that humans always desire to improve. CRISPR is just one more tool in the box for humanity to use to get us closer to that "perfect" state -- irrespective of the ethical and societal implications.

[Katiemhardy813]

I think if we were more able to admit when we had made a mistake, and withdrew poor advances, we'd be in a better place. Like perhaps ix-nay on the self-driving cars?

[Helen_Combe]

What makes me really sad are the life saving inventions that are then priced beyond the reach of ordinary mortals, even though they are inexpensive to produce and nobody else can make them because of the patents.

[n-dai che]

No doubt, every new innovation has it's pros and cons. Now it's on us how effectively we use the particular technology for the benefit of mankind. Gun is an important innovation. But it is the negative use, which is devastating society. There should be an effective control on gun's usage to avoid its harms.

I agree with your idea. Gun on the other side is good in order for self-defense and for the country. But when the man uses this against a person that does not do any harm, seems devastating!

[Makena Mugendi]

I believe that most new technological advancements are invented to do good, but human nature finds a way to corrupt even the best of intentions, as is seen in The Final Notice. We cannot really blame the technology for existing then, but our own free will is our demise sometimes. An example is the creation of guns which were only to be used in extreme cases, yet we have turned this weapon of destruction into a commonplace item and turned it on one another.

However, we cannot restrict advancement because of it's adverse effects, except maybe robots. All we can do is be responsible for our own little corner of the world and make the area around us as good as we can with the time that we have. We can also add as many failsafes as we can to our technology to prevent the negatives we foresee from happening.

[Nena_Morena]

Technology is a great thing. We had benefitted much, but it can be dangerous when abused. This book again showed me that there are things we are not meant to control. It's scary how people can be completely dependent on it and forget that we are not God.