JUST BECAUSE WE CAN ...

Over the past couple of months I have heard comments regarding the future of certain technologies that will deeply impact the world in which we live.  The first are Robots, which can, and already are, replacing or assisting humans in a wide variety of tasks.  The second are driverless cars. Which are in the test mode as we speak.  Thirdly, the ability to clone a sheep is but one step away from cloning Us. Choosing the "perfect" human being without its attendant foibles and predispositions toward lethal or debilitating maladies.

The human mind is infinite in its ability to think up and then figure out how to put each thought into motion.  If it makes a lot of money, all the more reason to move on to development and sale.  Right?

This Blog is about human genius pitted against what is best for humanity today and generations to come.

JUST BECAUSE WE CAN...should we?  JUST BECAUSE WE CAN...must we?

The Robot, it has been predicted, will eventually do the menial jobs.  The lifting and toting, the repetitive jobs, the "labor" jobs.  Millions of Americans make a living at these jobs right now, but in the future, say the "futurists", these same individuals will have to reinvent themselves.  Maybe become  entrepreneurs who "invent two or three jobs" to put bread on the table.  "Entrepreneurs" because there will not be enough jobs to go around.

Driverless cars can enable the blind and disabled to "drive" from point A to point B.  They can deliver packages and food and every other manner of goods to far flung areas.  Thus eliminating the need for long-distance truck drivers.  Of course these driverless semis will be met by Robots at the other end, thus solving the problem of who will unload the freight.

As for cloning, wouldn't the world be better if we could genetically manage it's progeny.  Do away with disease, evil acts, and the undesirable?

I'd  like to think that our first considerations when inventing and then selling a new idea or product would be:  How will they impact my children and my childrens' children?  Will they make life better, safer, happier, more secure?  Will elimination of jobs create more poverty, more dis-ease, more war?  Will driverless cars further overburden our roads and highways, which are falling apart daily from overuse.

Will we ever be able to clone the perfect human?  What is the perfect human anyway?  And who gets to decide?  The cloners?  Do you we really want to live in a Stepford world?

Yes, Robots  might be useful in performing tasks humans no longer want to do, but shouldn't those same humans be the ones to decide, not the one who invents the possibility?

As for driverless cars.  Wouldn't it be better to devise ways to move people from A to B to C in mass transportation instead, and reduce cars and their attendant pollution?

The bottom line is, JUST BECAUSE WE CAN, does not mean it is wise or  humane; it just means we can.  Humans created the Bomb because they couldn't resist doing so.  Then we dropped it on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  Thousands of innocents died ignominious deaths.  We haven't dropped a bomb since.  We dropped it because we could.  Now we have 16,000 nuclear weapons worldwide--just because we can.

Today's children are growing up in a world that is moving at warp speed.  Immediate gratification is a near reality with I-Phones and the Internet.  Games are played on handheld devices instead of in the backyard.  XBox has replaced outdoor basketball and baseball.

Technology is here to stay.  It arrived with the printing press and has accelerated humankind's ability to do and know beyond any cave dwellers wildest imagination.  In turn, no one can deny that technology has its place, but every invention, no matter how unique, must be approached with caution.

JUST BECAUSE WE CAN does not mean we will, or, more importantly, that we should!