On June 16 Krispijn attended the lecture De volmaakte mens (The Perfect Human) at Pakhuis de Zwijger (site in Dutch). Krispijn took part in the discussion, which focused on the topic of ethics and advances in (bio-)technologies. We’ll cover some of the topics in more detail in our news stories over the coming weeks.
On June 16 Krispijn attended the lecture De volmaakte mens (The Perfect Human) at Pakhuis de Zwijger (site in Dutch). Krispijn took part in the discussion, which focused on the topic of ethics and advances in (bio-)technologies. We’ll cover some of the topics in more detail in our news stories over the coming weeks.
The evening consisted of thought-provoking presentations and debates with some of the Netherlands’ leading figures in science, ethics, and journalism.
Over and over, the question kept coming up: How can we be sure that technological advances will lead to ethical, positive outcomes in the future?
Times they are a-changing
Technology has dramatically changed human life over the last two centuries and the rate of change keeps getting faster. The presenters showed us the latest breakthroughs in DNA research, robotics, and workforce planning, all of which seemed to suggest that our lives are about to change – and possibly get a lot better than ever before.
All the experts on the panel agreed that we are on the verge of dramatic, life-altering changes, although they had differing opinions about how soon change is coming.
They also had differing ideas about what the moral and ethical outcomes of these changes will be. Judging from the discussion, many in the audience were pessimistic about humankind’s ability to use technology strictly to achieve positive goals. Krispijn, on the other hand, thinks that technology can actually help us to overcome our ethical limitations.
On the bright side
stay amazed every day has a positive view of what technology can do for our society in the future.
We believe that it is essential for people of today to commit to ethical uses for technology so that we don’t wind up repeating the mistakes of the past.
In that sense, our generation has a unique position in history and a unique responsibility.
Technology will empower us – and we think it will be sooner rather than later – to live longer, better lives, and to focus on things that really matter.
The trends point, for example, to huge developments in robotics. We expect that robotics will eliminate mundane, repetitious labor in all sectors in the future. This will have a huge impact on our work force, and it is important that institutions and businesses start thinking ahead right now to think about what this will mean. How will we re-invest our resources so that people can focus on activities other than work?
It also looks like genetics and nanotechnology areteaming upso that in the near future we can fight off disease and genetic predispositions. As we learned at the lecture, geneticists have chosen for now to focus on fighting disease rather than enhancing the healthy human body. Once technology has become more advanced, it is likely that genetic enhancement will become commonplace.
Technology has dramatically changed human life over the last two centuries and the rate of change keeps getting faster.
Calling for questions
Our concern is that these technologies should serve societies in an ethical and just way, so that ideally everyone can benefit. At the same time, we think that innovation should be valued and rewarded, so that our technologies will continue to develop and improve.
The discussion at De volmaakte mens touched on these concerns. Of course debates about ethics usually raise more questions than answers.
Fortunately we still have time to explore these questions for now and the answers, when we reach them, will inevitably need to be very complex. The important thing is that we do keep the discussion going. It’s critical for all players in society – our government institutions, NGOs, and businesses especially – to keep involved in the debate as we move forward.
There’s a lot at stake right now and we need to make ethical choices when it comes to technology.
Our mission at stay amazed every day is to encourage our clients to think about their role in fast-changing society.
Technology will empower us – and we think it will be sooner rather than later – to live longer, better lives, and to focus on things that really matter.
By Will Gibbens – Table Talk Communications for stay amazed every day
