2 posts tagged “morals”

I watched the 2007 remake of The Invasion the other night. As a remake of the 1956 and 1978 Invasion of the body snatcher films, I thought it was ok. Nothing spectacular. One scene I particularly enjoyed was the following conversation between a Russian ambassador and a Washington psychiatrist that addressed the human problem. It made me think about the recently uncovered evil of Austria's Joseph Fritzl this week.

Yorish: I say that civilization is an illusion, a game of pretend. What is real is the fact that we are still animals, driven by primal instincts. As a psychiatrist, you must know this to be true.
Carol: To be honest, ambassador, when someone starts talking to me about the truth, what I hear is what they're telling me about themselves more than what they're saying about the world.
Dr. Henryk Belicec: Quite right, well done, doctor.
Yorish: Perhaps this is true, perhaps being a Russian in this country is a kind of pathology. So what do you think, can you help me? Can you give me a pill? To make me see the world the way you Americans see the world. Can a pill help me understand Iraq, or Dafur, or even New Orleans?
Dr. Henryk Belicec: Don't be drawn in by his madness, doctor. He is Russian, he needs to argue like he needs to breathe.
Yorish: All I am saying is that civilization crumbles whenever we need it most. In the right situation, we are all capable of the most terrible crimes. To imagine a world where this was not so, where every crisis did not result in new atrocities, where every newspaper is not full of war and violence. Well, this is to imagine a world where human beings cease to be human.
Carol: While I'll give you that we still retain some basic animal instincts, you have to admit we're not the same animal we were a few thousand years ago.
Yorish: True.
Carol: Read Piaget, Kohlberg or Maslow, Graves, Wilber, and you'll see that we're still evolving. Our consciousness is changing. Five hundred years ago, postmodern feminists didn't exist yet one sits right beside you today. And while that fact may not undo all of the terrible things that have been done in this world, at least it gives me reason to believe that one day, things may be different.
Yorish: Thank you, doctor.
Carol: You're welcome, ambassador.
Dr. Henryk Belicec: Excellent.

We all ask the big 'why?' when acts of evil occur. Its the human problem. How could someone lock their daughter up for 24 years? What makes someone do such? How could they?

At least we all have the ability to react to such crimes and violence in humanity with disgust. We can all have the hope that one day as Carol says in The Invasion that 'things may be different'. That we will finally grow up and stop hurting each other. Maybe then we can finally progress.

Is turns out that most Americans find nanotechnology unacceptable, only 29.5% find it morally acceptable. While reading this article this morning I felt the need to share my views on what I think will be a major argument in the progression of humanity in the next 20 years.

We are reaching a point now where computers are getting small, real small. Moore's law states that that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since the integrated circuit was invented. Most experts, including Moore himself, expect Moore's Law to hold for at least another two decades. A futurist called Ray Kurzweil, argues that an extension to Moore's Law will be the technological singularity, a hypothesised point in the future of the creation of self-improving intelligence, unprecedented rapid technological progress, or a combination of the two. I read another article the other day on BBC news website that puts this around 2029. 'The singularity is near' movie is also going to be released this year adding more awareness to the public sphere of our possible advances in technology and AI.

Will this singularity occur? That is the question... Is it possible? What are the biblical basis for such technology coming from a Christian point of view?

For the Christian the place to look is Scripture. What does it say about technology? Well I am sorry, but there is nothing in there that states that nanotechnology is morally unacceptable. The Apostle Paul in Romans 1:30 points out that fallen humanity are 'inventors of evil things'. Of course, we have to look at this in context. Paul was talking about humanity not worshipping their creator, and because of this God has given them over to their own devices. Intellectual arrogance has resulted in a reversed set of values, the worship of the living God is exchanged for the devotion and worship of man made idols. This is the biblical argument over AI. Humanity creating something in its image. And the danger comes if we were to start worshipping such.

Progression in nanotechnology means advances in molecular biology and possible cures for cancer and other illnesses. This is worth the research, but the arguments involved, which we are likely to see happen over the next decade or so may stop this advance.

Technology has benefited mankind in many ways positive and negative, and as always I think we need to find balance. We need to hold onto all the good and take out all the bad. I'm all for using technology to the advancement of mankind, for good purposes. As long as we do not blow ourselves up with it, or kill each other with it which is what we tend to do. And this is where the real problem lies, in the human heart. And what we intend to do with the technology we create by the greatest gift given to us, intelligence.