ETHICAL DILEMMA

The control over nature and the control of other

people by the use of technology is completely
another story. They may draw inspiration from
them, but they are not necessarily determined and
directed by them. However, the application, use
and distribution of technology require ethical
standards and even legal provisions set by the local
and international government.
 THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION OF
THE CENTURY IS:
What will our ethics be? Are there “win-
win” ways to gain the advantages
without sacrificing our humanity? Can
we bio-minds teach newer kind of
ethics? Is it time to regulate mass
technology application?
 THE ETHICAL DILEMMAS AND POLICY
ISSUES FOR 2015
1.REAL-TIME SATELLITE SURVEILLANCE VIDEO
• Companies such as Planet Labs, Skybox Imaging (recently
purchased by Google), have launched lots of satellites
with the purpose of recording the status of the entire
earth in real time.
• In the world, we have many satellite, some smaller, and
more sophisticated. They give us information and also
images, which they take from the outside.
• They are design for earth observation to give us information.
They can inform us about the environmental meteorology and
such.
• It could affect society because of the lack of privacy; people
might feel like they are being spied.
• In terms of politics, the government could use all the satellites
to solve crimes.
• The government is going to control this so they could illegally
been spying business rivals and countries also stealing or
classified information.
How do we choose what should be observed
and how frequent? Should we use this
information to solve criminalities? What is the
possible for misuse by corporation,
governments, policies departments, private
citizens, or terrorists and other “bad actors”?
2. ASTRONAUT BIOETHICS (OF COLONIZING
MARS)
The colonization of Mars and plans for long-term space
missions are already ongoing. On December 5, NASA
launched the Orion spacecraft and NASA Administrator
Charles Bolden declared it “DAY ONE OF THE MARS ERA”.
The company MarsOne is preparing to launch a robotic
mission to Mars in 2018, with succeeding humans in 2025.
The 418 men and 287 women from around the world are
presently competing for the four spots on the first one-way
human settlement mission. But as we watch with interest
as this clarifies, we might ask ourselves the following:
Is it moral to expose people to unknown levels
of human separation and physical danger
(including exposure to radiation) for such
purpose? Will these pioneers lack privacy for the
rest of their lives so that we might watch what
happens? Given the potential dangers of setting
up a new colony strictly lacking in resources,
how would sick colonists be cared for?
 3. WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY
We are presently involved to multiple technologies
that monitor our behaviors. The development of
dozens of bracelets and clip-on devices that
monitor steps taken, activity levels, heart rate, etc.,
not to mention the advent of organic electronics
that can be layered, printed, painted, or grown on
human skin has led by the fitness tracking craze.
Google is partnering with Novartis to create a
contact lens the monitor blood sugar levels in
diabetics and leads the information to
healthcare providers. Wearable have the
potential to teach us, protect our health, as
well as violate our privacy in any amount of
ways.
4. STATE-SPONSORED HACKTIVISM AND ‘SOFT
WAR’
“Soft war” is a concept used to explain rights and
duties of insurgents (and even terrorists) during armed
struggle. Soft war incorporates tactics other than
armed force to achieve political ends. Cyber war and
hacktivism could be tools of soft war, through certain
ways by states in inter-state conflict, as opposed to
isolated individuals or groups (like “Anonymous”). We
already live in a state of low-intensity cyber conflict.
 5.ENHANCED PATHOGENS
Gain of function research, in itself, is not
detrimental: in fact, it is used to provide
vital understandings into viruses and how
to treat them. But when it is used to
increase mammalian transmissibility and
virulence, the altered viruses pose serious
security and biosafety risks.
 6.Non- Lethal Weapons
Primarily it may seem ridiculous that kinds of weapons
that have been around since WW1 and not designed to
kill could be an evolving ethical or policy dilemma.
Considering the recent development and production of
non-lethal weapons such as laser missiles, blinding
weapons, pain rays, sonic weapons, electric weapons,
heat trays, disabling malodor ants, as well as the use of
gases and sprays in both the military and domestic
police forces.
 7. Robot Swarms

Harvard University researches newly created a

group of 1000 robots, capable of communicating
with each other to perform simple tasks such as
ordering themselves into shapes and patterns.
No human intervention is required in these
“kilobots” beyond the original set of instructions
and work together to complete tasks.
These tiny robots are based on the group
behavior of insects also can be used to perform
environmental cleanups or answer to disasters
where humans fear to tread. The concept of
driverless cars also relies on this system, where
the cars themselves would communicate with
each other to obey traffic laws and transport
people safely to their destinations.
Should we be worried about the ethical and
policy consequences of letting robots work
collected without human interference? If a robot
malfunctions and causes harm what will
happen? Who would be blamed for such an
accident? What if tiny swarms of robots could be
set up to spy or sabotage?
8.ARTIFICIAL LIFE FORMS

Research on artificial life forms is a range of

synthetic biology focused on custom-building life
forms to address specific purposes. Synthetic life
allows scientists to study the origins of life by
building it rather than breaking it down, but this
technique blurs the line between life, and
machines, and scientists foresee the ability to
program organisms.
Making artificial life forms has been deemed
“playing God” because it allows individuals to
create life that does not exist naturally. Gene
patents have been a concern for several years
now and synthetic organisms suggest a new
dimension of this policy issue. While customized
organisms may one day cure cancer, they may
also be used as biological weapons.
9.RESILIENT SOCIAL- ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS

Resilient systems endure external pressures such

caused by climate change, natural disasters, and
economic globalization. A resilient electrical system is
able to stand extreme weather events or regain
functionality quickly afterwards is an example. A
resilient ecosystem can maintain a complex web of life
when one or more organism is over exploited. The
system is stressed by climate change.
To what way is it the responsibility of the federal
government to assure that civil infrastructure is
resilient to environmental changes? When
individuals act in their self-interest, there is the
unique possibility that their individual actions
fail to maintain infrastructure and processes that
are essential for all of society.
10. Brain-to-brain Interfaces

It’s no Vulcan mind meld, but brain-to-

brain interfaces (BBI) have been
achieved, allowing for direct
communication from one brain to
another without speech. The
interactions can be between humans
or between human and animals.
The ethical issues are countless. What kind
of neuro security can we put in place to
protect individuals from having accidental
information shared or removed from their
brains (especially by hackers)? If two
individuals share an idea, who is entitled to
claim ownership? Who is responsible for
the actions devoted by the recipient of a
thought if a separate thinker is dictating the
actions?