NIT2201 IT Profession and Ethics | Advantages of Technology

Instructions

The film 28 Days Later seems to suggest that the zombie/rage plague escapes by mistake as an unintended consequence of the struggles between the scientists and the animal rights activists.

Does the struggle between technology and ethics result in catastrophe?

What is your understanding of the film in light of what we have studied so far?

Answer:

Introduction

Ethics are the moral principles that one subscribes to (Peters, 2015). They are important in guiding ethical behaviour. Although there are many advantages of technology, it may have debilitating consequences if ethics are not observed. The 28 Days Later film illustrates this statement very well. Unethical behaviour of the scientist leads to catastrophic consequences. This assignment is going to focus on the struggle between technology and ethics through the analysis of the 28 Days Later film.

Struggle Between Technology and Ethics

Technology is advancing at a high rate. It is projected that it is going to advance even more in the next one decade (Turkle, 2017). There are great advantages of technology. For instance, technology had made modern medicine advanced and more efficient. There are also other great advantages that have been brought by advancement in technology. If there were no technology, the world would still be largely undeveloped. Although there are so many advantages of technology, there is a dark side. This dark side is mainly brought about by what we could refer to as the savage nature or craftiness of human beings (Von, 2015). There is an innate behaviour in human beings of always wanting to discover more. Sometimes, this comes with debilitating consequences. Before looking at how technology is disadvantageous, it would be important to look at the concept of ethics.

Ethics refers to the moral uprightness of an individual. What is moral in one area may be different in another area. Similarly, what a person may consider to be moral may be very different from what another considers to be moral. Ethics have become a very important topic in the contemporary society (Brey, 2017). To ensure ethical behaviour, different organizations have developed codes of ethics that are supposed to be observed by members (Cotton, 2014). The code further stipulates the punitive measures that will be taken against those who default. This illustrates the significant role that ethics has acquired in the contemporary society. If technology does not consider ethics in its making, the results are not only bad but catastrophic. To illustrate this, an analysis of the 28 Days Later is going to be analysed.

The film clearly represents the significance of the interaction between technology and ethics. The animal right activists invade a research laboratory where animals are being used for scientific investigations. There are chimpanzees that have been infected with a virus that causes rage. This has been done under the disguise of experimentation. It is unethical for a scientist to use technology to make a virus that could pose danger to human life. We can conclude that what the scientist is doing is unethical and uncalled for. Despite the pleas from the scientist not to release the infected chimps, the animal right activists go ahead to do it. It can be arguing that the human right activists were doing their job oblivious of the danger that awaits them. After releasing the chimps, the four activists are bitten by the chimps and infected with the rage virus. Soon, the virus spreads like bush fire claiming a great number of lives. Soon London becomes deserted.

The movie represents a human made plague that causes devastating consequences. One might wonder what the importance of making such a virus and experimenting it using chimps. It is unethical to use lab animals for tests that will not benefit human beings or other forms of life. This could be viewed as a case of lack of ethics where the scientist in the lab could have had sinister motives. The movie reflects what happens in the society. Due to the ‘savage’ nature of human beings, they sometimes use technology in a manner that could cause catastrophes. For instance, it has been argued that Ebola virus was made in research labs (Selznick, 2015). The Ebola virus has claimed many lives. The observations above clearly indicate that technology without ethics will only lead to catastrophic results.

Conclusion

There are great technological advancements in the modern days. The advancement only promises to continue. There are numerous benefits that have been accrued from advancement in technology. Although there are many benefits associated with the technology, there are also negative consequences. Technology could have debilitating consequences especially in cases where the scientists are unethical. Ethics are very important in ensuring that people do not engage in practices that are likely to harm others. The 28 Days Later film gives a perfect example of how unethical behaviour may lead to consequences that are catastrophic. The scientist is testing a rage virus using chimps. The ethical questions that may be raised are the necessity of such an experiment and why disrespect the rights of animals.

References

Brey, P. (2017). Ethics of Emerging Technology. The Ethics of Technology: Methods and Approaches. Routledge.

Cotton, M. (2014). Ethics and Technology Assessment: A participatory approach. Heidelberg: Springer.

Peters, R. S. (2015). Ethics and Education (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

Selznick, P. (2015). Leadership, Ethics, and Technology. Surveillance, Transparency, and Democracy: Public Administration in the Information Age. Cornell University Press.

Turkle, S. (2017). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. Hachette UK.

Von Schomberg, R. (2015). From the responsible development of new technologies towards Responsible Innovation. Ethics, Science, Technology, and Engineering: An International Resource (2^nd ed.). Cengage, London