Biophysics - Week One
- I know I’m a “living system” because…….
- I am a dynamic being that has a history of never-ending transformation. I am dependent on my environment to nurture and change my existence. The chemical and spiritual components of me are made up of the same building blocks of our planet earth. In the Tree of Knowledge, living beings are characterized as being continually self producing. If that is the case, machines with artificial intelligence are not far off from being able to reproducing themselves. It gets tricky to think of advanced machines as being living beings. But do machines have souls? What makes a living being worthy of a soul?
- Post a comment on one of this evening's discussions
- In my group, we discussed the article on brain to brain interfaces. There have been experiments conducted to connect the brains of monkeys and rats in order to improve their problem solving skills as a team versus alone. It is argued that this could be a significant advancement towards enabling disabled people to improve their motor skills and to live a better life. To me the question of ethics comes to mind. The power of this technology would obviously be abused if placed in the wrong hands like governing agencies for example. The risk is more costly than the pay off.
I think ethics is always an issue with scientific and medical advancements. However, if we limit our ability to explore scientific advancements because those ideas may get in the wrong hands, we will be possibly as stunted or entangled as what was feared by the limitation. That being said, I don't know how helpful it would be for those with disabilities to have another brain controlling their actions...
ReplyDeleteI believe we must always act ethically in our advancements -- to have a healthy dose of fear around wrong hands is sane and should be honored. Greedy corporations claim advancement over limitations, but look where that has gotten us!
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