Using Science in the Work Place - Assignment Example

 Using Science in the Work Place Perceptions of Science Science has an enormous impact on the lives of human beings and the entire society. It dictates the life of human beings. Thus, it controls every sphere of human life. It dictates from basic operations such as breathing in and out to complex processes like hormonal balance and homeostasis is the human body. This essay outlines the impacts of scientific developments on the human life and the entire society. As a result of technological advancements, the scientific developments continue to thrive and are threatening to occupy the positions previously occupied by man at the work place. Consequently, these scientific developments have not been embraced by everyone. Most people are skeptical about the employing of scientific developments. As a result, these scientific developments have been faced with both moral and ethical issues. Therefore, this essay explains two scientific developments and provides a stand concerning the impact of these scientific developments on society. Task 1 1. Choose two scientific developments. This essay outlines two scientific developments. These scientific developments include biotechnology and artificial intelligence. Biotechnology refers to the stimulation of the living cells of an organism through biological engineering so as to generate new organs. In most cases, the newly generated organs are genetically manipulated to produce the desired end product. As a result, biotechnology has vast applications in the scientific development industry. However, of interest to this essay is human cloning. Human cloning is a biotechnological application that produces a similar human being from an already existing human being. On the hand, artificial intelligence refers to the ability to program computers to think like human beings. This is made possible through the development of programs and software that help the computers to think like human beings. Consequently, artificial intelligence also has numerous applications. However, of interest to this article is robotics. Robotics refers to the programming of computers to hear and react to sensory stimuli. As a result, robots are able to undertake an enormous amount of the tasks performed by human beings. 2. Produce a report to describe the ethical and moral issues that arise from those scientific developments. Both biotechnology and artificial intelligence have their moral and ethical implications. Since both of them employ the power to either manipulate or fabricate the human phenomenon, the ethnically of the activities is questioned. For instance, human cloning evokes the ability to manipulate human cells and genes so as to come up with other similar human beings. On the other hand, robotics, or artificial intelligence employs the simulation of computers to think, act and respond like human beings respond. Therefore, this power to intervene in what is thought to be the fabric and basis of life brings about an ethical concern. Many societies thus believe that life is sacred and God-given. Thus, man has no right to play God. Consequently, both biotechnology and artificial intelligence are seen as a violation of this policy. This, in turn, brings about an issue of morality and ethical concern. Therefore, most ethical and moral issues surrounding the use of biotechnology and artificial intelligence at work revolve around the respect for human life. They argue that the dignity of human life must be respected, protected and upheld. This is because the outlined technological advancements would result in a loss of the human feel or touch. This is because some task like hospitality and human management require a human touch and can, thus, not be delegated to machinelike devices. Machines do not have the ability to perform judgments based on human appeal. Thus, their employment in such crucial sectors results in a moral and ethical debate. Thus, this report forms the basis of ethical and moral debate concerning biotechnology and artificial intelligence as forms of scientific developments at the work place. Task 2 Discuss the impact of the ethical and moral issues you described in Task 1 on society. How do the issues affect the public and their lives? Potential for physical harms Since the process of human cloning is still in its experimental stages, there exists a potential for physical harm in the case of human error. Thus, this makes the research done dangerous and risky. Thus, such an event of physical harm would be in contravention of the medical ethics which forms part of the societal ethics. Impact on the family Human cloning results in the duplicity of individual. This, in turn, leads to loss of individualism. As a result, the family set up could lead to the altering ant interference of the family social setup. In addition, cloned individuals might tend to have their own constrained self-image which may not be in line with the common family societal norms. In the case of artificial intelligence, use of robotics for family chores such as baby sitting would also have an impact on the traditional and conservative family norms. Impact on social values Here, the fear of unknown takes centre stage. How would a society dominated by such scientific developments be? It is, therefore, feared that cloning would result in a disruption of the social practices, and values. Perhaps this explains why the society is skeptical about such scientific developments. Freedom of reproductive choice In a liberal society, individuals have the right to choose their modes of reproduction. As a result, the issue of human cloning comes into place. Therefore, it will be intriguing to see individual opt instead for human cloning as a desired means of reproduction. This, would, in turn, have effects on the societal norms and values. Freedom of scientific inquiry This forms the basis of the efforts made in the process of cloning human beings. In addition, the same argument holds when it comes to artificial intelligence. Thus, in their quest for freedom of scientific research and inquiry, they continue to influence the entire society. Consideration of exceptional cases The issue of exceptional cases where both artificial intelligence and biotechnology would be preferred continues to cause debate. Arguably, there are situations that would warrant the employing of biotechnology. For instance, it would be used in the occurrence of a terrible accident of save lives. On the other hand, artificial intelligence would be employed in the large scale production of machinery because it is economical. This, in turn, affects the society and shapes its inclinations. Task 3 Evaluate whether you think the impact of the ethical and moral issues are important enough to stop the scientific developments. Do you think the scientific developments would have too much of a negative impact on society? Therefore, considering the impact of the scientific efforts on the society, there is a thin line between the negative and positive impacts that these developments have on society. Consequently, though the developments have some negative impact on the society, they also add value and an acceptable aspect to the society. Thus, it would be prejudiced to stop the scientific developments based on the research undertaken so far. Thus, the developments should be carried on and significant research employed in the process. This would make the developments more convenient to the society. However, situational ethic should be exercised in the use of these scientific developments. References Berlatsky, N. (2011). Artificial intelligence. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. Dudley, W. (2001). The ethics of human cloning. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press. Read More