Before undertaking this subject, I didn’t consider the future as critically as now. My view of the future was very optimistic. I believed technological advances would contribute to higher standards of living globally, through improvements in transport and safety (such as self-driving cars), medicine (using gene technology) and optimised care and education systems. This vision was quite vague as well. This began to change as I progressed through this subject and researched more into gene-editing technology and attitudes for our scenario.
Potential Misuse/Negative Impacts of Technology
As mentioned before, I thought of technological advancement in an extremely positive light. I didn’t consider the other side of this – how more advanced technology has a greater potential to be used unethically and to perpetuate unhappiness. This changed after being introduced to a speculative design example in class:
Keiichi Matsuda’s prototype HYPER-REALITY (2016) broadened my perspective on how technology can be abused. He warns of the dangers of merging virtual and physical reality, especially in a media-saturated capitalist society. HYPER-REALITY inspired speculation in me on how screen-based media would evolve in the future and if our interactions with others and the world would suffer as a result.
Another prime example of this is found in the Black Mirror episode, Hated in the Nation (2016):
The Autonomous Drone Insect or ‘ADI’ prevented widespread environmental collapse by acting as substitute bees. Their sensors and pattern-recognition software was originally developed to identify correct flowers to pollinate, however end up being used instead for extreme government surveillance, homicide and eventually, the genocide of almost 400,000 people.
Being exposed to such speculative and pessimistic pieces, my vision of the future began to become more sceptical and cynical. My assumption that technological advancements would only positively impact human living was challenged.
Biopolitics in the Future
For our scenario, we wanted to investigate how advancements in gene-editing technology would affect society. Much of our research focused on CRISPR/Cas9 technology, revolutionary for the fact that is significantly cheaper and more efficient than previous methods of altering DNA (Crossley 2018). You can read more about why this is, and how it works here.
This video by Kurzgesagt (2016) also informed most of my research into the gene-editing technology. The technology, at first will be focused on fighting diseases – the video speculates that in a decade’s time, it will be possible to cure viruses such as HIV and herpes (as they hide in human DNA). Thus, CRISPR has the potential to cure cancer and eliminate genetic diseases.
However, as mentioned above, I’ve become more sceptical to great technological advancements. As the technology develops and becomes safer and widely adopted, more people will come to accept genetic modification. Choosing to NOT genetically modify your child may become unethical – this mirrors attitudes towards prenatal screening today, causing many children with disabilities to be aborted (Elshtain 2005).
Now, my vision of the future is very uncertain. There will have to be much discussion as gene-technology develops and we are faced with the questions: If disease and disabilities can be eradicated, does it become wrong or ‘irresponsible’ to foster a disabled life, to design our descendants, to choose to be elderly? What does it mean to be ‘human’ and will this definition change?
References:
Crossley M. 2018, What is CRISPR gene editing, and how does it work?, The Conversation, Sydney, viewed 7 Oct 2018, <https://theconversation.com/what-is-crispr-gene-editing-and-how-does-it-work-84591 >.
Elshtain J. B. 2005, ‘The Body and the Quest for Control’, in H. W. Baillie & T. K. Casey, & A. L. Caplan (eds), Is Human Nature Obsolete? : Genetics, Bioengineering, and the Future of the Human Condition, 1st edn, MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 155- 176.
Hated in the nation 2016, Black Mirror, television program, Netflix, 21 October, viewed 7 October 2018.
Keiichi Matsuda 2016, HYPER-REALITY, videorecording, Youtube, viewed 7 October 2018, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs >.
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell 2016, Genetic Engineering Will Change Everything Forever – CRISPR, videorecording, Youtube, viewed 7 October 2018, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAhjPd4uNFY> .
Beautiful is Better 