Scientists playing God?

In many ways, this is no different from any other technological advance in the history of the world.

Germ warfare, dynamite, the atomic bomb, and so on. There is always the potential for technology to be used for good or bad.

Where the problem seems to be at the moment is that the potential size of the impact of a bad use of technology is enormous.

It may be difficult for society to come up with ethical principles for the use of these technologies until after they have been used for evil.

There will always be scientists and entrepreneurs looking to use new technologies for their own benefit.

Our strongest defence against this is for people to make the effort to understand the issues as best they can, and to develop a strong ethical framework. The more intelligent, rational discussion we have about these issues, rather than narrow and uninformed proclamations, the better.

in reference to: Making life is easy: now for debate on whether it is right (view on Google Sidewiki)