5 ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS IN TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION - TECHNOLOGY - 2025

The ethical implications in the development and application of technology are related to biological, labor, environmental, cultural and geographical aspects.

The benefit or harm that a certain scientific advance or discovery can cause in human beings is the subject of debate by the so-called technoethics.

Unlike pure science, technology is always accompanied by a series of ethical implications for its uses, motivations and ends.

In this sense, it is considered necessary to establish normative and ethical limits to scientific research to avoid deviations. Furthermore, technology is inconceivable as an end in itself.

Main implications

Biological Aspects

Genetic technology is one of the most prominent and controversial, both in its application in humans and in agriculture and livestock, due to the genetic alterations it causes. The ethical controversy arises because the genetic engineering was neither precise nor predictable.

The process of cutting and dividing genes in test tubes was successful in the beginning. But later mutations can occur that alter the natural functioning of genes with potentially harmful consequences.

For this reason, it is recommended that these techniques be studied and implemented properly, measuring their impact on nature and humans.

Treatments based on the human genome, which will extend human life to unsuspected levels, by allowing the replacement of defective organs by clones created from stem cells, also raise other ethical questions.

How many in the world will be able to benefit from these treatments? Or will they become a new form of social inequality?

Labor Aspects

The destruction of jobs at a dizzying rate in recent years is another ethical concern around the world.

The benefits of the fourth industrial revolution, defended by the so-called techno-optimists when talking about the advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and computer programs for almost everything, are faced with a dramatic reality that many are beginning to notice.

Robots, software and automation have the ability to replace the work that people do in a car factory or in a travel agency.

Analysts on the subject affirm that the rate of job destruction due to technology is higher than the rate of creation.

Environmental Aspects

The negative environmental impact that in some cases technologies such as nuclear energy have had, has been evidenced in the world after the disasters caused by accidents that occurred in recent decades.

These problems have become evident at the Chernobyl nuclear plants in Ukraine in 1986 or, more recently, at the Fukushima I nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011.

The technological advance of nuclear energy has been associated with its use for peaceful purposes as a source of energy for cities.

However, there is a latent danger that it will be used for war purposes and the destruction of entire countries.

Cultural aspects

The application of information and communication technologies has democratized access to information.

But at the same time it is promoting new lifestyles, new ways of thinking and has weakened ethical references: the family, the church, etc.

Internet and social networks have modified the way people relate to each other, creating new behavioral paradigms that threaten society; which leads to the emergence of ethical problems in the use of these technologies.

Geographical Aspects

The inappropriate use of technology, categorizes the same problems that it generates, but by geographical levels and impact: global, national and local.

Global problems are, for example, the loss of biological diversity and the pollution of air, water, soils and climate change.

National problems manifest themselves in different orders of social, cultural, political, environmental life, etc.

Local problems can be generated by the installation of highly polluting technology plants for air and water in certain cities. Also, because technology causes inequalities or social conflicts between populations.

References

1. What are the ethical implications of emerging tech ?. (PDF) Retrieved on November 28, 2017 from eforum.org
2. Cobos Flores, Antonio: Ethical Implications Around the Access and Use of Information and Technologies. (PDF) Consulted from web.uaemex.mx
3. Ethics of Science and Technology. (PDF) Consulted of unesdoc.unesco.org
4. Ethical Implications in the Development and Application of Technology. Consulted from redalyc.org
5. E. Guzmán Ortiz. Ethics in Science and Technology, Ethical Implications of Scientific Research. Consulted of academia.edu
6. Garduño Torres, José Luis: Ethics in Science and Technology. Consulted of es.calameo.com
7. How technology is destroying jobs. Consulted of technologyreview.es