The world is rapidly moving toward a major shift, a change that will introduce new technologies and new leaders, such as China, into the field of technology. These changes pose huge ethical dilemmas for mankind.
Rise of China
The world is witnessing a major conflict in the fight for technological supremacy between the U.S. and China. Whether we want it or not, countries will be forced to choose sides in this fight over the coming years, depending on how they want human society to evolve.
The United States is a liberal, open society that accepts all kinds of opinions. The U.S. government does not put anyone in jail just because they criticize the administration. The Internet is not censored to remove content against American interests. People are not arrested randomly at the whim of the government and sent to jail or even murdered without proper due process. Neither are thousands sent to concentration camps so that the government can eradicate their culture and beliefs.
Unfortunately, China is the exact opposite of the U.S. The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) jails anyone who speaks against it, censors the Internet, arrests and kills people randomly, and seeks to eradicate religious identities in its communities. If the U.S. wins the technological war and retains leadership, the world will continue its path to liberalism and democracy. However, if the U.S. were to lose, then China’s administrative model and all its human rights violations would become the standard to which most countries would deviate.
China’s government jails anyone who speaks against it, censors the Internet, arrests and kills people randomly, and seeks to eradicate religious identities in its communities. (Image: Screenshot via YouTube)
So we have to decide whether we can let China be a technological superpower. Can we allow an authoritative government to dictate and set standards of what a government must be? Should the democratic countries go to war with China and force it to adopt democracy or at least sanction it and keep the country technologically backward?
Some would say that purposefully blocking a country’s progress is wrong. However, this is only true if the country has no evil intentions. The Chinese regime is one of the worst governments in the world, responsible for the deaths of millions, and continues to stifle basic human freedom, beliefs, and dignity. Technological prowess in the hands of such a government could be catastrophic.
Gene editing
Gene editing stands out among the many technologies that can potentially uproot our traditional understanding of ethics and morality. China seems hell-bent on dominating this field. A Chinese scientist recently announced that he had edited genes of two babies to prevent them from inheriting HIV from their parents.
The ethical issues surrounding gene editing are very complex. While some argue that we must push forward with gene editing and keep modifying human beings until they reach some utopian perfection, others warn that such modifications will make us lose our humanity. On the surface, editing genes to improve intelligence might sound good to some people. But once we delve into body modification, there is a good chance that humanity will lose its moral compass.
The ethical issues surrounding gene editing are very complex. (Image: Screenshot via YouTube)
For instance, what if we discover that gene editing can be used to enhance our brains to the extent that we become entirely logical and stop being spiritual because spirituality “does not have proof”? Imagine the Chinese government having access to such a breakthrough. The CCP will happily use it on all children born from its billion-plus population. Some of the world’s leading scientists have asked for a global moratorium on gene editing precisely because of this reason. In the wrong hands, gene editing could end up unleashing horrors we can’t even fathom.
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