- Define: robots, androids, and cyborgs (in your notebook)
- Read Computer Confluence pages 602-604 (The Robot Revolution)
- Who first used the word "robot" and when? (in your notebook)
- What are Asimov's three laws of robotics? (in your notebook)
Can Cyborg Moths Bring Down Terrorists?
- Read the article and post a comment about your thoughts – what are the social/ethical issues & implications?
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Article: Can cyborg moths bring down terrorists? The social/ethical issues & implications
The title of the article reminds the readers of a positive aspect of the development of the moth cyborgs. It means that US States Department of Defense if able to be informed about the location of the enemy in combat zones in a near future, which would increase the effect of the offense tactics. Use of moths may not bring any opposition from ethical thinkers, though it is intrusion of a system in living animals as an electron chip is inserted in their neural system and the moth is controlled by “reliable tissue-machine interface.”
But there are numbers that around 100 000 people have cochlear implants into their ears, and to prevent macular degeneration, there are cyborgs in people’s retinas. It is a perfect example of how human beings are becoming dependent on machines to increase their well being. It could be viewed as a social positive effect as the people will grow healthy and stop being affected by common avoidable illnesses that are expensive to fix or are not covered in health insurances.
But the ethical consideration is how well these systems are affecting our health in long term, or whether the system which is made of synthesized materials expire their validity, or in how many years they have to replace the cyborg.
The dependance on cyborgs to assist our daily lives increases the concern about who can control the cyborgs, and whether cyborg human beings are going to increase in number, and in case of increase in number, how it is possible for us to distinguish between a human and a cyborg whose brain activity might be a robot?
Article: Can cyborg moths bring down terrorists?
Read the article and post a comment about your thoughts – what are the social/ethical issues & implications?
As you first look at the article, it seems that this invention of cyborg moths has brought the answer to military strategies. The title sounds very promising and looks at the most positive outcomes of the use of cyborgs.
However, this all seems a little exaggerated as the cyborg moths are only able to observe, not to perform military tasks. But in the future anything is possible. As the knowledge and capabilities in cyborgs increase, this might eventually lead to creating half human, half artificial/technological devices. This brings ethical issues as technology is now expanding the boundaries of biology. Also, health issues might come up since implementing technology in a human body will definitely have consequences and impact on the human body.
As the creation of cyborgs is relatively cheap (compared to nuclear devices), the manufacturing of these cyborgs will increase rapidly as they prove to be effective. In the article it says: “The DoD has said it wants one third of all missions to be unmanned by 2015, and there’s no doubt their things will become weaponised.” This implicates that it might lead to more warfare as it is easier to fight with robots and the risk of losing human lives is limited. This brings social issues as more war impacts society. Also, as these robots will become weaponised, it might be hard to control who they are shooting at. The use of robots as weapons might lead to more civilian casualties, who are not part of the war.
The ethical issues arise in the fact that the use of cyborgs in military operations will lead to more warfare. Instead of negotiating, countries will find it easier just to go to war as they do not need a full size army to fight for the country. They can rely on technology to do the fighting instead. In the article they mention regulating the use of cyborgs in treaties. This might safe guard many of the ethical issues as the use of cyborgs will be regulated and armies deploying them will be restricted to social and ethical acceptable standards.
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