Biotechnology and the Human Good

TWO: Humanity and the Technological Narrative

C H A P T E R T W O Humanity and the Technological Narrative The very identity of the human person and the very substance of reality are presumably called into question by developments in artificial intelligence , in genetics, and in virtual reality. Reactions to these prospects are as divided as they are to carnival rides—they produce exhilaration in some people and vertigo in others. —Albert Borgmann, ‘‘On the Blessings of Calamity and the Burdens of Good Fortune’’ TECHNOLOGIES are teleological. That is to say, they have certain goals or purposes. Teleologies are value laden. Good ends are sometimes pursued, bad ends are sometimes pursued, and there is always the possibility that a technological aim is indifferent. Clearly, then, technology is not an unqualified good. This may come as no small surprise to our technologically saturated society. Many Westerners—and most North Americans—are not only technological optimists but also technological utopians. If a technology can help us perform a task faster, easier, and more powerfully, then most people believe it is necessarily a good thing. Yet because technologies, including biotechnologies, are value laden, they may be morally good, bad, or indifferent. So the values that shape, inform, and provide the impetus for technology must be examined. Furthermore, the choice to develop certain technologies reveals a great deal about one’s understandings of the purpose of a given technology . Technologies may also carry hidden costs, or as Tenner puts it so vividly, they sometimes ‘‘bite back.’’1 16 C H A P T E R T W O For instance, in the 1960s the snowmobile revolution took the Arctic by storm. The Skolt Lapps of northeastern Finland had made their living for centuries by herding reindeer. After World War II, the Skolts were given a choice either to return to rule by the Soviet Union or to come under the Finnish government. They chose the latter. By the late 1950s, about fifty Skolt households survived, consisting largely of nuclear families still loyal to the Russian Orthodox Church. In the prewar days, the Skolts relied mainly on fishing for their food supply. Reindeer were a secondary food supply. Not only so, however, the reindeer were also the principal means of income. Reindeer meat, hides, and other parts were traded for cash to buy the modern necessities such as flour, sugar, coffee, tea, and nonfood commodities such as medicine. The ethnographer Pertti J. Pelto observes that ‘‘as long as a man had reindeer herds he could always get food for his family, and he could also sell animals to get needed cash.’’2 Before the introduction of the snowmobile, reindeer had been gathered in domesticated herds grazing pastorally in the Arctic tundra (if ‘‘pastorally’’ and ‘‘tundra’’ are not an oxymoron). In 1960, there were forty-one active herders. Throughout the next decade, the technologization of reindeer herding radically altered Skolt society. As the snowmobile became the preferred method of herding, the reindeer were dedomesticated . Because the snowmobile provided a fast and efficient means for gathering the animals, they could be allowed to run wild until it became necessary to round them up. De-domestication came with certain costs to the animals, however. Because herding changed from a peaceful process to a chaotic rampage, the reindeer experienced an increased incidence of lung damage as they bolted from the growling snowmobiles. Also, the shift from pastoral herding to mechanical round-ups lowered the weight of the reindeer population; this, in turn, resulted in low-birthweight calves and a less healthy herd. Moreover, the snowmobile revolution resulted in economic depression and socioeconomic stratification. As the costs of herding escalated with the costs of the technology and the petroleum products required to operate the technology, fewer Skolts could afford to herd reindeer. The cost to produce one animal rose from $1.30 in 1963 to $3.30 in 1969. Only one-third of herders in 1960 were still herding in 1971. Humanity and the Technological Narrative 17 Pelto opines that ‘‘the advent of mechanized herding had created a situation of ‘technological unemployment’ for the men who were forced out of full-time herding activities.’’3 Atlhough this story reveals the downside of technology, hundreds of thousands of stories could be told of how technology has revolutionized society for good. From simple tools to space exploration, some technologies have improved human, animal, and other creatures’ quality of life. In this chapter, we explore...