Thoughts on Katz

One interesting observation that I made when reading Katz’ article was that people have always feared that new technology will destroy society and break down social conventions and morals. Everything from the telegraph, telephone, answering machine and cell phones has been viewed with distrust during their initial appearance. He makes the point that, after being around for quite some time, people see their usefulness and begin to accept the new technology. There are changes in culture and ideas of what is morally okay to do with the new technology.

Interestingly, he talked little about the ethics of some of the new technology. What we view as unethical today may be seen as perfectly normal once people see the usefulness of a new technology. That made me question whether we put convenience above morality. Are we only moral with our technology as long as it is convenient to us? There is some technology, such as cloning and embryonic stem-cell research that has been condemned for being immoral but there are still scientists who pursue advances in these fields. It seems that the possible technological advances that Katz outlines may be the same: mind mail and reading the thoughts of dead people seem to me to be an immoral dehumanization of a person, turning us into machines or something that can be read at our convenience. It is something to think about whether these advances will ever come to be and if they will be considered perfectly acceptable if people find them convenient.