Ethical Ramifications in Technology
And how to tackle them
“Technology must be guided and driven by ethics if it is to do more than provide new toys for the rich” — Freeman Dyson
As the above, spot-on quote suggests, we all need ethical advancements to be behind the innovation of the technology we use to move on with our daily chores. In some sectors, technological advancements have been taken to great measures to enhance the features used. Still, I wonder whether we are being transparent enough about all the benefits it provides for the users; more specifically, its pros and cons.
I am all for advancement, but I am always keen about the ethics behind each innovation. No matter what we think, one thing is for sure, technology is making the world an easier place to live in . . . or is it?
My Short Story
I started questing the crazy paced technological advancement after the time I had a meeting with a very bright and renowned lab doctor in one of the biggest hospitals in the country I live in. During that meeting, he was so excitedly telling me about the new total lab automation system they were about to install. Just think about it… and you would be taken aback by what we have invented. We used to see this in science fiction movies, but now it is here and running in many hospitals. Cross-contamination, human error, aliquoting, spilling, wasting samples, and any other mistake related to human interference are things of the past. In other words, humans are not needed as much. Actually this is the case with other sectors as well, especially where artificial intelligence (AI) is taking the lead like the transportation sector which I talked about in my story below:
The thing that caught my attention was the surprise I saw on the doctor’s face when I was casually asking him how he would run some very important tests on a chemistry machine when he strictly preferred to run them on a different machine before, and I realized that he did not dig deep in details, and he was surprised and upset at the same time because he never thought that running his tests will be limited to the machines connected on that track; still the hospital he works for brought the system and installed it, and they are coping because they simply have to, and like lots of others, they are afraid to wake up one day and find themselves left behind due to their lack of technological advancements.
Limitless Questioning
During the events happening in the short story I shared with you above, I realized that the supplier of their track was not completely ethical, and did not present full facts about the compatibility of their machines with other suppliers. Do not get me wrong, I am all for technology and I am amazed every day by the new advancements emerging from the research and development centers of big developers worldwide; still, however, I only seek to anticipate the inevitable future, where it is all about money and business development, and eventually, more profitability. The world is lacking enough humanity the way it is, and we really need to be more aware of the consequences of our actions, especially in the healthcare sector. All we are asking for is more transparency from suppliers. We, on the other hand, should be asking ourselves the following:
Do we really need to have every single technological advancement there is?
Do we really need to keep pushing technology forward without controlling the boundaries?
Do we really need to reach a point where we hand our jobs to a machine?
Shall we approve of what is happening?
Shall we create an ethical conduct policy regarding the booming AI about every new innovation like what the European Union created, and which you can check here?
Or maybe, and just for starters, we can be more ethical ourselves and disclose all the cons of any technological advancement we might have to offer before even speaking about its limitless pros.
Let us just take a moment, absorb all this in and ask ourselves: is the present we are working in worth the efforts? Is the future we are working to make better worth the neglect of our roles and opinions? And what shall we do about the lack of business ethics in everything we encounter? Share your thoughts around the subject, and do not forget to follow the publication on Medium and follow me on Medium and LinkedIn. Thank you for reading this story.
