Brandt Schafer
Applied Ethics
Dr. Donahue
15 October 2013
Ethics in Technology
On October 10th of 2013, Brendan Minogue, PhD visited Mercyhurst University to
discuss that while technology is progressing at an astounding rate, it must be viewed
with a strong sense of judgment to avoid as many problematic situations as possible.
Dr. Minogue states that intentional actions often wield unpredictable and unintentional
consequences, and each possible solution to a challenge has three separate classes of
consequences. Positive consequences are the benefits one or more people receive as
a result from the solution, and negative consequences are, naturally, the hindrances
that one or more people must face in turn for the resolving of the original issue. On the
other hand, there are perverse consequences, which not only fail to solve the
predicament, but worsen it even further.
The crux of technological advances is whether or not its downsides are known,
and if these downsides outweigh the benefits. Furthermore, successive technologies
may be able to manage these shortcomings, but sometimes also generate their own.
This potentially results in a never-ending loop of dealing with consequences, and
consumers must decide if they are willing to accept this as the way it will always be.
Dr. Minogue provides the golden standard for assessing safety: the patient and his or
her wellbeing is the primary concern. While this mentality can obviously undergo
financial and temporal complications, it at least recognizes humanity and the golden
rule: if he or she were in the same situation, he or she would desire the utmost respect
and treatment.
Dr. Minogue mentioned many technologies that would provide an array of
positive, negative, and perverse consequences, one of them being nuclear power. A
very similar conversation occurred during our ethical debate upon the pros and cons of
each resort to end the conflict against the Japanese in World War II. Dropping two
atomic bombs, which obviously had a large quantity of negative consequences, and
possibly a few perverse consequences, also had a few positive consequences. If Harry
Truman chose to go forth with a mainland invasion, there may have been more negative
and perverse and less positive consequences for the United States, Japan, and the
Soviet Union. Similarly, the Cold War centered entirely on the fear of perverse
consequences in using atomic weapons and/or conventional weapons.
I found the negotiations of Dr. Minogue fascinating, and even if I did not, he at
least possessed an admirable passion and energy to his work, appearing notably
animated at times in a stark contrast to most professors. Part of his discussion, as well
as the very concept of the Watson computer, reminds me of the HAL 9000 computer in
2001: A Space Odyssey, in which it is both ingenious yet terrifying. It makes decisions
based only on logic and statistics, as opposed to emotions and sympathy. Not only is it
immune to the human emotions of fear and sympathy as well as the golden standard,
but it can also manipulate them. Its excuse for any deviation to the plan is “human
error.” Therefore, if any technology goes awry, humankind cannot blame anything but
itself, and it is the goal of minds like Dr. Minogue to prevent any such undesirable
future.