joy

Joy's primary concern in the article is that people will fail to pay proper attention to what they are creating, and not fully weigh the consequences that may ensue its creation, basically 90% of science fiction without the excitement.  I did not mean to discredit Joy as I think he makes a good point, and it is useful to see it made in a straight forward way as how he does it.  He makes very clear that he is not anti-technology, but that he is aware of the power of current advancements and realizes that they must be kept in check.  His ethos is impeccable.  Joy makes good references to various pieces of literature which support his point, and I found the Unabomber anecdote interesting and most effective.  I think that the issues are as relevant as ever, especially because many people do not think much about these matters.  What was once the future is pretty much here (yes cliche) and while it may not be the Jetsons, in many ways technology has shaped the lives of everybody outside of Lancaster.  Robots have already taken the Jeopardy crown from humans, who knows what they may be capable of doing next.  While that seems a silly comparison it does prove that robots are getting closer to human level intelligence.  Though I maintain that robots could not totally take over humanity as they are developed by humans and owe all of their "intelligence" to us, genetic engineering leaves many possibilities.  Knowing that we can synthetically produce almost any life form with genetic alterations makes very few things truly impossible.  While many of the nightmares related to genetic engineering seem unrealistic, they are not as far fetched as we might like to believe.  There is little aside from ethics to stop people from creating races of superhumans or human devouring carnivores, especially if a time comes when genetic engineering becomes a wide spread commonplace in many nations.  People worried after the first nuclear bombs were dropped about the implications of the Soviet Union obtaining such technology, and later of countries such as North Korea or Iran.  If that is considered a problem, imagine if somebody such as Kim Jong-Il were capable of the White Plague mentioned in Joy's essay.  While it is easy to worry about a robot that one cannot stop, it is almost a guarantee that the robot's creator knows exactly how to stop it, and the fate of others rests in his/her decision to stop the machine.  With genetic engineering the creator can easily lose control of their creation, as it is a living thing, and no matter how much research has been done and precautionary measures taken to prevent disaster, the creation has a mind and life of its own and is capable of anything, which could be the downfall of a careless society.