An ethical landmine
During a 2019 conference held at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg , in conjunction with US technology-focused college Georgia Tech , the issue of ethics and regulation in this space was a hot topic for discussion . Keynote speaker Dr Kenneth Oye from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology commented at the time : “ We have a duty to evaluate actions with reference to both legal standards and ethical norms … You need to be doing more than mere compliance . Those duties and responsibilities are both good ethics and good business .”
The need for increasingly stringent requirements will continue to rise as we see the mainstreaming of technologies such as xenotransplantation ( transplanting organs from edited pig genomes into humans ), the development of synthetic biological replacements , and lab-grown genetically-manipulated insects and animals – or even human beings ( such as the controversial gene edited Chinese CRISPR babies Lulu and Nana in 2018 ).
Even the COVID-19 vaccines created by both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna make use of genetic engineering , by using mRNA to carry instructions to the body on how to fight the coronavirus by attacking its protein casing . Unlike traditional vaccines , mRNA does not infect the body with a weakened or live virus , rather it gives the body ’ s immune system the blueprint to fight the virus . The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine , while using a different technology , also makes use of genetic engineering .
Other areas of our lives have also undergone accelerated and sustained technological adaption over the past 12 months , from unprecedented shifts towards online banking and touchless retail channels to the use of high-tech COVID-19 robots in treatment centres in Kigali , Rwanda to screen patients , capture data and even deliver food to COVID-19 wards .
The events of the past year have highlighted society ’ s reliance on technology and steeply accelerated our adoption of new thinking and innovations . It took 15 years to sequence the HIV genome , 31 days to sequence the SARS virus and just days to determine the SARS-CoV-2 ( COVID-19 ) genome sequence . From the average 10 years needed to manufacture a new vaccine , in 2020 American biopharmaceutical firm Pfizer and Germany ’ s BioNTech were able to produce a COVID-19 vaccine after just seven months .
Such is the rate of technological advancement at our fingertips .
For some , such feats are not an indication that the technological singularity is around the corner , but rather that the enabling hand of technology will continue to enhance our human experience . Whichever way it plays out , the events of 2020 have most assuredly set the stage for a fundamental and profound shift in human civilisation .
Weird and wonderful it may be , but it looks increasingly inevitable that – sometime in the not-too-distant future – the idea of a transhuman existence may no longer seem like the stuff of science fiction .
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