Some futurists claim that future world is the world where man is able to control his or her environment, body and even evolution. This refers to design baby, artificial intelligence, genome engineering etc. which human beings and science technology are combined. Due to technological advancement, it became possible for human beings to take control over their health and environment. Also, technology that can fully control oneself’s intelligence and evolution is on the process of its development. Some argues that these scientific evolution will improve quality of human life, while some philosophers believe that technology will eventually destroy the purpose an quality of human life.
I believe humans will be able to control most, if not all, of their body, environment and their evolution (children) in next 300 years. Humans will control their own physical status, appearance, and intelligence. Humans might be able to change their race and skin color using scientific surgery. Furthermore, humans will systemize their child even before they are born. Control of evolution, known as design baby, is a technology that enables parents to control their baby’s body including their physical status and intelligence through genome engineering. I believe human’s passion on science will lead us to such world in next 300 years.
The most important question is ‘Will these advancement of science improve the quality of human life?’ Some will say ‘yes’ considering the convenience of our life. However, what we truly should consider is ‘What is the true quality if human life?’ Theravada Buddhism, according to Smith’s world religions, said ‘Human beings are emancipated by self’effort.’ This quote shows what humans beings truly are. Humans are special and different from animals because we have high level of intelligence and we seek to find out who we are and what we are. Various religions and philosophies which claim different values exist because each individual has different virtue and purpose of their life. Humans are special because we challenge to know and develop ourselves. This process is called ‘history of human’.
Then, what is true quality of human life? Will science technology improve it? I believe the answer to this question is ‘Science will not improve the quality of human life’. We do not need to imagine the future, we can see that humans are being slaves of science just by looking around us-maybe ourselves. We used to talk verbally while spending time together in the past, however, most of modern people are now isolated in their smart phones. people are sending text messages even they are right next to each other. Over-developed science technology is eliminating the true virtue of humanity. We are losing love and Jung (정), and we need to find the way to keep them.
Multi-tasking is important skill in modern society, but I believe respect is more important than any other virtues. In order to solve such problem, it is crucial for us to change our mindset. Using profanity or sexually insulting others or playing computer games during the class time is not respecting others. These are backlashes of modern science such as social media and the Internet games. We need to change our attitude. To be honest, I used to play games during class. Also, I used to swear in front of others. I thoughts that is my freedom and they will make me cool. However, I realized that these behaviors are degrading my personality and image. I hope the people of the world including my friends, family, and so on, to realize the importance of ‘respect’ and learn through realizing.
Our school is proceeding some policies to rescue us from the dark shadow of science technology. In order to provide more opportunities for us to ‘feel’ each other, we made ‘no smart phone day’. Many other schools are doing the same, too. We are not able to use smart phone during the no-smart-phone day. We should visit our friends when we have something to say or ask. I believe this policy led us to improve our friendship and skill of managing our relationship with others.
Buddhism’s key virtue, according to our text book, is ‘wisdom’. We should use our intelligence. If we become slaves of science technology, humans are no longer special. If science takes over our life, we are not different from robots or computers. I wish people are able to learn the value of respect and become true owners of their own lives.
fliegen high! 