Last week Janet Kourany argued that scientists are not concerned with the issue of values. She did modify her statement by saying that some scientists are interested in values, but by and large values do not preoccupy scientists. They are too busy for values! Values and ethics are pursuits of the humanities. I found this statement disconcerting not because of the sweeping generalization of it, but because it struck me as true. It reveals the moral vacuum of the scientific and technological enterprise. If we are poised on a transhuman transformation that human enhancement promises to deliver how can we enter this brave new world without a moral compass? And where shall this guidance come from?
It is imperative that science takes up the issue of ethics and begin to apply values to its own practice. This will mean that the necessary moral compass must come from the scientific community. Humanists can preach the importance of values and the necessity of a moral and philosophical framework for scientific activities, but until the community that actually makes the science and produces the new technology realizes the necessity of values we only talk to ourselves and falsely reassure ourselves that we are in a safe house when in fact the building has been razed to the ground. It is quaint for us humanists to think values are discussed somewhere in the world still, if not in the research lab, the engineering school, the science departments or corporations, at least we continue the tradition.
Janet Kourany argued that the scientists are preoccupied with notions of “pure research” and value free science. She called those ideas “sacrosanct” to the scientific community. This is a telling description. I do not know of any God or religion that does not take values seriously. Yet, the scientific community has managed to place itself above values in a nebulous wonderland of “pure research” and “pure science” without the stain or hassles of the human condition to containment its results. Posthuman indeed! Until scientists decide to become human beings and join us mortals they will continue to be guided by a value neutral imperative that dismisses the discussion of all other values as passé.
Lawrence Terlizzese