With great science education comes great responsibility

[barnabas_truman]

This evening I went to the awards ceremony that concludes a summer orientation program that my department offers for incoming first-year students. I was primarily there to give out balsa wood gliders as trophies to the teams that had scored the most points in a Physics of Paper Airplanes workshop a few weeks ago... but after doing so, I realized

Comments

[dushai]

Science and technology are swarming with ethical issues, beyond easy good-vs-evil scenarios. Should we attempt to bring back extinct animals using cloning? Inexpensive private drones open all kinds of possibilities, from spying on your neighbors to useful tools like real-time traffic reports to public good such as catching cops breaking the law -- should drones be regulated, and if so, with what goals? But issues like these can't be debated without understanding what is currently possible and what is likely to be possible in the future. If we don't have the foresight to discuss the ethical issues before they're upon us, there are plenty of industries that will try to slant the facts toward whatever position makes them money. And it's harder to outlaw something that exists and is being used, as compared to some hypothetical future evil. (Cars kill tens of thousands of people per year in the US, the highway infrastructure is incredibly expensive in tax dollars, pollution and carbon emissions are getting worse, and using cars for

[barnabas_truman]

Yup. Given the audience, I figured the best thing to do *right now* would be to get them thinking about it; to point out that these are questions that they can--and should--be asking and investigating.

[elissali]

I love all of this, but the cherry on top was "using my mythic reputation as leverage" :)

*hugs*

:)

[barnabas_truman]

I work with the tools I have. :-)