Technological advancements over the past 200 years have dramatically changed society. Recent innovations include advances in biotechnology that could enable biological weapons as well as reproductive technologies allowing women of virtually any age to have children. Scientists are also pursuing controversial technologies like cloning extinct species, genetically engineering animals, and developing implantable brain devices. As technologies continue to rapidly develop, they raise significant ethical questions around issues like genetic discrimination, environmental impacts, and who decides which traits are "problems." The future may bring even more sophisticated cloning, artificial intelligence that exceeds human control, and commercial space travel.

1. Principles of Sociology 23/24 FOCUS: Technology

2. Technology
• One of the factors changing society very quickly is the rapid
advancement of technology.
• The creation of a class of thinkers, the scientific worldview of the
western enlightenment, and the increasing cross-cultural
communication that has come with globalization have all
contributed to this rapid advancement.
• Think about it: all of the technological innovations you enjoy and
take for granted – cars, phones, jet planes, space exploration, cell
phones, cloning, computers, the internet, video games, genetic
screening – it has all come about in a brief historical period of less
than 200 years!

3. Recent Innovations
• Bio-Terrorism: the intentional distribution of naturally-occurring
or engineered biological agents – viruses, toxins, or bacteria – in
terroristic activities.
• Scientists have long recognized that chemical and biological agents can
be used intentionally as weapons of mass destruction.
• Some biological agents may not have harmful effects until days or even
months later, and some can be contagious.
• While some European settlers did this in the 19th century by trading
infected items with the Native Americans, distribution methods today
are much more advanced.
• 2001: Anthrax in the U.S. mail underscored the relative ease with
which biotechnology can be used for hostile purposes.

5. Recent Innovations
• Digital Sabotage:
– The 2016 Presidential Election demonstrated how easily foreign powers
can simply affect a nation via social media.
– As of this moment, investigations are ongoing to determine the extent to
which Russia influenced U.S. politics through the dissemination of
misinformation and the leaking of data.
– Groups like Wikileaks and the proliferation of hacker skills have meant that
secrets cannot be kept for long if someone really wants to expose them.
– In 2015, hackers published the list of visitors to Ashley Madison, a website
for those seeking extramarital affairs – the results happened in the real
world: job losses, divorces, and even suicides.

7. Recent Innovations
• Reproductive Technology:
– Advances in technology are now allowing doctors to ascertain
the presence of certain defects that require medical
procedures prior to birth.
– Ultrasound technology is becoming more accurate and
producing better visuals through 3-D technology.
– Medicine now has a variety of methods to give infertile
women children, to the point that very soon women of
virtually any age will be able to have a child.

8. Reproductive
technologies are
becoming more
advanced.

9. Recent Innovations
• Cloning
– 1952: first successful clone is a tadpole.
– 1996 – Dolly the sheep is cloned by scientists in Scotland.
– Animals cloned to date: tadpoles, carp fish, sheep, mice, cows, goats, pigs,
a mouflon, a rhesus monkey, an Asian wild ox, rabbits, cats, dogs, rats,
mules, a horse, an African wildcat, a deer, ferrets, a buffalo, and wolves.
– Attempts to clone some species have been unsuccessful.
– In the 1990s, several nations outlawed human cloning, but several
advancements have been made – though no one has yet developed a
human clone to maturity.
– In the future, organs will be cloned for transplants.

12. Recent Innovations
• Genetic Engineering:
– Genetically engineered foods have
been around for some time, and
were originally engineered through
cross-breeding.
– Today, specific genes can be isolated and inserted into other
strands of DNA, resulting in vegetables that can grow year-
round, unique hybrid foods, and so forth.
– Critics emphasize that we have not yet seen the long-range
effects of this on nature.
– Some call such foods “frankenfoods.”

15. Recent Innovations
• Genetic Engineering:
– The genetic engineering of animals is also growing more common.
– Some animals have been used to grow human parts for medical
procedures.
– Some genetic engineering (by amateurs!) has been designated as “art.”
– Mixing different animal genes produces what are called transgenic animals.
• Animals that glow in the dark.
• Goats that produce spider silk.
• Cancer-resistant animals.
• Chicken’s eggs with new vaccines and antibodies.
• Can perhaps lead to resurrecting extinct species.

16. How chickens have changed over the years through
genetic enhancement …

17. The genetic
manipulation
of animals

18. Recent Innovations
• “De-extinction”?
• Resurrecting extinct species is becoming a reality.
• The obvious application is the protection, and potential reintroduction, of
currently endangered species.
• However, the “de-extinction” of already-extinct species, going all the way
back to wooly mammoths and sabre-tooth tigers, is already on the table.
• The resurrection of wooly mammoths is already being attempted.
• Dinosaurs? >>> Not likely, as dinosaur “bone” is essentially rock (but who
knows what the future holds?).
• Is it wise to reintroduce animals that nature selected for extinction?

19. Scientists are currently at work to resurrect the
extinct wooly mammoth. What are the
implications of this idea? Is it wise to do so just
because we can?

21. Recent Innovations
• Genetic Engineering:
– The Human Genome Project = mapped and sequenced all of
the 30,000-40,000 human genes in existence.
– Genetic engineering may make possible the altering of human
behavior.
– Genetic engineering’s recent development, gene therapy,
involves disabling genes carrying unfavorable traits and
replacing them with genes carrying desirable traits.
– Legal issues involve the patenting of genes.
– Ethical issues include: Are we ushering in an age of genetic
discrimination?

24. Ethical Considerations
• How common will biological agents become in warfare
and terrorism? Are we using them?
• Will human beings be cloned for “spare parts” for the
sick? Will they have rights?
• Will potential spouses, employers, etc. begin
inspecting your genetic profile?
• Should we be introducing modified plants and animals
into the natural eco-systems?
• Which genes are “problems” and who gets to decide?

25. What Does the Future Hold?
• Cellular Brain Implants:
• The major cell phone service providers are in a race to develop an implant that will
basically take everything your cell phone does and place it “on-demand” in your
head!
• More Sophisticated Cloning:
• Only time will tell how far cloning and genetic manipulation (especially combined)
will go, but extinct species are in the works.
• Artificial Intelligence:
• In July, 2017 Mark Zuckerberg got into a very public debate with Elon Musk over
what Musk insisted were the very real dangers of AI – by the end of the month,
Zuckerberg had to shut down AI “chatbots” he had developed when they created
their own language so that programmers wouldn’t be able to understand them!
• But AI research is far from over: Microsoft just purchased a facility in Canada for
the express purpose of AI development.
• Tickets to Space: Elon Musk is one of several about to offer shuttle tickets into
space.