Enhancement Technology

During this week’s assignments, I read about “Human enhancement and the Modern self” by Carl Elliott and the “Ideas of Perfection and the Ethics of Human Enhancement” by Johan A.R. Roduit, et al. Both philosophers theorized that technology could cause people to alter themselves. The reasons and motivations behind this can vary among individuals, but the correlation between humans and technology show that enhancement is an outcome for “fixing social problems”. Elliott mentions that being unhappy can lead to finding ways to implement technology to deal with the problems. I agree with this because, when looking at social media and entertainment platforms (whether it’s a streaming service or video games console), many can escape their realities and have a pseudo-fulfilled experience. Furthermore, I think technology can cause others to fulfill fantasies through sites like PornHub, feel richer through obtaining credit cards or listen to music that can alter moods. Unfortunately, none of these things truly enhance their reality and this realization can cause anger, depression and angst afterwards. Additionally, depending on the technology-driven desires, people can endanger themselves trying to obtain goals that can have consequences greater than the intended goal. Some of these examples are botched surgeries meant to make them “feel prettier” but can leave them looking significantly worse. Another example of this, are people that rent super-cars and drive them beyond the speed-limits and crashing, accidentally killing themselves. Of course, many more examples exist and as great as technology can be, there will always be a possibility of people using these things the wrong way. Which helps support the views of both philosophers and shines a light on these issues.

-M.C.