Thinkers @ Neufreistadt - Should we stop Scientists from researching?
Event Details:
Date: Friday, July 21, 2006
Time: 3:00PM - 4:00PM
Location: Trotsky's in Neufreistadt (187,82)
Host: Gwyneth Llewelyn
Category: Discussion
Rating: PG
Cover charge: No
It's on the news every day: scientists start tinkering with things
that "humankind should not really play with". These days, it's mostly
genetics; 60 years ago, it was probably nuclear power; a hundred
years ago, electricity; and so on, down to the Dawn of Times, where
the tribe leader told to his pupils that "they shouldn't mess with
fire".
We are a technological species, and get surprised that people were
killed for saying that the Earth orbited the Sun. But we do the same
these days: no transgenic vegetables in some countries; no messing
around with stem cells; no investigation on human cloning; and so on.
All sorts of arguments are brought against those; they're not unlike
the ones from the distant past, just adapted to the current
circumstances.
Will this be a discussion on science ethics? Probably not. Just
imagine that people back in 1999 would have prevented Philip to start
his company, claiming that "SL would thwart the minds of naive
people"... 