Innovation and invention have been the driving force for human civilization since man first appeared on earth. From the discovery of fire, the invention of the wheel and cultivating land to the telegraph, the steam engine and even the modern-day smartphone, there has always been a race to build better, faster, easier machines.
But, should we build something just because we can?
Wednesday, Motherboard reported on a new smartphone app that was developed to take photos of women and, using algorithms and the internet’s ample supply of pornography, generate an image of those women without clothes on.
Fortunately, the developer’s server crashed shortly after the story broke - though that could have been in part because of a surge of people rushing to claim their copy - and instead of fixing the server and relaunching, the developer announced he was suddenly uncomfortable being the one to offer such a product.
Although the developer’s decision is appreciated, once something is put online, it never really disappears, and I wish he had spent some time reflecting on the morality of his app before even writing the first line of code.
While this app is, in my opinion, flat out evil, I do think it offers a good chance to reflect on the far too often ignored intersection of morality and innovation, a line America seems to be struggling with more frequently these days.
Think back a few months when Mark Zuckerberg was trying to justify blindly selling Facebook users’ data to anyone with deep enough pockets. Or, how about Martin Shkreli, the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, who, in 2015, decided to up the price of Daraprim, a lifesaving drug used to treat patients with aids-related pneumonia, from $13.50 to $750 per pill. Why? Because he could.
When I talk to the older generations, a common phrase I hear is how much things have changed, how the country is “unrecognizable” as the one they grew up in. That’s a sentiment I can understand. In the just shy of 30 years I’ve been around, I’ve seen Walkmans become Ipods, AOL become fiber, cell phones shrink to a fraction of their size yet be more powerful than the top-of-the-line computer growing up.
The country is changing, and changing fast, with artificial intelligence, automation and even gene editing gearing up to revolutionize the way we work, eat, play, sleep and even look.
Yet, with all the promises of this new technology to eradicate mental illness, bring prosperity to millions and make our lives easier and simpler than ever, I can’t help but feel concerned about the collateral damage these so-called miracles will wreak on society.
Innovation and invention are wonderful things, but we should take care not to abandon our morality in the race to the top, lest we become as cold and soulless as the machines we’re trying to build.
Thomas is the managing editor of the Newton County Appeal. He can be reached at thoward@newtoncountyappeal.com
