Society, Ethics, and Technology

I picked this book out at the library based on my interest in the ethics of environmentalism. Where do you draw the line between life fulfillment and "leaving no trace"? This book delves into that question and many more: How have inventions from the middle ages to the present dramatically changed how people live and perhaps how they should live? How much and what kind of oversight should there be on creators? What if technology can make people perfectly happy? Is that good, even if it's living in a Matrix-like meta-world? What are the implications and ethics of transforming humanity genetically? Mechanically? Computationally? What does globalization mean to group ethics which have historically been developed on a much smaller scale? How can we avoid the tragedy of the commons where it is to the individual's interest to exploit the common resource to the detriment of society at large? Increased surveillance has benefits to security, but detriments to privacy. Where do we draw the line? Overall, a great book if you're interested in a survey on technology and how it affects society and raises challenging ethical questions. One issue is that the Book Companion Website on the back cover does not seem to exist.

This is such a timely and needed publication. The book offers insightful chapters by authors who are scholars within this area of study. Other chapters offer insight into today's world of technology and science. Remaining chapters provide insightful perspectives by authors that incorporate the ethical issues involved in both technology and science. The authors and publisher, I believe, are TOTALLY on the right track with their belief that this is a very crucial publication for today's society. The first chapter by Morton Winston, "Children of Invention," tells the reader what is going on currently in our society within the area of ethics, technology, and science; where we were, where we are now, and why we need to look at this for our future. This publication is ground breaking. With our society's current stance of available access to technology and developments in science our ethical decision-making related to these disciplines ARE our future; the authors of this book have provided us with excellent topics and issues to "Begin the Discussion."