Ever since mind mapping research starts, there have been many ethical issues surround the topic. In order to bring maximum benefits to the society, scientists often debate that some ethical issues have to be cast aside; however, many don’t agree that technology should advance at the expense of moral values and ethics. In order to strike a balance, there is a need for scientists and engineers to set restrictions and guidelines regarding the usage of such technology.
To predict the possible ethical abuses of the technology, firstly, scientists and engineers must know what can the technology be used for, both what they intend and what they don’t intend. For example, as stated by the National Science Foundation (US) in the article “A computer that can ‘read’ your mind”, neuroscience research can ultimately led to the ability to read a person’s mind. This will led to the problem of privacy which is mentioned in the article “Ethics and mapping the map” when the writer talked about access to such information. Sometimes, other industries may also make use of such technology and these should be considered by predicting the possible ethical abuses.
Secondly, a single technology can benefit people from a wide variety of industries and it is important to know who the users for such technology are. Having different groups of users will have different ethical issues, therefore requiring different sets of rules and guidelines. For example, fMRI (functional magnetic resonance images) can bring benefit to both the medical industries and also in criminal investigation as stated in “Ethics and mapping the brain”. The ethics issues surround both industries will be different and should be determined by different groups of people.
In order to minimize potential abuses, controlling who uses the technology and what the technology is used for are very important. Even if a technology does have its uses in many areas, ethical issues in some fields may be more serious than the rest. Ethical issues in those fields could hinder the development of the technology that could reduce potential benefit in other fields.
One question to answer is who should be put in charge of setting the restrictions and guidelines for the technology. I believe there shouldn’t be a single group to make the decision due to the different dynamic of each industry. The decision makers should consist of the government, the engineers and scientists and the experts in the industry. These are the parties who have the knowledge and the power to make the right rules and ensure they are followed.
In conclusion, in order to deal with the ethical issues mind mapping brings about, scientists and engineers have to put into a lot of effort and they will require the help of other bodies to make sure everything will be successful.
3 comments:
you have discussed all the points well even though there is a limit in the number of words. however, there is not much examples used in your article.
the way you conclude that the use of the technology should be decided by many bodies not by one is very good.
A very informative essay about the possible abuses of research subjects. Very good ideas generated. However, you will need to watch your word limit. You could try to summarize your paragraphs further, or choose to remove some examples that are not as relevant.
You have mentioned every aspect of the potential unethical abuse of mind mapping and quite stick to your angle as a research of this topic. I think what you need to do is to try to summarize a bit more because of the word limit and also Paragraph 4 and 5 can be made into one single paragraph.
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