Words: 1566
The movie that we watched was about reviving a person from the dead. This is said to be done in the future but they had already started researching how to use ice as a power to revive a clinically dead person. They used ice as a method to preserve a body and now they are planning on how to revive a person through the use of nanotechnology that can repair all the cells that were ruptured n the freezing process. The technology that they were referring in the movie is called Cryonics. This Cryonics would enable a man to prolong his life and at the same time be able to revive himself in certain conditions.
As a technology, it also has technological system which various aspects. The first aspect is the techniques or human activity-form. In the Cryonics, it was seen on how people preserved a dead body. In Egypt, the dead people were mummified and preserved in order to reach the second life. In Cryonics, they also want to follow this ritual or activity. They want to preserved a dead body in order to revive it and not for the preparation of the afterlife. With this technology, they can prolong the life of a person or they can make people “immortal”.
The technique that they will use in technology is the power of ice to preserve a dead body. Their example is a frog that was frozen to dead and was still able to revive itself when the ice melted. The second aspect of the technological system is resources, tools, or materials. In studying Cryonics and to further develop its technology, they are using dead bodies that are stored in a freezing apparatus that has liquid nitrogen to preserve a body. All the tools that they will be using are located in their laboratories.
Their tools and apparatus would enable them to further study and analyze their research on how to revive a frozen dead body. The third aspect is the technological products and artifacts. In the technological system, the products that were created by different techniques were called artifacts. This can also serve as resources in some technological process. The artifacts in the Cryonics are the new life or the prolonged life that would be possessed by a human when he undergoes the technological techniques that were used in Cryonics. Although there is still o artifacts produced to the lack of technological advancement on the field but they said that in the future this technology would be present. Right now, they are piling dead bodies to be preserved so that in future they would be revived again. The fourth aspect pertains to the ends, function or valence of the technology. Man always seeks on how he can prolong his life here on earth. The function of this technology is basically to prolong and enhance the life of man and to be able to extend the limitation to another level. With this, the desire and needs of man to be “immortal” could be attained.
To be with your love one forever and to defy the death are of the function of this technology. The fifth aspect is the factual knowledge. This pertains on how the technology will work and how it operates. In the Cryonics, they made use of the other organisms of animal that are capable of reviving itself after being frozen. When the body was frozen, it stops all cellular action and in turn the body was clinically dead but some animals like the frog has the capability to reanimate itself after beng frozen the has an innate mechanism that allow them to do that.
In humans, we are not capable of that that why the cryonbiologists are still searching a way to be able to know how to resurrect and frozen body. With this, it plays a role in the further development of the technology. The last aspect is the social context or organization in which technologists are developed, distributed and employed. This pertains to the division of labor, where each has different task but has similar goal and same accomplishment and that is to be able to enhance the life of humans.
In the institute, where Cryonics were conducted, it is composed of different people with different fields. There are programmer, cryontechnicians, cryonbiologists, engineers and many more. All of the make-up a institution that is will make “immortality of ice possible”. All of these people have different specializations but they all contribute make the technology that would enable to revived a frozen body possible. The technology is made due to interaction of different fields and this is the most important aspect of technology. Without the help of other fields the technology would not advance.
In the movie, the dynamic relationship of science and technology on Cryonics is that the technology is dependent on the science. This is based on my understanding and based on what I saw in the movie. The technology that would enable to reanimate a frozen dead body in not yet feasible in the present. Although science and technology are independent the technology to revive a frozen body is still dependent to science. Without proper knowledge on how to fix all the ruptured cells on frozen body, the techniques and technology would not be able to advance.
The people in the institute admit to themselves that in the present there will not be able to resurrect the frozen bodies. But they said that in the future, together with the advancement on technology, they would be able to reanimate a frozen dead body. They still need to gather more knowledge and expand research on nanotechnology to be able to make a technology that can revive a person or enhance its quality of life by extending it to the normal life expectancy of man. All they were doing today are series of research and experiment to further developed the technology they had today.
I am not saying that the technology is always dependent on the science. Science and technology are mutually interdependence. The science shows the principle on technology will work and in return the technology helps the science to advance itself. An example of this is Microbiology. Without the invention of microscope, the field Microbiology, Cytology and Genetics will not be born. And absent in the advancement of either one of this will result in stagnation of the other. With the advancement of this technology, there are ethical issues that would arise from the technological system.
First kind of ethical problem is the questions about how ethical values and norms apply n new technological context. This can be seen in the arising of moral concerns against the church. Reanimating a dead person defies the presence of a God, who has the power to give and take the lives of the person according to church. It also defies the law of nature. Reanimating of a dead is a mortal sin for the religious sects. This is the main ethical issue that would arise when the technology would be completed.
Another kind of ethical issue that would arise is the questions concerning distributive justice and equality. With the advancement of technology in Cryonics, only a group or a class of people would benefit from this technology. Only the rich, elite and powerful will have an easy access on this technology. Since the technique would surely be expensive, not all people will be able to be brought back to life once they had died. Not all people will have equal chances to have a so called “immortal” life.
Due to limited sources and facilities of the technology and the massive population of the human, only the powerful, rich and elite people would have the advantages on the technology. Thus, the questions on social justice and equality would arise due to technological innovation. The last kind of ethical issue that would arise is the question about the technology’s power to create dramatic changes. With the advancement in Cryonics and if the technology that can enhance the life of human to become “immortal” would be realistic then it would cause a greater problem to ourselves and the environment.
Together with the enhancement of life, there would be decrease in the death rate of the humans. This would imply a more rapid growth in the population of the humans. With the increasing number of people and limited resources, there would be competition among people and other creatures. This would lead to an ecological imbalance. This advancement of technology would alter the world by destroying the environment to have a shelter, extinction of other organisms due to lack of habitat, and arising of wars due to completion on natural resources.
Together with the advancement n technology, we the people who created it should also have limitation on what kind of technology we are making. Technology s a double edge sword that is both beneficial and detrimental at the same time. It is up to the people on how the will make used of the technology. We should not only look on the benefit we get on the technology but we should also think the consequences before it become too late to fix the problems brought by technological advancement.