Author: Aryaam H.

The Growing Disregard for Ethics

Aryaam H.Leave a comment
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Tyrell Corporations: “More Human than Human”

In The Blade Runner The Tyrell Corporation is at the forefront of multiple issues. Tyrell Corporations is a Los Angeles based conglomerate that focuses on the biotech sector of technology. They spend the majority of their time working on an enhanced form of humans named replicants. However, these weren’t human and instead were androids designed to look indistinguishable from humans and from organic substances. The company’s slogan, “More human than human” derived from this. The replicants looked human but were far more capable of things than regular humans. The only difference, in the company’s eyes, was their lack of empathy and human emotions.

Nevertheless, as profit rose, so did ethical concerns. The company disregarded the safety of citizens and genetic enhancement and continued to create more advanced versions. Despite advancing their emotions and lifespans, as well as their slogan, the corporation did not regard these replicants anything close to humans. These replicants were regarded as obedient and subservient in order to complete both on and off land labor without any workplace ethical sanctions placed (as they were technically not human). This downregulation of slavery on enhanced “humans” is therefore a largely ethical concern, and one that the real world may be heading towards soon.

America, Corporations, and the Uncomfortable Quest for Dominance

“OpenAI logo with magnifying glass (52916339167)” by Jernej Furman from Slovenia is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The world seems to be trending towards the one in The Blade Runner and there are some similarities between Tyrell Corporation’s practices and the ones in American companies. The mistreatment of replicants mirrors amazon and its mistreatment of workers. Amazon has made the news constantly for ethical concerns and its growing monopoly over online shopping. Online, Google and OpenAI are companies that have embraced the use of AI with open arms, disregarding the environmental concerns that come with it. Their relentless need to grow and expand the sector of AI is pushing the creation of their own AI with “human-like capabilities”

Tyrell Corporations focused heavily on biotech, and similar sentiments can be seen in companies today, who may also be based in America. In the 2000s began a sharp rise in genetic boxes like 23&Me which marketed itself as a hub to finding out all about your ancestry. However, concerns have been rising regarding where or not companies like these store your genes or get rid of them. There is an inherent lack of privacy when you ship off these boxes and what could happen after. Gene modification or editing could lead to exploitation of these results. When things like this become normalized, it opens the gates to further muddy the reality of what is bioethical and what is not.

Globally, there seems to be a selfish need to innovate no matter what suffers in the process, and, regarding the path it is taking, a world in which a company like Tyrell can thrive seems to be very likely

Humanity or Hybridization: Is the Gain Worth the Loss?

Aryaam H.Leave a comment
Reading Time: 2 minutes

If I were given the chance to become a hybrid creature, I wouldn’t want to be one at all. Personally, I stand firmly against genetic modifications that are not necessary and especially one that raises ethical concerns about this. Furthermore, I do not find anything wrong with having a human body and being limited by our human capabilities. If we all arrived to be perfect then we would all die, as perfection does not exist. The arrogance and hubris that society would have to be steeped in to create something like this proves to me that I definitely would not trust any corporation to do even do a surgery of modification like that on my body

However, for the sake of a hypothetical, I think I would choose a bat. Bats are one of, if not the only, mammal that flies so I would still be a cross with a fellow mammal and be able to fly. In that case, I wouldn’t have to suffer through the New Orleans traffic (although I would assume other people would choose birds so maybe air traffic would exist? I am unsure.) Bats also use echolocation, which humans obviously dont. Humans only see visible light and due to our rods and cones, we are unable to visualize colors in the dark. However, because bats use ultrasound waves, echolocation allows them to see perfectly in the dark and would be amazing to utilize as a human, particularly because I would love to take more night photography. 

“Little brown bat wing inspection” by USFWS Headquarters is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

My wishes would mostly end there, though. I am not fond of physical transformations and despite other cool things bats can do, at what point would I lose my humanity? Flying and using echolocation would mean that I would have to have wings and different eyes. Would I even recognize myself in the mirror? Are you still a human if you’re a hybrid? I do not know and I do not wish to find out. Also, bats are one of the most common animals to have rabies and that is almost 100% fatal. I am not fond of dying because I wanted to fly and see in the dark.