Can Technology Outpace Ethics?

"One reason is that any minimally adequate ethical theory will have the quality of expandability. That is, the theory can be applied to what is new, be that technology, circumstances or something else. An ethical theory that lacks the capacity of expandability would become useless immediately and would not be much of a theory."

"It is, however, worth considering that a new technology could "break" an ethical theory in that the theory could not expand to cover the technology. However, this would seem to show that the theory was inadequate rather than showing the technology outpaced ethics."

"Another reason technology would have a hard time outpacing ethics is that an ethical argument by analogy can (probably) be applied to new technology. That is, if the technology is like something that exists and has been discussed in ethics, this ethical discussion can be applied to the new technology. This is analogous to using ethical analogies to apply ethics to different specific situations, such as an act of cheating in a relationship."

"Naturally, if a new technology is absolutely unlike anything else in human experience (even fiction), then the method of analogy would fail absolutely. However, it seems unlikely that such a technology could emerge. But I like science fiction (and fantasy) and am willing to entertain the possibility of an absolutely new technology."

New technologies are often said to move faster than ethics and law. Law can lag because of structural and demographic factors, while ethics is harder to outpace. Ethical theories that are minimally adequate should be expandable, allowing them to apply to new technologies and changing circumstances. If a technology appears to “break” an ethical theory, that likely indicates the theory was inadequate rather than that ethics is slower. Ethical reasoning by analogy can also transfer existing moral discussions to new technologies when they resemble known cases. Only a technology unlike anything in human experience would defeat analogy, though such cases seem unlikely. Personal drones can serve as an illustrative example.

Read at A Philosopher's Blog