The Importance Of Biological Engineering

In the past, losing a limb and surviving often meant the start of a life with disability. Fortunately, through human ingenuity and research, biological engineering has helped change this. Mechanical hands that grasp and legs that walk can bring back the lost sense of a normal life and the outlook becomes brighter every year with each technological advancement. It is inherently within our nature to continue innovating and improving upon what already exists. This begs the question- how far will we go? This is an ethical question in the realm of that is just beginning to manifest itself. At the rate at which technology progresses and becomes more widely available, it is hard to not imagine a future in which one day replacement parts could just as, if not more efficient in some respects than fleshy body parts. Will doing so leave behind and disregard the fleshy vessels that make us human in the first place, or is this merely an extension of ourselves? Without being kept in check, there is potential for significant ethical and social ramifications.

In order to understand how and why this is worth concern, we must first examine the part of human psychology that acts as the source. This oddity lies in the caveat to the use of human-like robotics and prosthetics in terms of how the piece of technology is perceived by a third party. When something is clearly machine, it is viewed as such. However it has been consistently observed that as something becomes closer and closer to resembling a human or mimicking human-like traits, the aesthetic appeal plummets. This is known as the “uncanny valley”. For example, if a robotic face is colored to resemble the natural tone of skin, yet exhibits stiff and unnatural motions it is consistently viewed ...

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...t a man born missing part of his legs is able to compete in sprinting Olympic events. However, it is unfair to other competitors when the extent of his handicap is unknown. If it were deemed that even with his state of the art prosthetics he was at a disadvantage, then he should be given the opportunity (given the adequate qualifying times held at the same standard as other runners) to race in the events he desires to.

While there are currently very few other examples to which this situation can be compared to, the occurrences of similar scenarios have nowhere to go but up as innovation in biological engineering does. Ideally, precautions will be taken in order to avoid or minimize dividing people with something that would typically bring them together. To do so, researchers and society must make a conscious effort in order to bridge the gap of the uncanny valley.