Definitive proof that technology is advancing faster than our debate on the ethics that surrounds it: a project currently on Kickstarter that aims to let users control cockroaches via their smartphone.
Really.
It's called RoboRoach, and - I'll say it - it's ethically troubling. Consider this from GigaOM:
And here's the video:
Perhaps you're bothered by the idea that a living thing can be so easily manipulated - by a smartphone, no less. But the great moral question here isn't about cockroaches, it's about where this stops. Presumably we'd all bristle at doing this with humans, were it possible. But what about gorillas? Dolphins? Cats and dogs? You see what I'm getting at.
The project has raised $2,700 so far towards a $10,000 goal.
I have no answer in terms of how to ensure that the DIY movement adheres to some ethical bumpers; discussions at the intersection of technology and ethics exist, but they tend to move more at the pace of academia than the pace of a Kickstarter campaign. This is one crowdsourcing project I won't be backing.
