Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies are picking up well in modern science. Nanoscience, which involves the manipulation and engineering of matter particles on a nanometer scale. Nanotechnology on the hand is applying nanoscience that eventually leads to the use of new nanomaterials in useful products. Human beings have been aspired by nature to create things through science. In his Novel, Michael Crichton builds a science thriller. The main topic around his novel is nanotechnology. The character Jack Foley in the novel is called up to do troubleshoot a nanotech plant system that is in a desert. Jack Foley finds the plant taken over by artificially intelligent life rogue swarms. The story in the Novel evolves around the swarms of artificially intelligent life. The nanotechnology in his novel is built in a multi-stage process, bacteria is generated chemicals that are assembled into a final product. The product becomes a flying robot with in-built computers and solar cells. When people get involved with the robots they are infected with, the swarm-bots melt. The cornerstone in Prey is evolutionary learning and emergent behaviors. In the novel Prey, the nanotechnology is used to portray a sense of horror through the swarm bots that act as a threat to humanity. He tries to ask the question on the amount of danger that humanity would face if an artificial intelligence technology were to go loose on the world. The novel brings the readers into an ethical dissonance of what should be done in the nanotechnology field and what shouldn’t be done. There is a wide ethical dilemma in the Novel Prey as to whether human beings have the right to create life in forms of robots and mimic nature. The infectious swarms draw this ethical dilemma and that the things that people do or create through nanotechnology will come and haunt the human race (Crichton, 2002) .
Ethical dilemma in the novel is also represented as the swarms affecting Julia. Julia is suspected of infidelity Jack Forman. Julia transmits the Swarm to other fellows through a kiss. The swarm in Julia makes her do things that are not his true characters, she is to be an abusive mother, and she subverts family relationships that form the foundation of successful human co-existence. This then draws into an ethical dilemma that the creation of artificially intelligent lives will eventually undermine the most deep-seated and fundamental human characteristics (Crichton, 2002) .
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From an ethical point of view, recreating things that are seen in nature is not morally justified actions and human beings should differentiate between creating artificially intelligent things and sentient, biological things. The novel poses a question and exposes the dark sides of Nano technological advances. Ethical dangers in biotechnology in the last decade or so are seen in a great degree of ethical restraint and control exerted by human beings that are involved in the process. The novel also poses a question of whether big corporations and the government in the near future will use nanotechnology for military purposes, and whether artificial intelligence will become a mainstay of modern society (Crichton, 2002)
Bioethical issues arise in different parts of the novel, for instance, the conceptions of intelligence that are non-rule based, distributed intelligence and some behaviors that are self-organizing in animals and machines. This can be clearly found in pages 96 and page 97 of the novel Prey. They can also be found on page 177 and page 181. The other bioethical issue in the novel can be found on page 174 to 176; they reflect on the commercial environment that new biotechnologies should be developed, in terms of the involvement of venture capital and military .Bioethical issue when human beings cannot control the technologies that they create. Some of these technologies are harmful to the human race. For instance, the use of rays can be harmful to humans though it has been used to cure some conditions (Crichton, 2002) .
The Novel by Crichton raise questions about what direction is taken by contemporary research in Nano biotechnology. Nanotechnology is interesting and to some point, it gets scary and need arises to draw ethical lines that should not be passed by researchers. In a critic’s perspective, the novel is far excessively exaggerated about nanotech. Critics have augured that nanotech is purely safe and no ethical dilemmas and questions that are brought up in the novel should worry researchers in the pursuit of better nanotech equipment. The Center for Bioethics in the University of South Carolina urges that well-funded science and nanotech should grab the public imagination and have a vision that entails safety and protection of nanotech against the human race. The human race needs to be protected from advancements of nanotech and safety should be a priority in creating artificial intelligence life. It is obvious that such a huge activity like the emerging fields of nanoscience and Nano engineering will raise a host of ethical and social questions that must be well addressed. Scientists and researchers must accompany ethical reflections in every step of their research; they must put into considerations what is morally upright and is within the ethics of science. They must reflect on the ethical analysis, for instance, the critical reflection on the vision and values of nanotechnology and the establishment of ethical theories. Principal and casuistry are examples of ethical theories that should be formulated in ways that are oriented toward biomedical applications. Risk analysis through the utilitarian theory should be used to frame the analysis on nanotechnology creations.
References
Crichton, M. (2002). Prey. New York: Harper Collins.
