Thinking Ahead
XHerakleitos - 2/23/11

The speed of change in the world, a velocity that astounds those of us who remember grandparents living in an age before plastic or automobiles, quickens the pulse for greater foresight.

"MIT engineers have designed a new type of nanoparticle that could safely and effectively deliver vaccines for diseases such as HIV and malaria... Such particles could help scientists develop vaccines against cancer as well as infectious diseases."
- Nano-sized vaccines, MIT news

Assuming continued technological and scientific advancement, the working fusion of biology, computer science and engineering will open both profound and troubling trajectories. And though it may punctuate the demand for new forms of ethical inquiry, certain moral postures will be rendered more moot than they already are.

It is not hard, for example, to imagine women opting for total control of the uterine environment. Picture a nano-tech laden womb, perhaps itself a computer network, preventing (in its "on" state) unauthorized access to either ovaries or the uterine wall. And it's not difficult to imagine how inexpensive it could become.

The so called fight against abortion by means of external legislation, already absurd under any conceptual rendering of Christianity, will be revealed on the grounds of sheer impracticality as palpably quixotic.