Senergene——Techno-Moral Vignettes
By writing application scenarios, we has already visualized the intended impact of TERMITE TERMINATOR and at the same time demonstrated its plausibility. To complete our product, we designed indoor device for better practice to monitor, trap and kill whole nest of termites. Now, we present Techno-moral vignettes, focusing on the potential wider impacts of our application. According to these unintended scenes, a series of warning added to the Instruction Manual can be proposed to reduce future risks.
Scene 1
On the Sunday afternoon, Veronica is taking a walk in the city park. She has been busy working in the ZJU Termites Terminator Company for the whole week. A little boy in the playground attract her eye. He is playing with an smart device that Veronica are most familiar with - it is the Termite Terminator device! Seeing the device being rolled and thrown up in the sky, Veronica knows that the bacteria are already dead because of the kill switch and will not leak out because of capsulation. However, it is still dangerous for kids to play with. Veronica came up to the boy and kindly stop him. She told the boy’s parents that the device should be fixed in the recommend place in the house and should not be touched or moved by children or pets.
- Warning
- Ensure the bottom of the device is fixed on the floor with 3M plastic glue, keep kids and pets away from it.
- Avoid getting baits on eyes, skin and clothes, otherwise wash with abundant water and away from fire.
- The device can only be used indoors.
- Be sure to put upward.
Scene 2
Anna has been living in her country wooden house for a long time. In the past few years she had been harassed by termites and always worrying about her furniture and house. Last year she bought a device from the ZJU Termites Terminator Company and it worked perfectly. Anna was so happy and she kept the device in home all the time. Recently she was annoyed by cockroaches. She bought some cockroach drugs and put in the Termites Terminator device. Several days past but there seem to be no effect. She called Termites Terminator consulting about it. It is clear that she shouldn’t refit the device into a cockroach killing device. The device should be used as instructed and recycled in time.
- Warning
- Used device should be taken away by technical staff from termite control center. To do this, make an appointment through our online tracking system.
- Keep the device in a dry environment.
- Only provided baits are allowed and do not refit without authorization.
Scene 3
On Saturday morning, Tracy went to the supermarket. After picking up the necessities, she remembered that there were some termites in her home recently. She came to the shelf of termite drugs but got lost in such many types of products. A shopping guide came and asked her about the damage situation. Base on that information, the shopping guide recommend her with the Termites Terminator device from ZJU Termites Terminator Company. Tracy read the introduction of the product for a while, but when she found that the product is based on GMO, she showed a little bit of hesitation. Noticing this, the shopping guide told Tracy that this product had been fully tested and got the safety certification. It is an efficient and environmental-friendly product with new intellectual property and are highly supported by the government. Follow the instruction in the product and there will be no danger for her family, her children and her pets. Besides, professional after-sale service group are always ready for any problems that consumers might meet with. Hearing these, Tracy thought this product is not as bad as she believed and decided to have a try.
- Warning
- Remained or out-of-date baits are recommended to burn absolutely.
- Our product is authorized by government, so your purchase and usage are guaranteed.
- Every success purchase & experience can receive government’s subsidy
Thoughts About GMO
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) refer to plants, animals and microorganism which are generally altered or manipulated by a non-natural means in order to incorporate genes from another organism, which share a similarity with synthetic biology. In addition to numerous scientific and technical challenges, both GMOs and synthetic biology raise ethical issues and biosecurity issues.
There is nothing ambiguous that GMOs and synthetic biology are capable of improving the quality of our life and handling a variety of global problems to a large extent. However, the dangers vs. benefits of GMOs are widely debated ever since its birth.
For the sake of arousing citizens’ interest to synthetic biology and trigger further reflection on GMOs, ZJU-CHINA held a debate among undergraduates in ZJU campus. The topic for debate is "whether we should stop developing GMOs technology and synthetic biology". Positive side stands for "we should stop developing GMOs technology and synthetic biology", while the negative side stands for "we shouldn’t stop developing GMOs technology and synthetic biology".
First Round
Negative side [1st debater]:
Honorable judges, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, today I would like to state the opinion that “we shouldn’t stop developing GMOs technology and synthetic biology”.
There is no denying that developing GMOs can make great contributions to human beings. From the aspect of agriculture, a huge lack of foodstuff would pose a threat to human beings in the near future.
First and foremost, the areas of arable land are sharply decreasing or occupied by industrial land as the process of urbanization. Thus, improving unit area yield of agriculture product and in turn improving the total grain output is of great urgency. Furthermore, for the increase rate of human beings, global population is predicted to reach the number of 8.5 billion until 2030, so all the living material will be extremely limited. Among all the methods to solve this problem, developing GMOs and synthetic biology are just the most efficient ones. So, I’d like to point out that “we shouldn’t stop developing GMOs technology and synthetic biology”. Thank you.
Positive side [1st debater]:
My fellow debaters, I’m afraid I disagree with your opinion and reasons are as follows. As a country of 1.3 billion people, China is confronted with the population inflection point, and the increase rate of human beings will definitely slow down in the future. Moreover, nowadays sustainability has become a tendency of technology development, which means many materials can be recycled in the future.
I’d like to point out that GMOs and synthetic biology may probably lead to tremendous biological disaster just as many movies implied. Our technology cannot wholly predict the consequence of genetic modification. What’s worse, if GMOs and synthetic biology are illegally applied, we’re not able to detect the problem immediately. As far as I’m concerned, “we should stop developing GMOs technology and synthetic biology”. Thank you.
Second Round
Negative side [1st debater]:
Thank you for your reasons but I cannot agree with you. Indeed potential problems caused by GMOs and synthetic biology may not be detected quickly, but GMOs and genic engineering (GE) are one of the quickest solutions for the problem because these technology can mutate the target genes in a short period of time, which is superior to traditional technology. What’s more, laws and regulations related to GMOs are made step by step. In the future, the legal system will definitely be improved and thus many illegal application of GMOs can be prevented.
From my point of view, advantages of GMOs and synthetic biology also play an important role in controlling the side effects of pesticide and chemical fertilizer. For one thing, the drug resistance of many pests has a bad influence on grain output, while some sorts of pesticide of high efficiency are harmful to human beings thus cannot be used on a large scale. For another, the residue of pesticide, soil hardening and such problems effect the grain output as well. With the aid of GMOs and synthetic biology, crops themselves can resist pests so no extra chemicals would be added into soil.
Positive side [2nd debater]:
My fellow debaters, I feel the same way as you mentioned. Nevertheless, GMOs’ defects cannot be neglected. From the aspect of ecology, most GMOs have higher adaptability than ordinary crops so GMOs may compete with many wild species and then the biodiversity may probably be destroyed. Thank you.
Third Round
Negative side [3rd debater]:
Thanks, I have got the point. In order to avoid the problem you mentioned just now, we could restrict the planting or raising area of GMOs so that their existence will not pose any threat to biodiversity.
Although GMOs and synthetic biology are not that mature at present, corresponding research and experiments shouldn’t be stopped because starvation is still a severe global problem. GMOs and organisms modified by synthetic biology often cost less than ordinary products and are easier to plant or raise. Because of this, they are of great potential to solve the problem of starvation and can create more wealth for farmers.
Positive side [3rd debater]:
Thank you, my fellow debaters. Although GMOs and synthetic biology have many merits, they have not been widely accepted by people. Citizens’ distrust and rejection of GMOs may be the biggest obstacle on the way of promoting GMOs and synthetic biology.
forth Round
Negative side [4th debater]:
Thanks. There is no doubt that making GMOs and synthetic biology widely accepted by most people is not that easy, because it will necessarily cost a lot to promote a new concept or technology. However, this kind of cost is worthy and escaping from the trend of technology is definitely not a wise option. In fact, the high cognitive cost and the manipulation from interesting groups are the main reasons for anti-GMOs.
Positive side [4th debater]:
Thank you for your suggestions. GMOs and synthetic biology may be beneficial in the future. However, the immature technology shouldn’t be applied in a large scale, for instance the large area of soybean planting. The unclear consequence of modification and other potential risk that probably appear after several decades pose a great threat to the future generation who eat soybean since childhood. Therefore, we hold the opinion that the GMOs and synthetic biology cannot be developed until we get a profound understanding of biology fundamental theory.
Summary
Simply from the aspect of technology, any kind of technology ought to be developed. Nevertheless, considering the social reality, the development of some sort of technology is restricted, such as nuclear technology, which is viewed to be evil. Although nuclear technology is potential to destroy the earth, we keep exploring it and have made such surprising achievements that nuclear energy can peacefully make contributions to our life.
Similar to nuclear technology, GMOs and synthetic biology are also technologies that are like a double-edged sword. It should be noticed that the significance of GMOs and synthetic biology in handling starvation and climate change, which potentially outweigh the side effect.
It is obvious that how many benefits a new technology could bring to someone determines how much support it will get from someone. Currently, developing GMOs and synthetic biology in China contradicts the benefits of those who guide public opinion, and the benefits of GMOs and synthetic biology couldn’t offset its potential side effect in people’s mind. To alter the situation, the government and research institution should rebuild the credibility and promote GMOs continually. Meanwhile, corresponding technology must be ready for future application.
The result of the debate does not necessarily indicate the development of GMOs and synthetic biology in reality, but the debate indeed attracts people’s attention to GMOs and synthetic biology. Many audiences were interested in our project and kept asking relevant questions. We sincerely hope that GMOs and synthetic biology could be further promoted and the ethic or moral problems of GMOs and synthetic biology can be considered on a deeper level. In the following years, ZJU-China will continue to hold such kind of debate in order to promote synthetic biology.
