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 on September 4 in 102 Room of West Teaching Area in ZJU campus. We invited two school-famous debate teams to give us an exhibition game and earned a tremendous response from audience. The topic for debate is “whether we should stop developing GMOs technology and synthetic biology” and the process of debate are as follows.
