In Class Blog: ARP

Demantis Okafor

English 1110.01

Prof. Chambers

October 10, 2012

Technology Brings Good and Evil: The Ethical Reasoning of Control in New Technologies

           

            The science fiction series Dollhouse is a show that revolves around many underground corporations.  These corporations have the ability to program people’s minds, called Dolls, with temporary characteristics and change the minds how they please. Rich clients rent these Dolls out for large amounts of money for specific and various jobs or events.  The technology they use to program the Dolls’ minds is used for these jobs, yet the Dolls are programmed unwillingly.  The story also revolves around an ex-FBI agent’s life, Paul Ballard, as he endures to take down the Dollhouse industry.

            In a scene during the episode “Epitaph One”, we are introduced to Topher Brink.  Topher is being introduced to the imprinting chair.  As he talks to the head of this particular Los Angeles Dollhouse, Adelle, Topher is not really amazed with the speed of the imprinting chair.  In this scene, Topher has a cocky and quirky attitude in believing that he can advance the chair and speed up the process.  A conflict in this scene is between Topher and the head of security.  The head of security is weary of Topher’s abilities to help the imprinting process and is the first to see that Topher’s confidence in his abilities is very naïve.  Since Topher did not invent to imprinting chair, he later takes heavy responsibility when the technology becomes weaponized and causes him to go insane.  Topher’s overconfidence in this situation leaves him not thinking about any serious consequences that may arise from miss using this technology.

            Like stated before, Topher’s overconfidence left him unable to see or think about possible future consequences.  Misusing this technology was a risk that the head of security took very seriously.  Yet, the worst happened as the technology began to be used as a weapon rather than a business.  It was a big part for Adelle to hire someone that could handle the job.  Topher was highly qualified, but did not know how powerful this technology of the imprinting chair could be.  When Topher sped up the process of imprinting the Dolls, he may have even made the technology too fast for him to keep up with, and in this he lost control.

            Later in the series, there was a sequel made called “Epitaph Two: The Return”.  In this episode, the show has been forwarded far into the future.  The ‘tech’, or technology, has taken over the minds of many and changed them almost into zombies.  They are programmed to kill those who are not affected, called actuals.   Memories of Topher are imprinted into the infected father’s mind.  In these memories, Topher is still in the underground Dollhouse, but has gone crazy.  He has been trying to solve some problems and he scribbles words and numbers in the area that he sleeps in.  In one instance, he tells Adelle, “…I’ll fix what we did to their heads.  You fix what we did to the rest of the world…” (Epitaph Two) and this quote shows that Topher finally realizes what he had helped Rossum and the Dollhouse do.  This is where Topher has realized what he has done. 

This scene was helpful to my argument because this is where Topher realized that he was one of the only people that could solve the problem and bring everyone’s minds back to normal and their true identity.  This is also where he realizes that a large part of this “thought-pocalypse” was his fault.  Topher has lost control of the technology and as a consequence to what the world had turned into, Topher went crazy.  Yet, he did find the solution, and took himself as a sacrifice to change the world back.  Topher also says, “...I didn’t want to cause any more pain.”  He knows that he caused a huge amount of troubles.

The writers of Dollhouse use Topher’s overconfidence in the imprinting method to argue that the advancement in technology and research are being overlooked with the possibilities of huge consequences and dangers.  In the first scene we see that Topher has too much confidence in believing he could improve the imprinting process; which he did.  Then in the second scene, we see how Topher lost control of the technology and didn’t realize actually how powerful this technology was and what he was dealing with.  Luckily, Topher was also able to find the solution to the problem before everyone in the world had been affected by the technology and let Rossum corporations control everything.

            The imprinting method in Dollhouse can apply to many things in our world today.  A real world connection to the series Dollhouse and argument by the writers is stem cell research.  Stem cell research is a controversial topic in our world today.  It has not been fully tested on humans, but has been proven with animals.  The good thing about stem cell research is that it has almost been fully theorized that the findings in stem cell research can cure many serious diseases today that people suffer from.  The bad thing about stem cell research is that those cells that are needed for this type of advancement can only be derived from human embryos, or unborn babies.  This study has been rated as highly unethical by many scientists and is the reason why the study has not gone far enough.

One article found that describes the evolution of the stem cell studies is an article written by Heather Kathryn Ross, of The Healthline Editorial Team, about Sir John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka.  Both of these men won the Nobel Peace Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2012.  Yamanaka used Gurdon’s findings with cloning and neurons to turn mature cells into stem cells and enable them to become any type of cell in the body.  Sir John Gurdon also won the Lasker Award in 2009.  He also conducts research at the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and the California Institute of Technology for Developmental Biology.  Yamanaka was an orthopedic surgeon and is known for discovering how to induce stem cells and make them pluripotent, able to adapt to any tissues or organs in the body.

Yamanaka first tested his theory on mice and cured them of Sickle Cell Anemia and Parkinson’s disease.  Then Yamanaka took these findings and did the same thing with human cells.  Some other positive feats that stem cells may be able to do is cure or recover many diseases and organs including: Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Pancreatic recovery, Sickle Cell Anemia, Visual functions, Reduction in Radiation Therapy used for Cancer patients, Muscular Dystrophy and other muscle wasting diseases.  One of the most important findings from Yamanaka that contradicts the unethical views of many was stated by Yamanaka saying, “What’s significant about this technology is not only can we avoid the ethical controversy of using embryos, but also a transplant patient can avoid organ rejection because the treatment will be done using the patient’s own cells and not somebody else’s” (Ross, Yamanaka).

Since Yamanaka has discovered a way to erase the use of human embryos to derive stem cells from, there aren’t many negative comments one can say about the findings.  If this groundbreaking discovery can be consistently successful, it could be something that could change the world in medicine.  Yet, his discoveries have not been use on actual human trials.  This discovery could be a world changing feat, but there still needs to be much care in this study.  If there is something that goes wrong with this study, there could be even worse consequences or side-effects unknown to humans. 

One of the most interesting things found in the article about Gurdon and Yamanaka, is that, “Scientists in Japan plan to use Yamanaka’s ‘induced pluripotent cells’ (iPCs) in an upcoming human trial to repair eyesight in patients with macular degeneration” (Ross). Gurdon and Yamanaka both agreed to use their $1.2 million Nobel award money to continue their research into the medical usage of the induced pluripotent cell (iPCs) (Ross).  This finding is a potentially proven theory that scientists have debated on and claimed unethical or ethical. 

            In one in Epitaph Two of Dollhouse, the house leader, Adelle, is surprised as a leader from another house sends one of her actives back to her.  But in the other leader has imprinted himself into the doll and plans to use this new technology to use the dolls for their bodies.  The audience now sees Adelle attitude change toward this new technology.  She probably believes that this is going overboard to only use the dolls for their bodies.  This part of the scene also adds to the later episodes as others uselessly change bodies whenever they get tired of their current body.

            In this scene, the main point is that we start to see Adelle’s attitude change.  Now she is becoming worried that this new technology is moving too fast to be carried out.  The technology is starting to advance even more, and with new ideas comes new outcomes.  These outcomes can be treacherous or useful referring back to Dollhouse.  Yet, just because new ideas come out doesn’t necessarily mean that the outcome will be negative.  In the case of the show, it is the beginning of their apocalypse as most of the world turns into mindless creatures.

            When new ideas and discoveries are introduced to the world,  there are two sides that can be taken.  Some people doubt them and try to express their reasoning, then some people agree with whatever new ideal has been introduced.  Stem Cell Research is one of those topics that have extremist opinions that agree and disagree with the topic.  As newly introduced, Stem Cell Research has come to a highly developed way to take stem cells without using dead human embryos.  When this discovery came about, there were many disbelievers.  One major reason may be that, as stated above, with new discoveries come new outcomes.  These outcomes can be positive or negatively influenced.  In this case, the discovery has been successful as the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Sir John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka. 

Works Cited

“Epitaph One”. Dollhouse. Season 1. Writ. Joss Whedon and Jane Espenson. Dir. David

Solomon. FOX Network. 11 August 2009. Online. Amazon Instant Video. 17 September  2012.

“Epitaph Two”. Dollhouse. Season 2. Writ. Joss Whedon and Jane Espenson. Dir. David

Solomon. FOX Network. 22 January 2010. Online. Amazon Instant Video. 19 September  2012.

"Stem Cell Research News." Online Medical News Posting. Medical News Today. MediLexicon

International Ltd., 3 July 2003. Web. 1 Oct. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/stem_cell/>.

Ross, Heather K. "A Nobel Prize for Stem Cell Research: Science, Politics, and Time Travel."

Editorial. Www.healthline.com. Healthline Network, Inc., 10 Oct. 2010. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. <http://www.healthline.com/health-blogs/study-roundup/2012-nobel-winners-101012>.