Technological possibility predicts real-world attempts regardless of moral consensus

Evidence

If something is technologically possible, it is likely to be attempted by someone. We face the prospect of increasing effort directed toward social construction of our biological nature through genetic engineering. These developments present an enormous challenge on how to curb unbounded genetic manipulation (Baylis & Robert, 2004). The values and moral standards to which people subscribe, and the social systems they devise to oversee the uses to which their technological power is put, will play a vital role in what people become and how they shape their destiny. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 189

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: ‘If it’s technically possible it will be attempted’ as a law-like premise — apply to AI, bioengineering, voice cloning; who regulates, and are moral standards or social systems the actual brake?
• STORYSTEM: A near-future society where genetic engineering outpaced moral oversight could be built directly off this premise — the ‘unbounded genetic manipulation’ challenge as dramatic engine.