ethics concern?

Scientists are devising technology to remote control sharks on the high seas (seen in New Scientist). The plan is to use sonar to manipulate the shark’s brain signals, controlling its movements and possibly decoding its feelings. This technology is cited as being useful for understanding shark behaviours as well as having potential use for treating paralysis in humans. However, it is also mentioned that the research is being funded by the us military, who have designs for using the sharks as undetectable spies across the oceans…which seems to me to be severely ethically problematic. The pentagon’s ideas for sharks as “stealth spies” are a little more emphasised in the BBC article covering the topic (interestingly, the BBC also just posted an article discussing the problem of the media’s sensationalising of scientific stories…)

2 Responses to “ethics concern?”

  1. liam says:

    I think it’s fairly safe to assume that anything which can be used for military uses will be. It might be fairly unethical to use sharks for military purposes, but if that’s the vein we’re in, it also seems fairly unethical to use people for military purposes and that certainly doesn’t seem to be stopping anyone. I’m fairly happy if there are any positive side-benefits coming out of US defence research.