- Artificial intelligence is able to perform many jobs in the place of humans now, with even more accuracy than many humans do. This applies especially to low level jobs such as service workers, and even though skilled labor is affected, skilled workers are not impacted as much.
- Genetic engineering is being researched right now in labs, and it is projected that soon genetically engineered babies will be able to be made. This is just one step up from Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), which already exist. However, this brings up many ethical concerns, which will be discussed later.
- As mentioned before, jobs that require a low skill level will be much more heavily impacted by artificial intelligence than jobs that require some sort of skill. This could increase unemployment, but it must also be taken into consideration that there must be people who operate these machines. Therefore, there is no saying what impact artificial intelligence will have on the working population in the long run. It could make things easier, or much harder.
- As mentioned before, genetic engineering technically already exists. Genetically modified organisms exist. However, it is much more of an ethical dilemma to genetically engineer a baby as opposed to, say, a plant (that we will end up consuming anyway). Genetic engineering of plants also helps the plant to be better and healthier as it grows, so it provides more nutrition to the consumer. Additionally, sometimes genetic engineering can modify a plant species so that it is less likely to be consumed by predators (for example, insect-resistant potato crops). When it comes to genetically modifying a baby, though, it is hard to determine whether it is really beneficial to the health of the baby. Obviously, if it’s to get rid of a disease, it’s probably a good thing. However, genetic modification could just as easily be used to create babies with different colored eyes or hair, which has little to no correlation with survival, and could be seen as unethical.