In the Reading:
The speaker makes a concerted effort to identify the difference between the technological age and history. Given by the great scope of time, cyber technology is barely a blip on the radar. Historically questions of ethics and morality were always close to home. As the speaker explains, the farmer is not removed from the field, he is as wedded to it as he is to himself. So questions of ethics that would effect one effects the other. However, In the modern age, the “farmer” can be far removed from his “field”. Most people cannot tell you where or how their food is produced, power is generated, social networking sites function and so forth. The ones is control of tilling the technological field are far removed from the harvests and those who feast on its bounty. So the questions of ethics and morality become lost in the profit margin enjoyed by those who “farm” as any negative ramifications of their actions are paid by others.
In the Videos:
Professor Wittkower does a good job of breaking down the heavily worded and perhaps a bit more poetic than necessary writings of Hans Jonas. The professor pointed out how decisions, from a technological perspective, can have far ranging effects. These effects can quite literally be felt globally. “The short arm” effect can be seen clearly through a historical lens. Be it the common practice of drugging child actors, in the early 1900’s, to keep them awake and alert during filming, thus creating a negative feed back loop of lifelong drug dependency and abuse. Or social media giants being able to censor opinions they do not agree with in order to influence elections or policy thus eroding public faith in governmental institutions. So moving forward, more care and thought should be applied to what and how policy is decided and “short arm” reasoning should be abandoned for a stronger long arm approach. Of coarse this raises the question of how we lengthen an “arm” when we don’t even know what body it is attached to yet. But the things most worth doing tend to be hard.