Recently I watched two good series about biohacking, Orphan Black and Biohackers (spoiler alert). Initially, I was just curious about Orphan Black because the main actress played more than dozens of characters (they’re clones, by the way). I mean, how can you play so well that we can distinguish each character that shares similar physical features? Anyhow, I found these interesting, and I was slapped so hard on how science can be so wrong. I revisited my article in this blog, The Danger of Science, where I stated that two things are dangerous in science: exclusive science and silence. Now that I’ve watched the series, I think that no standardized moral compass is also one of science’s dangers. Scientists’ vision is to find new things, explore the unknown, and study the unexplored. Some of us think that having such a standardized moral compass may somehow lead to limitations to science, and is that an ethical thing to do for scientists? Who has the righteous opinion to stop a scientist?
Add another series here, titled Zoo, which has a good premise in the first season (the second season onwards is just silly for me), that animals may reach their full awareness and collaborate with other species to destroy humans. But then, this capability includes human involvement. Lots of atheistic beliefs and progress are made by genius scientists and philosophers, but does the God complex itself transfer to these communities? The thought that “we can do anything to anyone or anything as long as we can”. As a scientist focusing on experimental psychology methods myself, this got me thinking at night. To what extent can we experiment on humans and animals? Is it ethical that I got my cat trained to be lazier and not to catch birds anymore?
If we expand the discussion, the God complex seems very innate in humans. Our higher cognitive ability makes us (probably) the only non-predatory species that reach the food chain pyramid. We can make technology that protects us from beasts and predators to create complex food technology so that even if we lack meat, we can make a hamburger from mushrooms. Ever since the river valley civilizations began, we’ve been developing this complex to the smallest elements in life. Me, for example. I manage several jobs at once, so I make my online calendars and other supporting software functions to their fullest. I even installed an automatic timer for my garden. I spent two months researching and trying out several water taps, machines, and connectors prior to the final installation. Now it works, every 6 PM and AM, I don’t need to worry about my garden anymore. I feel the urge to control everything I have in my life so that I would make the minimum mistake.
Take a wider example of domestic abuse. Even with the thought that we want to control our spouse or partner, I think that’s already abuse. Our God complex gives us the desire to control people, pets, and any living beings around. At some point, it becomes abusive, and the other part can die, literally or mentally. Three Idiots and Guide to be a Perfect Family movies portray this phenomenon perfectly. We always forget the old adage that power tends to corrupt. There is no guarantee that when we become parents, our desire for our kids becomes a demand - and it kills them softly. To what extent can we control our own power? Does controlling our power equal to limiting our God complex with our God complex?
And that’s where I think social norms are still important. Even if this norm is a conceptual thing, our dual reality, it gives us a guideline to what our ancestors had experienced before and wanted to warn us to make similar mistakes. For example, in psychology, we always submit our method to an ethical board because the history of our study field is so dark. Take the Milgram, Little Albert, or Stanford Prison Experiments. A good friend once asked, “So what is moral?” I think now the answer is something that prevents our God complex leads us to make foolish, repeating mistakes.
From all the series and movies mentioned in this article, I think the ending of Biohackers got it right: a multimillionaire right wing that doesn’t want humans to be perfect and making Earth more overpopulated, killing his own sponsored scientist who created lots of biohacking experiments to making humans as a perfect species from inside the womb. It’s a beautiful representation of stopping our “what if” inquiries with a proper moral compass.
