The idea of progress

The idea of progress

Today’s presentation will be about a notion that surrounds us more and more every day : the idea of progress. Firstly, let’s define its meaning : progress could be considered as an improvement, a development or a change - a technical, scientific or social advance which contributes to making the world a better place. Than, as Ronald Reagan used to say « there are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect », we can ask ourselves how far will progress go and what will be its consequences on society ? In the aim of covering most of the possible subjects, we’ll treat two issues of progress through India and the question of « baby-designing ».

Before studying the scientific aspect of progress, we’re going to be interested in India through a documentary called « The New India » released by the BBC in 2013. It presents an India with multiple facets, both positives and negatives. On one hand, the country is the new version of the « American dream » with the largest number of billionaires in the world while, on the other hand, 100 million people live below the poverty line next to them. India’s politics’ contradictions are reflected by the system of cast that is at the origin of the suicide of hundreds of farmers every year, the killing of daughters by their own fathers who consider them as burdens because of the dowry they cannot pay. Having a girl in India nowadays is more of a liability than anything else which is why many women choose sex-selective abortion to avoid such a thing to happen. India definitely is a country on the march where the sharp rise in the population-growth has been accompanied by a widening of the richness gap. Despite this gap, India has globally become richer. Indeed, its GPD has evolved a lot, going from -5,2% in 1979 to 7,1% in 2016. The major issue for the Indian’s government is and keep being education : while people from the entire world come to study in Indian’s globally-renowned technologies universities, 26% of the population remain illiterate. To sum-up we could say progress has raised barriers but also improved the living conditions.

Now, let’s study the question of progress in the medical field. From the first FIV test in 1977 to now, many discovers have been made about how to « design babies ». But how far progress should go ? Should modern medicine be allowed be allowed to design babies ? An extract of the movie Gattaca presents us a strange world where doctors could predict the age and cause of death at birth but also would allow parents to « choose » the baby they want, which is saying choose its hair and skin colour, its height, its global appearance but also its personality, its skills, … Said like this, such a scenario could sound desirable but it also has loads of drawbacks. Firstly, people without much means wouldn’t have the same access to that technology than rich people, who would of course want to distinguish themselves by trying to create even « better » babies. Also, the main issue is the ethical one as, for centuries, babies have been made the natural way, then, our generation and the future ones have no rights to change this and temper with Mother Nature. About the ethical question, the problem would also be an uniformisation of the society because, even

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