SatelliteWhen the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, on October 4, 1957, science fiction became a matter of urgent political reality. It stimulated a space race that led to the step by humankind into space, when Yuri Gagarin made the first orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961, and to Neil Armstrong’s first step on the Moon on July 20, 1969. In order to develop these ambitious and costly programmes, America and the Soviet Union conducted extensive experiments with satellites in the Earth orbit. From these they began to acquire a wealth of new resources, information and communication capacity. Some of these derived from the facility provided by satellites for observing the Earth. It included vastly improved weather forecasting from meteorological satellites and a range of useful information about geology and land use from photographic and remote-sensing equipment in space. Enormously valuable scientific information was obtained from instruments placed in satellite orbits to observe the sun, the planets and the stars without the interference of the Earth’s atmosphere. The most immediate impact of satellite technology has been through the great expansion of communications which it facilitated. Satellites have been adopted for a range of telephone, television, and information technology services that made possible as never before a worldwide instantaneous exchange of communication. There are now dozens of these satellites in synchronous orbit, serving military, commercial and public operators, bringing practical benefits that have helped to justify the great expense of space research. 3. Genetic engineering – the unimaginable face of the future? If we now know enough to be able to make changes in the genetic material that we hand on to our children, why not seize the power? Why not control what has been left to chance in the past? Can we really reject positive genetic influences on the next generation’s minds and bodies when we accept the rights of parents to benefit their children in every other way? It seems inevitable that genetic engineering will eventually be used. It will probably begin in a way that is most ethically acceptable to the largest portion of society, to prevent babies from inheriting conditions that have a severe impact on the quality of life, such as heart or lung conditions. Then geneticists could begin to expand their services to prevent the inheritance of genes leading to other disorders that have a less severe impact. At the same time, other genes could be added to improve various health characteristics and disease resistance in children. The final frontier will be the mind and the senses. Here, genetic engineering could have enormous benefits. Alcohol addiction could be eliminated, along with tendencies toward mental disease and antisocial behaviour like extreme aggression. People’s senses of sight and hearing could be improved, allowing for new dimensions in art and music. And when our understanding of brain development has advanced, geneticists will be able to provide parents with the option of enhancing various intellectual attributes as well. Is there a limit to what can be accomplished with genetic enhancements? Some experts say there are boundaries beyond which we cannot go. But humans have a tendency to prove the experts wrong. In the short term, though, genetic enhancements will provide little fixes to all of the naturally occurring genetic defects that shorten the lives of so many people. They will enrich physical and cognitive attributes in small ways. But as the years go by over the next two centuries, the number and variety of possible genetic extensions to the basic human genome will rise dramatically. Extensions that were once unimaginable will become indispensable – to those parents who are able to afford them. 8. Do you think these qualities are: · inherited from one or both parents? · developed through a good education? · enhanced by a healthy environment? · encouraged by different circumstances? · related to national background? V-Chip Shocked by the massacre of 14 female college students in Montreal in 1989 linked to violence on TV, Tim Collings, an engineer at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, came up with a system that would enable parents to control the content and quality of TV programmes in their homes. The prototype developed in 1991 is known as the “V-Chip”. Since January 1, 2000 it must be built into all televisions sold in America. It enables parents to block programmes they regard as too violent, sexual or profane by setting the V-Chip to block or allow viewing according to a six-step scale, based largely on age. All American programmes are required to carry V-Chip codes.
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