"Escape from Spiderhead" felt, to me, like a warning of what our society could become. As technology advances at an exponential rate, we must ask ourselves when it becomes too much. Saunders introduces a world in which a couple moral dilemmas created by technology are presented. The first dilemma is that, if we have the ability to create drugs that could potentially help people by altering their emotions, should we? Wouldn't the aid of such drugs make every human interaction fake and non-genuine? But then, if the drugs could help people, like in the example Abnesti provided where the use of ED289/290 could stop a war or allow someone to experience true love, wouldn't it be wrong not to produce those drugs? And then there's the instance of Darkenfloxx- why was it created in the first place? If the goal of the Spiderhead project is to create drugs for the betterment of human society (which I'm guessing is the case based on ED765 and ED 289/290), then why was Darkenfloxx ever manufactured? The testing going on at Spiderhead might not be as much for the good of humankind as it seems.
The second dilemma isn't one that can only exist in the world Saunders created. This one is the dilemma facing the use of criminals as test subjects. If the people being tested on in Spiderhead have committed terrible crimes such as murder, then why shouldn't they be treated like lab rats? But we also have to take into consideration that they're human beings too, and they should still be treated like people no matter how terrible the crimes they committed, right? I think Saunders was clear about his opinion on the matter- that using prisoners at test subjects was a major human rights violation.
tl;dr I came away from the story with a lot of questions.
I like the moral interpretation of the short story and how you applied it to real life. I totally agree that these questions are hard to answer but our society will have to answer them at some time in the near future, which is quite a scary thought.
ReplyDeleteYour response is cool in how it takes the story and doesn't just appreciate it for what it is, but also relates it to real life. Like you said, there are so many moral conflicts that come from these drugs- besides the drug itself but if the technology presents itself, should we make them? Also love your title and the exclamation points!
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