Editorial January 31, 1983 Issue

No mechanized man

WILLIAM E. MOODY

(First of two editorials discussing critical challenges mankind face in a highly technological society. The second, to appear next week, is entitled "Planned obsolescence or eternal being?")

Several months ago a magazine featured a special section on computers. The headline read, "Mankind and Machine: The Marvelous Merger." One discussion included an analysis of recent developments in the somewhat speculative area of computer science called biochip technology. It was brought out that researchers are now theorizing that biochips, molecular fabrications, eventually could be implanted in the human body and "literally grow within the brain, the central nervous system or wherever needed to restore lost or damaged function."^{Sky, July 1982, p. S-18 .}

The whole vision of life outlined by the physical and medical sciences today is one where man is seen to be essentially a complex machine, a biological mechanism. And consequently the method employed by medicine to improve quality of life, to restore damaged bodies and psyches, to maintain functioning, is also essentially mechanical. Although highly sophisticated to be sure, the material system and theory are often without deep ethical or moral considerations. There is a fundamental failure to perceive true spirituality. The individual may seem to find his physical condition improved temporarily; but no matter how advanced the technological state of the art, he has come no closer to God by way of the material means of dealing with disease. No redemption or spiritual growth attends the mechanical manipulation of a human body.

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