“Scientific advances can wreak havoc with social values. What appears to be advanced thinking at times turns out to be retrograde attempts at dehumanization. Advances in technology can be used to commoditize human beings. Genetic fetal testing, for example, can be used to screen against the "unfit."”

— Daniel Alan Vallero

Source: D.A. Vallero (2007) "Biomedical Ethics for Engineers: Ethics and Decision Making in Biomedical and Biosystem Engineering" ISBN: 978-0-7506-8227-5.

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Daniel Alan Vallero5

American scientist 1953

Michael Harrington book The Other America

Source: The Other America (1962), Appendix, sct. 1

“All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.”

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament

“The core of the belief in progress is that human values and goals converge in parallel with our increasing knowledge. The twentieth century shows the contrary. Human beings use the power of scientific knowledge to assert and defend the values and goals they already have. New technologies can be used to alleviate suffering and enhance freedom. They can, and will, also be used to wage war and strengthen tyranny. Science made possible the technologies that powered the industrial revolution. In the twentieth century, these technologies were used to implement state terror and genocide on an unprecedented scale. Ethics and politics do not advance in line with the growth of knowledge — not even in the long run.”

John Gray (1948) British philosopher

"Joseph Conrad, Our Contemporary," from Heresies: Against Progress and Other Illusions (2004)

“Any technology that does not appear magical is insufficiently advanced.”

Gregory Benford book Foundation's Fear

This is derived from the third of Arthur C. Clarke's three laws : "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." There are other variants which had inverted this including one known as Gehm's corollary http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/cyc/l/law.htm, published several years earlier : "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced." The earliest variant seems to be "Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology." It has been called "Niven's Law" and attributed to Larry Niven by some, and to Terry Pratchett by others, but without any citation of an original source in either case — the earliest occurrence yet located is an anonymous one in Keystone Folklore (1984) by the Pennsylvania Folklore Society. <br class="br">Foundation's Fear (1997)

“If you want to see useful Perl examples, we can certainly arrange to have comp. lang. misc flooded with them, but I don't think that would help the advance of civilization.”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[1992Mar5.180926.19041@netlabs.com, 1992]
Usenet postings, 1992

“The bullying powers use different excuses to prevent transfer of science and technology and progress of the nations of our region.
They regard our advancement as a threat to the corrupt Zionist regime. They do not allow the countries of the region to tread on the path to progress and advancement.
They even oppose indigenous technologies in the Islamic countries and interpret any scientific advancement as a threat to the security of Qods occupier regime.”

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (1956) 6th President of the Islamic Republic of Iran

2006, 2006 International Qods Conference address

“The advancement of education and the advancement of society are absolutely synonymous. The causes of conflict can be eliminated only through the advancement of both.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

Google It: Total Information Awareness, 2016

“This is the extent to which the process of dehumanization has advanced.”

Steve Biko (1946–1977) anti-apartheid activist in South Africa

We Blacks
I Write What I Like (1978)
Context: The logic behind white domination is to prepare the black man for the subservient role in this country. Not so long ago this used to be freely said in parliament, even about the educational system of the black people. It is still said even today, although in a much more sophisticated language. To a large extent the evil-doers have succeeded in producing at the output end of their machine a kind of black man who is man only in form. This is the extent to which the process of dehumanization has advanced.

“It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don't cause spills. They are technologically very advanced.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Reforms Slow to Arrive at Drilling Agency http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/us/politics/31drill.html (April 2, 2010) <br class="br">2010, 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill (April 2010)

“One can advance a long time in life without aging.”

Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist

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Daniel Alan Vallero5

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