Overview – or Over You?

Orwell may have been very close to the truth. According to one recent  set of statistics, 1984 is the approximate number of times an innocent citizen walking through London can expect to be captured on CCTV film during the course of a single day………..

"We have the technology …." is no longer the strapline spoken during the intro to every episode of a science-fantasy TV series. As far as medical advances of the last decade are concerned, it is fast becoming the literal truth. But does this make us a  "better" species? And if so, by whose criteria?

Spare part surgery was unthinkable when Mary Shelley wrote about Dr. Frankenstein and his 'monster'. Now there is serious ethical debate about 'growing' spare parts – arms, legs, even organs – from "stem cells" which can be tweaked and modified ad infinitum until the required result is achieved.

To alter, enhance or 'improve' on a given human being simply "because we can" leads us into a dangerous moral minefield. If, for example, Steven Hawkins had all the motor skills of the 'average' person, would he have spent as much time thinking? How would Beethoven's music have sounded, were it not for his profound deafness? And on a personal note: every piano tuner I have ever met has been blind …… 

I won't say that "Big Brother" is already in control of a significant proportion of our everyday lives: but CCTV is being used ever more widely, The question remains:

     "Quis custode, ipso custodes?" – "Who guards the Guardians themselves?"