Question The moral of some science fiction stories is that humanity shouldn't "play God". Why not? Is it just the issue of our own ignorance and incompetence, or is there something fundamentally wrong with trying to tamper with the natural order, even assuming we understand the consequences and know what we're doing?

Accepted:
March 30, 2011

Comments

Part of the problem is to decide what counts as "tampering with the natural order." In at least some senses, we "tamper with the natural order" all the time. Modern medicine is a clear example, but you could even make the case that selective breeding of the sort that farmers and gardeners have practiced for centuries is another case. Most of us don't see these as wrong.

It may be useful to step back and look at the phrase "playing God." If there is a God, and if that God has designed a providential plan that works to our benefit and if some sort of intervention would amount to thwarting that plan, then that would be a reason for not making the intervention. Those, needless to say, are big "ifs." However, even if we grant them, we're left with the problem of deciding which sorts of interventions would count. God's plan -- even if there is one -- isn't as clear as some would like to claim.

But let's leave the theological issue aside. You ask whether tampering with the natural order is acceptable if we understand the consequences and know what we're doing. Let's grant for argument's sake that it is. The moral that some "don't play God" stories suggest is that these "ifs" about consequences are also very big. The worry is that some interventions might have large, unintended and undesired effects. On that reading, such stories are cautionary tales about arrogance and lack of due regard for what we don't know.

It's hard to deny that there's some good sense here. Large, sudden disruptions of complicated systems often produce unintended consequences. And indeed, in some cases one might reliably predict that our predictions will be unreliable. Stripped of debatable theological overtones, there's something to the worry about "playing God." The practical problem, of course, is to sort out the cases. Not all interventions are as risky as some would claim, and sometimes taking chances pays big dividends. But turning those platitudes into detailed advice would take this philosopher, at least, well beyond the realm of what he knows.