With your head high, your firm step, and speech to grasp Your world, forget not when you use your thoughts, That there is a Higher Maker. And the worse becomes the better. Ethical consideration should occur now. Technological advancement appears to advance outside of the world of morals, and is judged on moral and ethical basis only after it has come into existence. Over the last several thousand years, objections have been raised in regard to countless new forms of technology and technological advancements.
Technology is, and always has been, a two-edged sword.
Many of the advancements throughout history had both positive and negative effects, but few of these effects where considered before or during the development of new technologies. In the cases where the development of a new technology has been considered, its development has not been halted, but merely questioned. Questions were raised during the development of the atomic bomb as to whether such a device should be developed, but the political and military pressure on the United States, and thus on the scientist designing the bomb, was overwhelming. Research in this field, however, helped lead to the development of nuclear power, as well medical and consumer uses for radiation-based devices, and expanded our knowledge of the universe, and the atom. Technological breakthroughs are rarely developed, or not developed, out of a moral basis, but out of a thirst, whether it be a thirst for knowledge, power, or money.