These debates over human cloning and "weapons of mass destruction" have drastically changed the discipline of science. Previously, science was presented as a discipline in which advancement and improvements were always considered to be good, but now with the idea of scientific ethics, scientist are now encouraged to examine the possible social, economic, and political consequences of their actions. .
The change in popular attitude towards probably started within popular culture. Such books as George Orwell's, "1984" which showed how technology could be used to intrude on people's rights, probably allowed many people to think about the possible social consequences of too much technology. Also, during this time period, many of the social problems that come as a result of technological advancements began to appear. There was increased concern over global warming as a result of the destruction of the ozone by automobiles. Automobiles were previously seen as a technological achievement, but now they were being ridiculed for the ecological dangers that it posed on the earth. Also, technology was being used to build weapons that increased the amount of destruction that could be carried out on a set time period. Many feared that the world could possible have a nuclear war, which almost happened with the Cuban missile crisis. In such incidents, many saw that although our technology was increasing rapidly, social advancement weren"t increasing as quickly, therefore we weren"t learning how to use our technological advancements as wisely as we should. Also, many people have begun to look down upon science as a source of knowledge because we have found that science isn"t able to by itself solve our problems. There are simply problems that the world faces that science can"t fix. Firstly, science seems to not be able to conquer one of the leading killers in the world, AIDS. Science seems to not offer any solution to the AIDS epidemic that is happening in Africa and that drastically reducing the population of Africa each year.