Paul Root Wolpe

Is It Time To Question Bio Engineering?

Who Is He?

Paul Root Wolpe Is a distinguished sociologist and bioethicist. President of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, a professor in the departments of medicine, pediatrics and sociology, and the Director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and Nasa's Chief of Bioethnics. Among other things.

What was his thesis?

In a world where genetic manipulation is a fact. Paul Paul root strives to show you some of the “achievements” created in the recent years and let us know why we should at least start thinking about the ethics of gene manipulation.

Capturing our attention.

Glowing animals, horses mixed with zebras, clones and animals the audience has probably never seen or heard of before serve well to ignite the their curiosity and capture their interest.

Keeping us engaged.

The audience is being shown to increasingly stranger creations of scientists as Paul questions the ethics of it all. His speech is in a way interactive. The audience is not only expected to to learn or be informed but they are also expected to start formulating their answers right there. He doesn't want people to just think “this is interesting” but rather “ should we do something about it?”

Is this ethical? We've taken away the autonomy of an

animal.

That is what paul asked when he showed what was probably his strongest example. A remote controlled lab rat. With no more thoughts of its own scientists reduced a living being into no more than a tool.

Dynamism rating 3/5

Paul was not necessarily energetic or dynamic. He was certainly knowledgable and the subject did not necessarily call for a very energetic speech. His approach could be described as appropriate.

He might not have been able to have every person listen but for those who were interested in the subject to begin with were certainly engaged. On the other hand adding a bit more of comedy could have increased the interest of the rest of the audience.

What have I learned.

Listening to paul has taught me the importance of using the right example. If your subject is interesting and you researched good examples of it it you can better drive your point. In his case he chose things that would likely spark the imaginations of the audience in both positive and negative ways. Making them both fear this new technology and wonder how it can help better mankind in the future.

How do they compare

Sir Ken Robinson

He was more dynamic and entertaining a lot more opinionated and often urged the audience to reach a conclusion. That the education system needed to change. His speech was more energetic and comical often. Relied much more in hand gestures and less on imagery. At least when he was on stage. His posture was friendly and there was not much of a sense of urgency. Probably left the audience with a good feeling at the end.

Paul Root Wolpe

His delivery was more direct and informative. He let the facts do the talking a lot of the time. He let the people get to their own conclusions and was not directly in favor or against anything. He relied more heavily on the images in his slide show. His slow and stern attitude left the audience with more of a feeling of urgency. He only asked for people to start asking the questions and is hard to believe anyone left the presentation asking questions they never thought of before or formulating one opinion one way or the other.

In short.

While ken's approach most likely captured a bigger audience.

Paul's approach was more effective with the and got a bigger reaction out of the affected audience.

What can my classmates learn.

Know your audience.

Give them what they want and they will be more likely to absorb and enjoy your message.

Thank you