This is where all download will be listed, utilizing the Page Add plugin.
File Name | S22-LD-Stoa-Applications.docx |
File Size | 38.34 KB |
Date added | September 6, 2021 |
Category | Lincoln-Douglas (Stoa) |
Author | Mark Csoros |
Resolved: In the field of biomedical engineering, restraint ought to be prioritized over scientific advancement.
This year’s topic area allows room for hundreds, maybe even thousands, of applications. As in every resolution, both the affirmative and negative will have extreme, outlier examples at their disposal, and both sides will have opportunities to access those more nuanced, middle ground applications that could support either side. There are, however, two key differences between the applications of this resolution and those of previous years: first, the sheer number of applications available, and second, the amount of background knowledge needed to expertly approach them.
For comparison, consider the Stoa resolution for 2017-2018, which was about preemptive war. No one (at least that I knew of) was already an expert in preemptive war, but everyone was familiar with the concept of war, understood how it works, could easily infer the meaning of “preemptive war” from a dictionary definition, and could quickly grasp what such a war would look like. The applications for that resolution were quite limited, so by the second or third tournament of the year, nearly every debater had a comprehensive list of which conflicts qualified as preemptive and which did not.
This year, no debater will build or acquire a comprehensive list of applications, because it simply isn’t possible. Every single advance, potential advance, experiment, breakthrough, and failure of biomedical engineering is a potentially relevant example for this resolution. Moreover, the ins and outs of this year’s applications aren’t nearly as self-explanatory as the details of previous year’s applications. Understanding and explaining probable threat is much simpler than understanding and explaining gene splicing, 3-D bioprinting, or the workings of microscopic nanorobots.
Therefore, I won’t use this article to give you a laundry list of applications that you might end up using in a case. Rather, I want to give you some background information on two key types of applications that you—and your opponents—will use during this year of competition.