South Africa, among other nations in Africa, most notably Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda, is aiming to take a lead in the implementation of policy intended to address the challenges represented by the fourth Industrial Revolution. We take the South African Constitution’s Bill of Rights as our guide on the moral obligations of the government, from the logic of both consequentialist and deontological moral frameworks. With this in mind, we consider whether the South African government’s initiatives involve moral risks, in virtue of neglecting some threats posed by new technologies. In particular, we identify biological technologies – specifically transhumanist technologies – as posing special risks, and argue that we need to balance the need for dignity, equality and privacy, which the technologies seem to threaten, against the promise of flourishing that the technologies seem to offer.

南非，以及其他非洲国家，尤其是肯尼亚、尼日利亚和卢旺达，旨在率先实施旨在应对第四次工业革命带来的挑战的政策。我们将南非宪法的权利法案作为政府道德义务的指南，从结果论和道义道德框架的逻辑来看。考虑到这一点，我们考虑南非政府的举措是否涉及道德风险，因为忽视了新技术带来的一些威胁。特别是，我们认为生物技术——特别是超人类主义技术——会带来特殊风险，并认为我们需要平衡对尊严、平等的需求。和隐私，这些技术似乎威胁到了这些技术似乎提供的繁荣前景。