Contemporary Themes Essay

This essay explores four contemporary themes: global identity, the purpose of business, artificial intelligence, and the value of life. It examines the complexities of global citizenship, the evolving role of business in society, the potential and challenges of AI, and the ethical considerations surrounding the value of human life.

CONTEMPORARY
THEMES

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Global Identity........................................................................................................................1
2. The purpose of Business.........................................................................................................1
3. Artificial Intelligence..............................................................................................................2
4. The value of life......................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
The below report identifies various contemporary themes. It discusses themes such as
global identity where globalisation, nationalism, global citizenship and identity have been
explained. The purpose of business where profit, purpose, capitalism, are explained. Brief
explanations on artificial intelligence and the value of life are made as well. At last, required
conclusions have been made.
1. Global Identity
Global Identity refers to an idea where all people have civic responsibilities and rights
that allows them to be a member of the world (Banks, 2014). This allows the individuals to have
global identities where they can travel from one place to another freely without being interrupted
by the system or governmental policies, strict laws etc.
In general, the term also holds a meaning of “world citizen” or cosmopolitan etc. Today,
various organisations have advocated the idea of global citizenship, such as World Service
Authority.
The existence of global identity has been arrived into consideration after globalisation.
Globalisation has made it easy for the people, companies, governments to interact and integrate
with each other. Also, it has allowed people to create spaces for individuals to share different
cultures, food habits, fashion sense etc.
There are various advantages that global identity can bring for an individual including
ease of travelling, ease of expenses, a better diversity, global travel, culture sharing, etc. At last,
these benefits can make an individual to become part of a free world.
Although, global identity can be bad for the countries which are having differences with
other countries (Gao, Zhang and Mittal, 2017). These differences can be proved bad for the
individuals of these nations. They would not be allowed to have global identities because of the
differences of their governments.
2. The purpose of Business
The purpose of business is to maximise profits for its stakeholders and owners along with
maintaining its corporate social responsibility. Any business in general makes use of such
strategies and developments that can expand itself on a wide range, as well as can make large
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profits. The other important function of a business is to maintain its relations with the consumers
to provide them with the best products and services and ensure organisation's safety and security.
Along with it, a business always adapt a certain style or operating and functioning that
can make it achieve growth and success (Koris, Örtenblad and Ojala, 2017). Today, a lot of
businesses serve the purpose of public welfare, profit maximisation, better service provision,
expanding its networks to achieve some purpose etc.
Some business also serve a purpose of public welfare. These businesses are primarily
focused on providing best services to its chosen public. Along with it, such businesses ensure
growth and development of the public. These businesses are sometimes supported by the
government and sometimes are operated freely. The public welfare businesses are free with any
governmental boundaries and strict implications (Freeman and Parmar, 2017).
Another important purpose of business includes sustainability. Good sustainability
ensures that the business is having a better and safe environment to work into. It ensures proper
organisation's growth and development.
The main purpose of most of the businesses that operates within the new work
environment is to earn profits and keep expanding itself from the set boundaries.
3. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence refers to the intelligence that is created by human beings in order to
make things easy. Also, it is an area of computer science which emphasizes the creation of
machines with are intelligent and reach and work like human beings (Steels and Brooks, 2018).
The activities for which the artificial intelligence is designed for includes:
 Planning
 Learning
 Speech Recognition
 Problem Solving etc.
As per the research it has been seen as the artificial intelligence is very specialised and
technical (Acemoglu and Restrepo, 2018). The core problems of artificial intelligence includes to
program the computers which includes traits such as:
 Perception
 Learning
 Planning
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 Problem solving
 Knowledge
 Reasoning
 and having the ability to move and manipulate objects
Various benefits of Artificial Intelligence includes making work easier for the people.
Using technologies that can make it easier for people to perform such tasks which requires a
large amount of attention, effort etc. Artificial Intelligence can reduce work for large companies
and can replace labours.
Along with benefits there are various disadvantages associated with Artificial Intelligence
as well. These disadvantages include that computers and human like robots are against moral and
ethical considerations of a human being as well.
4. The value of life
The value of life refers to an economic value which is used to quantify the benefits of
avoiding a fatality in human beings. It is determined by the government and the people who
chooses the government. Below mentioned are three different factors determining the value of
life in United Kingdom:
Abortion: In UK, abortion is legalised on certain grounds. The Abortion Act, 1967
suggests that abortion is allowed in the country but only on certain grounds by registered
practitioners. This allows the government to maintain its strict laws and ban the practice of
abortion (Fuller and Moore, 2017).
Death Penalty: Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, is an act of parliament
that states that death penalty for murder was abolished in Great Britain. The committers of
murders are not hanged by the government, they might made to serve the life sentence, or other
strict punishments. The abolition of death penalty is not the right one as it can increase the crime
in the country and can make more and more people commit murders as it is not strictly
punishable.
Assisted Dying: Euthanasia or assisted dying makes it possible for the people to choose
their death. It is not applicable for each and every human being but the ones which are suffering
from pain and are not able to live for more time. These people are allowed to choose the option
of assisted dying (Shusterman, 2016). As per moral and ethical considerations, assisted dying
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should not be in allowed to the people as it no one should have the right to choose when should
they die. It is against nature and humanity as well.
The above points explore the value of life in United Kingdom.
CONCLUSION
The above report explains a variety of contemporary themes. These themes play a major
role in new world changes and the development of a more advance generations. The themes
explored in the report explores global identity where global citizenship and related topics are
explained. The purpose of business, artificial intelligence and the value of life is explored as
well.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Acemoglu, D. and Restrepo, P., 2018. Artificial intelligence, automation and work (No.
w24196). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Banks, J. A., 2014. Diversity, group identity, and citizenship education in a global age. Journal
of Education. 194(3). pp.1-12.
Freeman, R. E. and Parmar, B. L., 2017. Managing for Stakeholders and the Purpose of
Business.
Fuller, M. and Moore, R., 2017. The death and life of great American cities. Macat Library.
Gao, H., Zhang, Y. and Mittal, V., 2017. How does local–global identity affect price
sensitivity?. Journal of Marketing. 81(3). pp.62-79.
Koris, R., Örtenblad, A. and Ojala, T., 2017. From maintaining the status quo to promoting free
thinking and inquiry: Business students’ perspective on the purpose of business school
teaching. Management Learning, 48(2). pp.174-186.
Shusterman, R., 2016. Practicing philosophy: Pragmatism and the philosophical life. Routledge.
Steels, L. and Brooks, R., 2018. The artificial life route to artificial intelligence: Building
embodied, situated agents. Routledge.
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