Social and Ethical Implications of Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology will have very broad applications across all fields of engineering, so it will be an amplifier of the social effects of other technologies. There is an especially great potential for it to combine with three other powerful trends – biotechn
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Social and Eth
Science and engineering have only begun to explore the potential for discovery and creativity at the nanoscale, but already some intemperate voices call for government regulation or outright banning of nanotechnology [38.1– 4]. Such action would be extremely premature, because we have just started on a very long road of research that
38.1 Applications and Societal Impacts .......... 1136 38.2 Technological Convergence .................... 1139 38.3 Major Socio-technical Trends ................. 1141 38.4 Sources of Ethical Behavior.................... 1143 38.5 Public Opinion...................................... 1145 38.6 A Research Agenda ............................... 1148 References .................................................. 1149
The views expressed in this essay do not necessarily represent the views of the National Science Foundation or the United States.
wider trends going on in the world such as the impending population declines of most advanced industrial nations, the apparent diminishing returns to increased medical research and health care investment, and the threatened deceleration of progress in microelectronics. Well established social-scientific explanations for unethical behavior – such as learning, strain, control, and subculture theories – could help us understand possible future cases in nanotechnology industries. Ethics and social implications are largely matters of social perception, and the public conception of nanotechnology is still in the early stages of developing. Social science can now begin to examine its unfolding impacts in all sectors of the economy, in most spheres of life, and both short-term and long-term time scales.
we must traverse before we will know what is technically practical, what real-world applications nanotechnology might actually have, and what the appropriate societal responses would be to any hazards that might be directly or indirectly related to these applications. Some writers in the popular press seem to treat nanotechnology as
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Nanotechnology will have very broad applications across all fields of engineering, so it will be an amplifier of the social effects of other technologies. There is an especially great potential for it to combine with three other powerful trends – biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science – based on the material unity of nature at the nanoscale and on technology integration from that scale. Technological convergence highlights such existing issues as the treatment of the disabled, communication breakdowns, economic stagnation, and threats to national security. Nanotechnology itself may possibly raise distinctive ethical and social issues in the future, but much of the public discussion to this point has been misdirected and misinformed, lacking a firm social scientific basis. Thus it will be important to integrate social and ethical studies into nanotechnology developments from their very beginning. Social scientific and economic research can help manufacturers and governments mak
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