Nanotechnology’s Ethical Dilemmas
29 January 2007It seems inevitable that any radical new technology that comes along can potentially pose ethical dilemmas, especially technology that crosses medical boundaries and holds the hope for life and death. Nanotechnology is certainly no exception, and indeed, K. Eric Drexler in his book Engines of Creation deals with the potential for evil as well as the potential for good. He speaks of the potential for Nanotechnology to destroy the Biosphere, and warns that Engines of Creation can become Engines of Destruction. The mini-robots, Replicators and Assemblers in his world can become so powerful so as to think faster than humans, act without the need for human labor and imagination, and ultimately take over the environment, the world and expand out into the universe with no one to stop them.
Such Apocalyptic visions based on ‘man versus machine’ are certainly not new, and to date, no technology has proven to be as bad as once feared. Despite our advances, for example, we do not, as of yet, have ‘thinking’ machines and it is not certain such advances are going to take place anytime in the near future. Nonetheless, we ignore the ethical issues at our own peril. Science seems to be progressing far more rapidly than many have anticipated, and if we don’t quickly begin a public discussion about Nanotechnology and its moral implications, we will be mired in such a debate when it is too late.
Fortunately, some observers realize this and have begun to engage in a public discussion about ‘NanoEthics’. This is the new term that has been coined for BioEthics as it is applied to the field of Nanotechnology. The forum for the discussion is a new Journal entitled NanoEthics: Ethics for Technologies that Converge at the Nanoscale. The Journal states that it will focus on the scientific, legal and philosophical issues at the center of the Nanotechnology ethics debate. More specifically it will deal with threats to individual well-being, as well as social norms, and political and economic stability.
It’s about time that such a publication has come along, where the issues that concern us all can be discussed in a reasoned and balanced manner, free from the hysteria and hype that accommodates these issues in the public media. Hopefully, the ethics of Nanotechnology will keep pace with the science, and we can make progress in a safe manner.
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