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Ethical discussions concerning nanotechnology are often too futuristic (Nanowerk, 5/28/09) |
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June 06, 2009 |
(Nanowerk News) Ethical debates regarding new developments in nanotechnology are often too speculative and imaginative. This can cast technological developments in an unnecessarily bad light when in fact they are far from fully developed. There is also a tendency to play along with the grand visions of the proponents of new technology rather than ask critical questions. We need to question the veracity of the promises made and shift the focus to developments that are already underway – that is the case made by the philosophers Professor Arie Rip of University of Twente and Professor Alfred Nordmann of TU Darmstadt in their comments in the May edition of Nature Nanotechnology.
Nano-implants that make it possible to ‘read your mind’ naturally raise ethical questions and may also conjure up all kinds of doomsday visions, but such a scenario is actually based on a whole series of assumptions. This has led Rip and Nordmann to speak of a ‘new divide’ opening up. The ‘old divide’ came about through rapid progress in nanotechnology while ethical reflection on these developments lagged behind. The old divide has now been bridged by numerous publications and conferences. However, this has led to a new divide: ethical discussions are now so speculative that they miss the real point.
‘Instead of leading to a better understanding of how we should evaluate current developments,’ says Rip, ‘ethical debates are more concerned with morally interesting thought experiments involving human enhancement. Together with Tsjalling Swierstra, my colleague at the UT, I have argued that we need to re-evaluate the relevance of the moral concerns that are currently being aired on the subject of nanotechnology.’
Too many assumptions
Just because nano-brain implants may be technically possible, to then say that we will be able to ‘read minds’ is too large an assumption. For example, little is known about how the brain may react to the implant and about how to locate ‘thoughts’ in the brain. Technological developments are not moving at the same pace as developments in psychology or our knowledge of the human brain. But this does not stop ethicists from running wild with their fantastic scenarios. They make too many assumptions, according to Rip and Nordmann, and that undermines the relevance of their analysis.
http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=10875.php
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