Having spent a few weeks looking at public engagement of science, and not being particularly impressed, a Nature article by ethicist Jens Clausen concerning Brain-Machine interfaces comes as a breath of fresh air. Unusually for an article on ethics, it deals with the facts and resists the temptation to imagine some kind of dystopian or utopian future which would throw …
Debating Walruses & Ice Cream or “Responsible Nanotechnology?”
I spent the weekend discussing the various ways in which (nano)technology may be developed ‘responsibly’ which was, erm, quite interesting. I have parenthesised the ‘nano’ as many of the fears weren’t particularly specific to anything nano, and I am still rather mystified by the various definitions of the word ‘responsible’ which I’m sure will keep the ethicists, philosophers and lexicographers …
Deliberating Dilemmas
Perhaps the weekend trip to Paris left me in a more philosophical mood, but I’ll be spending this weekend at an Experimental Deliberative Forum in Harrogate. Led by the Universities of Durham and Coimbra, the DEEPEN project “seeks to implement forms of collaborative design of new spaces of ethical deliberation where citizens, stakeholders, experts and decision?makers can meet, debate and …
Ethical Dilemmas – Nanotech or a Smoke?
The hyperactive boffins at the Project for Emerging nanotechnologies have a new report out written by Ronald Sandler looking at the Social and Ethical issues, which always caused me a problem. Half of me instinctively goes “oh no, not another report looking at the ethical issues of stuff that hasn’t been invented or has little to do with nanotechnology (i.e. …