Ethics and Emerging Technologies

by Sandler, Ronald L.

• ISBN13: 9780230367036
• ISBN10: 0230367038
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-10-25
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Technology shapes every aspect of human experience and is the primary driver of social and environmental change. Given this, it is perhaps surprising that so little time is spent studying, analysing and ethically assessing new technologies. Occasionally, an issue attracts public attention – for example, the use of human embryonic stem cells in medical research or the online file sharing of music and movies. However, these are the exceptions. For the most part, each new technology and application is enthusiastically embraced with little critical reflection on how it will impact people's lives or the world. Moreover, when an issue raised by an emerging technology is attended to, the language, concepts and critical perspectives to properly address it are frequently found to be lacking.
The aim of this textbook is to introduce students and other readers to the ethical issues associated with a broad array of emerging technologies, as well as to help them develop the analytical skills and perspectives necessary for effectively evaluating novel technologies and applications. The technologies discussed include nanotechnology, synthetic biology, robotics, genetic engineering, human enhancement, geoengineering, cultured meat, virtual reality, information technologies, sex selection, and many more.
Key features include:
• Comprehensive coverage from thirty six chapters written by leading thinkers in the field
• An extensive introduction that presents a framework for analysing the ethical dimensions of emerging technologies
• Section overviews and chapter summaries that help students master the book's content
• Discussion questions that provoke reflection on the issues discussed in each chapter

Ethics and Emerging Technologies is ideal for undergraduate courses on technology and society and technology and ethics. It is also appropriate for technology-oriented modules in environmental ethics and bioethics, as well as ethics modules in engineering and information technology courses.

Author Biography

Ronald L. Sandler is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Ethics Institute at Northeastern University, USA. He is author of Character and Environment (2007), Nanotechnology: The Social and Ethical Issues (2009), and The Ethics of Species (2012).

Table of Contents

Preface
Structure and User's Guide
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I: GENERAL REFLECTION ON ETHICS AND TECHNOLOGY
1. Section Overview
2. Technology: Practice and Culture; A. Pacey
3. Technology and Responsibility: Reflections on the New Tasks of Ethics; H. Jonas
4. Technologies as Forms of Life; L. Winner
PART II: REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES
5. Section Overview
6. Reproductive Technologies: Ethical Debates; L. Frith
7. Preventing a Brave New World; L. Kass
8. The Ethics of Sex Selection; I. de Melo-Martin
9. Selecting Children: The Ethics of Reproductive Genetic Engineering; M. Liao
PART III: BIOMEDICAL AND THERAPEUTIC TECHNOLOGIES
10. Section Overview
11. Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research; I. de Melo-Martin and M. Gillis
12. Crossing Species Boundaries; J. Robert and F. Baylis
13. The Coming Era of Nanomedicine; F. Allhoff
14. Psychopharmacology and Functional Neurosurgery: Manipulating Memory, Thought, and Mood; W. Glannon
15. Incentivizing Access and Innovation for Essential Medicines: A Survey of the Problem and Proposed Solutions; M. Ravvin
PART IV: HUMAN ENHANCEMENT TECHNOLOGIES
16. Section Overview
17. Beyond Therapy; United States President's Council on Bioethics
18. Why I Want to be a Posthuman When I Grow Up; N. Bostrom
19. Moral Enhancement; T. Douglas
20. Enhancing Justice; T. Garcia and R. Sandler
PART V: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
21. Section Overview
22. Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The Growth of An American Surveillance Society; J. Stanley and B. Steinhardt
23. Nanotechnology and Privacy: The Instructive Case of RFID; J. Van den Hoven
24. Intellectual Property: Legal and Moral Challenges of Online File Sharing; R. Spinello
25. Virtual Reality and Computer Simulation; P. Brey
26. The Digital Divide; K. Himma and Maria Bottis
PART VI: ROBOTICS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
27. Section Overview
28. Ethics, War, and Robots; P. Lin, K. Abney and G. Bekey
29. Ethics, Law, and Governance in the Development of Robots; W. Wallach
30. What to do About Artificial Consciousness; J. Basl
31. The Singularity is Near; R. Kurzweil
PART VII: ENVIRONMENT AND TECHNOLOGY
32. Section Overview
33. Risk, Precaution, and Nanotechnology; K. Elliott
34. Avoiding Catastrophic Climate Change: Why Technological Innovation is Necessary but Not Sufficient; P. Cafaro
35. Ethical Anxieties about Geoengineering; C. Hamilton
36. Ecosystems Unbound: Ethical Questions for an Interventionist Ecology; B. Minteer and J. Collins
PART VIII: AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY
37. Section Overview
38. Ethics and Genetically Modified Foods; G. Comstock
39. Women and the Gendered Politics of Food; V. Shiva
40. The Ethics of Agricultural Animal Biotechnology; R. Streiffer and J. Basl
41. Artificial Meat; P. Thompson
PART IX: SYNTHETIC GENOMICS AND ARTIFICIAL LIFE
42. Section Overview
43. Synthetic Biology, Biosecurity, and Biosafety; M. Garfinkle and L. Knowles
44. Evolution and the Deep Past: Intrinsic Responses to Synthetic Biology; C. Preston
45. Social and Ethical Implications of Creating Artificial Cells; M.A. Bedau and M. Triant 
Index