Nanotechnology Challenges: Introduction

INTRODUCTION Nanotechnology is a recently emerging and rapidly growing field whose dynamics and prospects pose many great challenges not only to scientists and engineers but also to society at large. Since forecasts of nanotech-nology range from the next industrial revolution to severe threats to humanity , nanotechnology has already created enormous social disturbance. While the promises of nanotechnology have been exaggerated toward quasi-religious visions of a posthuman state of Salvation, the perception of risks also have been exaggerated, some to the level of apoca-lyptic doom-saying. Researchers in nanotechnology increasingly feel embarrassed by both public expectations and public mistrust; increasingly large parts of the public feel uncertain about the uses and abuses of science and technology; and science policy makers and administrators begin to worry if they still have control over the process they once initiated by launching huge nanotechnology programs. All that poses great challenges to those whose profession is to reflect on science and technology and their place in society. This volume includes the state-of-the-art philosophical, ethical, and sociological reflection on nanotechnology. Rather than being a simple policy guide, it seeks first of all understanding of the philosophical, ethical and societal issues of nanotechnology. It unravels the philosophical underpinnings of nano-technology, its metaphysical and epistemological foundations, and its conceptual complexity. It explores the ethical issues of nanotechnology, its impact on human, environmental, and social conditions, and the options for reasonable risk management. It examines the public discourse on nanotechnology and its related visions and provides both lessons from the past and outlooks into the future. Nanotechnology has already impacted society by virtue of its visionary character and will do so more by means of its commercial products. And society has from the very beginning shaped nanotechnology through visionary ideas, science fiction stories, and innovative research and funding programs. Finally, the public relation and public debates have tried to keep up with these interactions between nanotechnology and society. As with all technologies, the future shape of nanotechnology – or nanotech-nologies – will result from these interactions between human beings, with their creative minds and skills, their hopes and fears, and their values , interests, and power relations. The more we understand these interactions , the more we understand current and future nanotechnology, and the more are we able to shape it in a desirable and human way. Since early 2003 the editors have organized biannual international conferences in the U.S. …