Development Ethical and Societal Issues Satyen Baindur PhD

Stewardship in Nanotechnology Development:
Ethical and Societal Issues
SATYEN BAINDUR, PHD
Ottawa Policy Research Associates, Inc.
OPRA Report 2006-4-1 Issued April 2006
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Nanotechnology is therefore not unique in giving rise to concerns regarding
privacy; similar concerns having arisen before in the context of other technologies. Both
biotechnology and information & communication technologies gave rise to similar
concerns, and that continues to be a concern in respect of how both technologies are
evolving today. The fear is greater when these technologies are foreseen to converge, and
most of the concerns arise from simple extrapolation of technological possibilities. While
the technological possibilities cannot be dismissed out of hand, the actual realization of
the possibilities is a social process. Therefore the appropriate way to address such
concern is also through social processes, including consultation, dialogue, democratic
inclusion and transparency in decisionmaking, combined with a forward-looking policy
framework and an informed policymaking mechanism.
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Economic Impact
Another oft-expressed concern deals with the impact nanotechnologies might
have on the economic system, and the labour market in particular. This type of concern –
which is finding voice in the context of nanotechnology today, also attended the arrival of
earlier technologies such as the steam engine, electricity and atomic energy. Many of
these concerns are also expressed under the assumed premise that technological
development and deployment is an unstoppable juggernaut, proceeding with its own
logic, unmediated by social or ethical concerns – a view that may be called ‘technological
determinism’.
The lesson from the past is not that the manner in which technologies such as
atomic energy developed was uniformly benign and that there was no reason for concern
whatsoever. Rather, the lesson is that the most significant concerns that did manifest
themselves were not the ones that had been anticipated, and that technology and society
interacted subsequently in interesting and subtle ways both to constrain development of
the technologies and to advance them along unforeseen directions. For example, atomic
energy was initially projected as becoming all pervasive, with devices from planes to
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