Development Ethical and Societal Issues Satyen Baindur PhD

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Stewardship in Nanotechnology Development: Ethical and Societal Issues SATYEN BAINDUR, PHD Ottawa Policy Research Associates, Inc. OPRA Report 2006-4-1 Issued April 2006 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ mechanism that enables such issues and concerns to be dealt with on an ongoing basis than to attempt to address them once and for all. Secondly, since social forces strongly shape a technology’s deployment trajectory, a simple extrapolation of technological capability or an obsession with the worst-case scenario usually leads to wrong conclusions. It is important to realize that mere technical feasibility of an application at this time will not by itself ensure widespread use in the future, while a sustained R&D effort together with significant cross-sector convergence, can generate technical breakthroughs that are impossible to predict. Thus what appears as extreme hype and extreme fear today could turn out wildly wrong, at either end. That said, developments in nanotechnology do in fact raise some profound questions about a number of very basic ethical issues, including: personal identity and privacy; security of information and safety of health; economic and social equity and equitable access to the potential benefits of nanotechnology, among many others. A number of these issues have arisen in the context of other technologies also, and the nanotechnology version of these issues differs only in its scope, the level of urgency and in its specific details. However, if someday the full convergence of nanotechnologies with other technologies does occur, then the nanotechnology version of the issues could very well subsume the others, because it possesses a greater, more profound scope. For this reason, an explicit exploration of the nanotechnology versions of the issues is necessary. To illustrate the point, consider the fact that issues dealing with (violation of) privacy, ease of economic access, societal impact, human capacity enhancement - each also have ‘biotechnology’ and Information-Communication-Technology (ICT) versions, in addition to a nanotechnology version. Each of these technologies has also raised the possibility of differential access – a ‘biodivide’, a digital divide, or a ‘nanodivide’. What is different about the nano versions of these issues is the possibility that convergence between the technologies might create a nano version that severely exacerbates their effect. What is also different is that, given the present status of nanotechnological 6 6
Stewardship in Nanotechnology Development: Ethical and Societal Issues SATYEN BAINDUR, PHD Ottawa Policy Research Associates, Inc. OPRA Report 2006-4-1 Issued April 2006 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ development, there is still time for these issues to be proactively identified and, perhaps even obviated, through anticipatory action. This document is devoted to a detailed consideration of some of the ethical and societal issues that underlie nanotechnology development. 7 The ‘Nature’ of Nanotechnology One strongly expressed concern deals with the very nature of nanotechnology itself, especially when contemplated in conjunction with biotechnology and information technology. It is often caricatured as the ‘gray goo’ scenario, in which a malevolent life form, developing from a self-assembling nanostructured system, is projected to go ‘wild’. This actually bears resemblance to some of the more sinister scenarios that had been imagined in the context of biotechnology and genetic engineering beginning about thirty years ago. Specific versions of the ‘gray goo’ scenario have been dismissed on the ground that they violate some physical laws such as conservation of matter and energy. However, at a fundamental level, the concern cannot be completely dismissed 5 . If life as we know it today is itself an example of ‘nanotechnology that works’ then a nanotechnology that works slightly differently can also be imagined. If autonomy and self-replication, followed by some form of adaptive behaviour, are considered as prerequisites for life, then efforts are certainly underway today to endow artificial nanosystems with some or all of these attributes 6 . In many ways these systems behave as artificial life forms, or at least, successful bio-nano hybrids. Some of these developments are taking place today under the rubric of ‘synthetic biology’. 5 Indeed, some highly respected scientists and technologists have voiced similar concerns. For example, Joy (2000), and Drexler (1986) have contemplated such scenarios, with Joy (2000) also advocating a suspension of R&D in this area. 6 Some demonstrations of auto-catalyzed in vitro self-replication, and nano-bio combinations that involve, for example, biological motors powering non-living objects – have also been demonstrated. For example, Montemagno & Bachand (1999), Soong et al (2000). Other attempts to manipulate DNA molecules with breathtaking precision, creating ‘DNA Origami’ have been described by Seeman (2005) and Rothemund (2006). In fact, DNA has already become the ‘scaffolding of choice’ for a number of nanoself-assembly applications, based on the ability to create such ‘DNA Origami’. 7
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Development Ethical and Societal Issues Satyen Baindur PhD

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