Ethical Challenges of Nanotechnology: Principles for Responsible Development

1. Societal Implications of Nanoscale Science & Engineering: Ethics, Economics and Societal Interactions Fundamentals Seminar February 16, 2005 Bruce Seely

2. Ethics is the field of study that is concerned with questions of value, i.e., judgments about what human behavior is "good" or "bad" in any given situation. Ethics are the standards, values, morals, principles, etc., which are used to base one's decisions or actions on; often there is no clear "right" or "wrong" answer. http://courses.ncsu.edu:8020/classes-a/computer_ethics/basics/principles/

3. Bases for Ethical Decisions • Self Interest • Utility • Virtues and character • Ethics of Care – feminist response • Philosophical/Religious Principles • Golden Rule: Do unto others… • Professional Ethics: Do No Harm? • Doctors: Hippocratic Oath • Engineers: Clients vs. Public?

4. PrecautionaryPrinciple • Basic Principle of Limiting Risks in Situation of Uncertainty • If adverse consequences not understood, do not proceed • Ethical/Legal/Policy Approach • Widespread in Europe since 1970s • Foundation of Environmental Policy in European Union • Critics Say PP Promotes Stasis

5. PrecautionaryPrinciple (2) “If it is to become a code or shorthand for blocking or banning everything that is objectionable, its credibility will quickly become lost… It is a principle which must be applied within an open and transparent political framework which ensures that it is not used to promote any trade or political agenda.” David Byrne, EC Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection (2001)

6. Recommended Core Ethical Values 1. Integrity: exercising good judgment 2. Honesty: truthfulness, fairness, sincerity 3. Fidelity:faithfulness to clients, allegiance to the public trust, loyalty to employer, firm or agency & profession; for the theist, faithfulness to God 4. Charity: kindness, caring, tolerance, adherence to the Golden Rule 5. Responsibility: reliability, accountability, trustworthiness 6. Self-Discipline: act with reasonable restraint; not indulge in excessive behavior National Institute for Engineering Ethics, Texas Tech University http://www.niee.org/pd.cfm?pt=AECM

7. Ethical Challenges of Nanotechnology • Equally Distributing Costs & Benefits • What can be Patented? • What Research Gets Funded? • Access and Availability of Results • Who Wins, Who Loses? Haves and Have-nots • Control and Public Participation • Who Decides? • Mis-use? Standards? Kranzberg’s Law

8. Ethical Challenges (2) Enthusiasm And Hype Uncertainty Of The Future Applications: Military, Security “Playing God?” Limits? Essence of Humanity? Ethics of Implants? Eugenics? Replication – Brains? Possibility of Sentient Machines? Gambling with the Future Risk and Harm: Patients and Testing? Values: Individual or Community? Control over Personal Information?

9. K. Eric Drexler

10. Foresight Institute’s Principles for the Development of Nanotechnology “Foresight Institute's goal is to guide emerging technologies to improve the human condition and the environment. Foresight’s policy recognizes that nanotechnology — like all pivotal technologies — brings both potential perils and benefits. Engines of Creation, published in 1986, contained the chapters "Engines of Destruction" and "Strategies and Survival". A 1988 Foresight Background document included the section "A Dialog on Dangers". Part of Foresight's efforts to help achieve the advantages and avoid the dangers of nanotechnology has been the development of guidelines for research and development.” www.foresight.org/guidelines/index.html

11. Foresight Institute Principles • MNT field must develop professional guidelines • Distinguish different levels of risk • Accidental and willful misuse should be punished • Refusal to follow guidelines should lead to “comparative disadvantage” • MNT should have built-in safety devices • “Global community” should develop effective restrictions • MNT research must consider ecology & public health • Regulations should include specific guidelines

12. Foresight Institute • Development Principles • 1. MNT should not replicate in natural, uncontrolled env’ts. • 2. Evolution is discouraged. • Replicated information should be error free. • 4. MNT designs should limit proliferation and provide traceability. • Developers should consider & limit environmental consequences. • Industry self-regulation: Willingness to self-regulate should be one condition for access to advanced tech. • 7. Distribution of molecular manufacturing development capability should be restricted to responsible actors.

13. Specific Design Guidelines for • Self-replicating devices • 1. Use encryption so that any replication error will randomize blueprint. • 2. Use encrypted MNT device instruction sets to discourage proliferation & piracy. • 3. Mutation outside of sealed laboratory conditions should be discouraged. • 4. Replication systems should generate audit trails. • Incorporate built-in safety mechanisms: Artificial fuels; Replication dependent on instructions; Route control through entire device; programming termination dates. • Use systematic security measures to avoid unplanned distribution of designs and technical capabilities.

14. CONCLUSION “…many intricate societal and institutional adjustments transcending in complexity and uncertainty the redirection of private investment planning, are usually entailed in effecting the passage from one technological regime to another. On this view there are likely to be many difficulties and obstacles that normal market processes cannot readily overcome.” Irwin Feller, in Roco and Bainbridge, Societal Implications of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, pp. 112-13.

15. Other Implications: Revolution or Nightmare? • Current Investment • Federal - NNI - $116 m (1997); $700m in 2003; $847m for 2004; • Federal - Nanotech R & D Act of 2003 – proposed $3.68 billion over 4 years • International: 2xs US, Japan more than NNI? • Venture capital: $1.2 billion in 2003 • Economic Impact • $1 trillion by 2015- current GDP = $10.4 trillion • 7 million jobs

16. Revolution? (2) • Overestimated in short run; under in long • Challenges • “Dot bomb – “We won’t get fooled again” • Trained Workforce? Time frames? • Greatest impacts in areas unimagined • “The Grand Tour:” Smart Materials, Sensors, Energy, Optics, Fabrication, Electronics, Biomedical

17. Argonne National Laboratory Treated Talc NanocompositeSamples TEM Micrographs: up- spherical clusters of Cobalt iron oxide in a block copolymer, down- clay exfoliated in an epoxy resin

18. Nanocatalysts Nanocomposites Novel Clay-Polymer Nanocomposites Using Diversity-Discovery Methods: Synthesis, Processing, Testing and Modelling www.chem.ucl.ac.uk/ccs/clay-poly/ clayproject.htm

19. Welcome to Nanomaterials Research, dedicated to development andcommercialization of advanced nanoengineered materials and devices based on a unique nanofabrication technology platform.

20. Solar Cells

21. Nano manufacturing five-layer Sandia Ultra-planar Multi-level MEMS Technology (SUMMiT V™) Photo courtesy NASA, AmesNanogears no more than a nanometer wide could be used to construct a matter compiler, which could be fed raw material to arrange atoms and build a macro-scale structure. Close Up of MEMS Post Style Actuator

22. http://www.ipt.arc.nasa.gov/Graphics/spacetransport.gi www.ipt.arc.nasa.gov/ spacetransport.html f

23. Microscope image of individual electroluminescent silver nanoclusters that have been used for addition and other complex logic operations. Nanowire http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/photos/nanotechnology/nanowire.jpg

24. Medicine and Human Health

25. Societal Interactions Public Acceptance/ Resistance Post-WW II Ambivalence to Technology: The Bomb http://www.disastershelters.net/bomb.html

26. Societal Interactions (2) Public Acceptance/ Resistance 1.Ambivalence to Technology 2. Unintended Consequences DDT, SST

27. Societal Interactions (3) Public Acceptance/ Resistance 1. Ambivalence to Technology 2. Unintended Consequences 3. A Cautionary Tale: GMOs

28. Societal Interactions (4) Public Acceptance/ Resistance 1. Ambivalence 2. Unintended Consequences 3. A Cautionary Tale: GMO 4. Invisible and Intrusive, Fears and Hype – Detroit News

29. Hype? • Nanocomputers smaller than bacterium • Tissue replacement • “Bottoms-up” assembly • Enabling blind to see, lame to walk, deaf to hear • Cures for disease • End hunger • Clean, renewable, affordable energy • Supplement the brain www.grg.org/grg-gp/homework/ancilla/ nanoblod/nanoblod.htm

30. Nanotechnology, "the manufacturing technology of the 21st century," encompasses precision engineering as well as mainstream biomedical applications in areas as diverse as gene therapy, drug delivery and novel drug discovery techniques.

31. Nanobots' repairing a damaged retina http://www.julianbaum.co.uk/ 1000_Years/SE2.html

32. Science Fiction?

34. Sources Remarks of Phillip Bond, “Nanotechnology: Economic Opportunities, Societal & Ethical Challenges,” Keynote Address at NanoCommerce 2003, 12/9/2003:http://www.technology.gov/speeches/p_PJB_021209.htm James Klein, “Small Science has Big Impact on California’s Future,” 2/16.2004:http://www.larta.org/lavox/articlelinks/2004/040216_nanotech.asp “Nanotechnology Stirs Public Opposition,” Detroit News Sunday, February 15, 2004, p. 9A; www.detnews.com/2004/technology/0402/16/a09-64300.htm Special Issue of Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 24, no. 1 (February 2004). Images from the Foresight Gallery: www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine/Gallery/index.html