Emerging Technologies and a Sustainable, Healthy, Just World

1. Emerging Technologies and a Sustainable, Healthy, Just World Will our Genetically Modified Grandchildren Use Nanotech Nets to Harvest Cloned Fish on a Geo-engineered Planet?

2. Marcy Darnovsky, PhD Associate Executive Director

3. Human Biotech, Nanotech, Synthetic Biology and More Friday, Nov 6 (here and now!) Policy, Politics & What Funders Can Do Friday, Oct 23 Introduction to the Challenges & Opportunities http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/downloads/emerging_technologies_webinar.ppt

4. Appropriate emerging technologies(some need to be handled with care)

5. Emerging technologies of concern

6. Converging and emerging

7. International agreements World Health Organization

8. Other countries The United Kingdom

9. Political philosophers & scholars Jurgen Habermas "The breadth of biotechnological interventions raises moral questions that are not simply difficult in the familiar sense but are of an altogether different kind." Michael Sandel “Changing our nature to fit the world, rather than the other way around, is the deepest form of disempowerment.” Dorothy Roberts “Selecting children’s abilities, sex, or race…can reinforce an unjust value system that privileges some over others.” George Annas “No individual scientist or corporation has the social or moral warrant to alter or endanger the human species.”

10. Environmentalists Paul Hawken “It is not an exaggeration to compare human germline engineering with nuclear technology. While the horror of atomic weapons is the destruction of human civilization, the shadow cast by engineering Homo sapiens is the obliteration of what it means to be a human.”

11. Literature and film Margaret Atwood “Very soon, RejoovenEsense hoped to hit the market with…totally chosen babies that would incorporate any feature, physical or mental or spiritual, that the buyer might wish to select…”

12. Women’s health orgs Environmentalists Scientists & physicians Progressive religious bodies Disability rights orgs Racial justice orgs Human & civil rights Indigenous peoples LGBTQ groups Health & science CSOs World sports community Bioethicists Civil liberties orgs Patient advocates Growing awareness and concern

13. International NGO conference

14. Think tanks and publications

15. Policy and advocacy groups

16. What is to be done?

17. 2010-2013 The Tarrytown Initiative The Tarrytown meetings will address the promises and challenges that new human biotechnologies and related technologies pose for a healthy, just and sustainable human future. Tarrytown House Estate and Conference Center

18. David H. GustonProfessor of Political ScienceCo-Director, Consortium for Science, Policy and OutcomesDirector, Center for Nanotechnology in SocietyArizona State University 18

19. Anticipatory Governance, I Anticipate: from ante- and capere, “to take [into possession]” “beforehand”; related to capable and capacity and not a synonym for “expect,” “predict,” or “foresee” Detlev Bronk The pumpkin or the tiger? If science is puzzle-solving, when do we begin to pay attention? “Competent social scientists should work hand-in-hand with natural scientists, so that problems may be solved as they arise, and so that many of them may not arise in the first instance.” 19

20. Anticipatory Governance, II • Not government but governance • Not “do” or “ban” • “Science finds, genius invents, industry applies, man adapts” • Moratoriums proposed by ETC Group and Friends of the Earth • Wide array of mechanisms • Licensing, restrictions • Liability, indemnification • Intellectual property • Testing • Treaties • Public Understanding of Science (formal, informal) • Public engagement • Public action 20

21. Anticipatory Governance, III • Four capacities (research & practice) • Foresight • Because all governance requires some disposition regarding the future • Engagement • Because public engagement is crucial normatively, strategically and even pragmatically • Integration • Because scientists know things the rest of us don’t, and because they don’t know things the rest of us do • “Ensemble-ization” • Because none of these work in isolation 21

22. Foresight • http://cns.asu.edu/nanofutures/ • Literature-based • Vetted • Web-disseminated • Scenario development workshops • Product design 22

23. Engagement • National Citizens’ Technology Forum • Science Cafes • NISE Net • Informal Science Education • Forums 23

24. Integration • Socio-Technical Integration Research (STIR) • Education/Training • PhD+ • DC Summer Session • Curricular • Undergraduate • Graduate 24

25. Another Asilomar? • Foresight: What vision of future did scientists at Asilomar have? • Determinist (“these things are coming, like it or not”) • Distancing (“we don’t have the ability to do this now so we don’t have to consider this stuff”) • Engagement: To what extent was the public involved in the discussions? • Not at all (by invitation GRC) • Contrast: Cambridge city council hearings • Integration: To what extent were social science and humanistic expertise represented in collaboration with natural science and engineering expertise? • Attorneys and journalists played crucial role • Ad hoc decision-making processes 25

26. Menu of Potential Activities Genies…bottles…questions… • Capacity Building • Across sectors • Academic • For Profit • NGO • Governmental • Both producers and consumers • Institutions and knowledge systems • US, cross-national, developing • Academic • Research • Training • For Profit • Practices/decisions • Responsibility • NGO Activities • Public understanding/engagement • Convening • “Ensemble-ization” • Connecting capacities within sectors • Connecting capacities across sectors More than happy to continue the conversation and get feedback 26