Discovering the NanoscaleDavis Baird, Alfred Nordmann, Joachim Schummer IOS Press, 2004 - 321 pages 'I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning the history of nanoscale science, and to those who would like to better understand some of the ethical, legal and social dilemmas to what I believe has rightly been labeled the technology of the 21st century.' - Rocky Rawstern, Nanotechnology Now Science and engineering, industry and politics, environmentalists and transhumanists are Discovering the Nanoscale. Policy makers are demanding explicit consideration of ethical, legal and social aspects, and popular books are explaining the achievements and promises of nanoscience. It may therefore seem surprising that this is the first collection of studies that considers nanoscience and nanotechnologies from the critical perspective of Science and Technology Studies (STS). However, when one appreciates that such a critical perspective needs to be historically informed it often involves intimate acquaintance with the research process. Accordingly, this book on the historical, analytical, and ethical study of nanoscience and -technology has come together in a period of several years. Though it presents only first results, these results for the most part stem from sustained investigations of nanoscience and nanotechnologies and of the contexts that are shaping their development. Nanoscience and technologies are developing very quickly, and for this reason, both pose a challenge to the more reflective approach commonly taken by science studies, while at the same time requiring the perspective provided by science studies scholars. Many are convinced that nothing meaningful can be said about the social and ethical implications of nanotechnologies at this early stage, but one can already see what programmatic attitudes go into nanoscale research, what metaphors are shaping it, and what conception of nature is implicit in its vision. It is also often assumed that in order to consider all aspects of nanotechnologies it is sufficient to know a bit of the science and to have some ethical intuitions. This collection of papers establishes that one also needs to appreciate nanoscale research and development in the larger context of the changing relations of science, technology, and society. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Taking Stock | 19 |
Working Through the Technological Reductionism | 35 |
Staking Claims at the Nanoscale | 51 |
A TwoSided Challenge for Interpretations of Quantum | 77 |
Nanoscience and the JanusFaced Character of Simulations | 93 |
How Probe Microscopists Became Nanotechnologists | 119 |
Nanotechnology and the Negotiation of Novelty | 135 |
Discursive Orders of Mediating Innovations | 193 |
Dissolution of the NatureTechnology Dichotomy? Perspectives from an Everyday | 209 |
Staging the Exploration of the Endless Frontier | 231 |
Legal Perspectives on Issues of Democracy | 247 |
Military Arms Control and Security Aspects of Nanotechnology | 269 |
NanoEthics | 285 |
Assessing the Nanoscale from an Ethical Point of View | 301 |
317 | |
Common terms and phrases
approach argue artifacts assessment atoms automata Baird Binnig biology chemical chemistry claim concept construction convergence culture debate decoder devices disciplines discourse Drexler electron engineering Engines of Creation Eric Drexler ethical everyday example experts Feynman field Foresight Institute human images innovations instruments interaction interdisciplinarity interpretations IOS Press issues knowledge Lin-Easton logic materials mathematical metaphors molecular molecules nano nanobots nanoethics nanomedicine nanometer nanoscale nanoscale research nanoscience nanoscience and nanotechnology nanoscitech nanostructures nanotech National Nanotechnology Initiative nature and technology NBIC Neumann nology objects particle philosophers physics potential probe microscopy problem production quantum mechanics quantum teleportation reductionism rhetoric risks Roco Rohrer role Scanning Tunneling Scanning Tunneling Microscope Schummer science and technology scientific scientists self-replication simulations Smalley social society structure surface science technological reductionism technoscience theoretical theory tion tunneling microscope understanding University vision von Neumann