Precautionary Principle Panic

Ronald Bailey of Reason Online writes:

Earlier this week, the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, held a remarkably interesting conference titled "Panic Attack: The New Precautionary Culture, the Politics of Fear, and the Risks to Innovation." It was interesting not only because I was a participant, but because it looked at how many Western countries are losing their cultural nerve, as evidenced by the increasing cultural acceptance of the so-called precautionary principle.

Ron's perspective is, as usual, well worth noting. He doesn't deal specifically with nanotechnology in his essay, but CRN covers the topic in our paper, "Applying the Precautionary Principle to Nanotechnology."

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics weblog blog

Comments

[Pace Arko]

I'm mildly suspicious of Ronald Bailey's arguments.

It seems like he is implying that success does nothing but turn postindustrial countries into whiny, nervous, bourgeois shirkers doomed to be eclipsed by ambitious, devil-may-care, developing countries.

There is some truth to this but, is it something to really worry about? Don't we want developing countries to have standards of living that are roughly equal those found in the postindustrial world? High standards of living drive moderation, pluralism and stability. We want those things to take hold in China, right?

So what if they build a few skyscrapers that are bigger than ours in Delhi, Rio or Lagos? It's not a race.

Seems to me that we face problems so big that even the United States can't solve them alone. And we shouldn't be afraid if other countries begin to rival us in science and technology. I say that's a good thing.

I say the more countries that become postindustrial the better. That makes us collectively stronger to deal with the really big issues, like reducing the environmental burden of our global civilization.