Phoenix in New Jersey

This Wednesday, April 5, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm, at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), CRN's Chris Phoenix will conduct a two-hour public seminar on "Nanotechnology: Its Promises and Perils."

Here's the abstract:

Molecular manufacturing will produce a broad set of ethical and policy challenges. A common thread among them is that increasingly powerful technology conveys increasing power to select desired outcomes. In medical ethics, for example, minimizing suffering may become a function of engineering rather than ethical tradeoffs, while maximizing well-being becomes an increasingly complex set of ethical problems.

Medical ethics is largely personal, but interpersonal and transpersonal domains face additional kinds of ethical problems. Economics, politics, human rights, security, and environmental issues will involve increasingly explicit, even stark implications. Some choices may be disastrous for some stakeholders. Some policies, such as those leading to unstable arms races, may even be disastrous for all stakeholders -- but may nonetheless be pursued deliberately.

The expected power of molecular manufacturing, combined with the possibility of surprisingly near-term and rapid development, argues strongly for proactive research into its potential and implications. Simple or hasty attempts at resolving the issues and implications are likely to make things worse -- perhaps catastrophically so. The technology's immense potential for benefit may only be realized if a number of pitfalls are analyzed and avoided. This seminar is aimed at understanding and encouraging that process.

This even is open to the public. For those in the New York / New Jersey area, NJIT is located in downtown Newark and is easily accessible by car or by public transportation. NJIT's Campus Center Atrium and Ballroom is the specific location.

We hope to see you there!

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics weblog blog

Comments

[Jan-Willem Bats]

Question:

When you talk about unstable arms races, you are imagining weapons produced by nanotechnology, and therefore outperform existing weaponry by a factor of 1000, just like with any other product.

What type of weapons will nanotech produce?

Guns that fire lighter bullets with more speed, accuracy, etc?