Confronting the Dangers of Technology

Someone commented on my recent post, The Dangers of Prometheus: "The existence of knowledge doesn't mandate its scope of use. Problems such as global warming come from irresponsible employment of technology, not technology itself."

Sure, there's no mandate that technology has to make things either better or worse. But it's safe to say that irresponsible use is guaranteed. The question is whether we can find and implement enough responsible uses to tip the balance.

The more powerful a technology is, the more important it is to balance or avert - not just the sum total of positive and negative - but each and every of the negatives that's unacceptably catastrophic.

Molecular manufacturing is one of the most powerful technologies I can imagine. It can lead to many outcomes that are unacceptably catastrophic. CRN exists to get people working on how to avoid the catastrophic outcomes of molecular manufacturing.

Of course, molecular manufacturing will also have beneficial outcomes. I'm happy to talk about them as well. Many of those beneficial outcomes will happen by themselves, and others will be promoted by a variety of organizations. But there's no guarantee, and indeed it will often not be the case, that the positives and the negatives neatly match up by themselves. Without deliberate and careful work on avoiding the negatives, molecular manufacturing is easily powerful enough to create unthinkable disaster.

Chris Phoenix

Comments

[George J. Killoran]

I’m optimistic. We have an intelligent and very open minded President. I think when he studies Advanced Nanotechnology especially Molecular Manufacturing, he will make the correct choices to see that these technologies will be used for peace and not for the destruction of our planet.

[Chris Phoenix]

I've deleted a comment that was phrased in a very inflammatory fashion, and invited the commenter to resubmit the comment phrased more constructively. Political opinions are OK if on-topic and expressed in civil phrasing. Flames are not OK - political flames doubly not OK.

(I tried to email the text back to the original commenter in case they hadn't saved it, but the address they left didn't work. They can email me cphoenix at gmail dot com if they want the text.)

Chris