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Handbook of Ethics, Values, and Technological Design pp 783–804Cite as

Design for Values in Nanotechnology

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Abstract

Applications of nanotechnology have the potential to raise fundamentally new ethical questions. Nanotechnology is an enabling technology and therefore a whole array of moral values is at stake. We investigate these values by differentiating with respect to specific applications. We will argue that in the short term, nanotechnology does not pose novel value-laden socio-technical issues, but has the potential to enhance or provide opportunities to address existing issues. We will describe three different attempts to provide a design for safety or sustainability approach, which are specific for nanotechnology. In the long term, nanotechnology does raise new ethical questions, especially with the blurring of category boundaries. Since the current debate on long-term developments is mainly technology assessment oriented in nature, we will suggest how these outcomes can be used for a more design-oriented approach.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Here, we take the term Design for Values in a sense that is wider than “value-sensitive design”; see Hoven and Manders-Huits (2009).

  2. 2.

    The online inventory can be found at http://www.nanotechproject.org/inventories/

  3. 3.

    The animation can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqyZ9bFl_qg and was sponsored by Nanorex, Inc.

  4. 4.

    In the science fiction movie Bicentennial Man, this is even mentioned as the ultimate distinction between robots and humans. For a reflection on the way science fiction movies deal with the theme of blurring boundaries between humans and machines, see Cornea (2008).

  5. 5.

    This is not a new concern. It was expressed, for instance, already by C.S. Lewis in his book The Abolition of Man. At that time he was referring to the use of eugenics by the Nazis, but his objections seem strikingly applicable to human enhancement as he explicitly writes about the creation of humans with enhanced capabilities.

  6. 6.

    Here, again, we see science fiction movies playing with that theme, for instance, the movie Gattaca in which a man can only participate in space travel if he delivers a friend’s blood, hair, skin cell, and urine samples because he himself has a defect in his DNA.

  7. 7.

    Here, we use the distinction between prescriptive and proscriptive morality. Proscriptive morality is focused on what we ought not to do and is inhibition based, while prescriptive is focused on what we ought to do and is activation based.

  8. 8.

    These principles are (1) waste prevention, (2) atom economy, (3) less hazardous synthesis, (4) design for safer materials, (5) safer auxiliaries and solvents, (6) design for energy efficiency, (7) renewable resources, (8) reduce derivatives, (9) catalysis, (10) design for end of useful life, (11) real-time monitoring, and (12) inherent safer processes.

  9. 9.

    For example, Merkle (1996), and Choi et al. (2010).

  10. 10.

    See the resent analysis by Lawson (2010).

  11. 11.

    These laws are as follows: (1) a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; (2) a robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the first law; and (3) a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law. Asimov introduced these laws in a 1942 short story called Runaround.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. TU Delft, Delft, The Netherlands

    Urjan Jacobs & Marc de Vries

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  1. Urjan Jacobs
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  2. Marc de Vries
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Correspondence to Urjan Jacobs .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ethics and Philosophy of Technology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Jeroen van den Hoven

  2. Department of Ethics and Philosophy of Technology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Pieter E. Vermaas

  3. Department of Ethics and Philosophy of Technology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Ibo van de Poel

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Jacobs, U., de Vries, M. (2015). Design for Values in Nanotechnology . In: van den Hoven, J., Vermaas, P., van de Poel, I. (eds) Handbook of Ethics, Values, and Technological Design. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6970-0_29

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6970-0_29

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