TPFH Part 4 | 9–29 March: Emerging Technologies and Risks
Part 4 of Technology, Power & the Future of Humanity (online distance course) deals with the emerging technologies and risks.
Video
Ulrich Beck, Living in and coping with world risk society
Pat Mooney: Nanotechnology/New Earth
Jim Thomas: Synthetic Biology/Designing New Life Forms
Anders Sandberg, What kind of humanity should we want to make?
Maggie Little, Introduction to Bioethics: Bioethics & the Human Body
Maggie Little, Introduction to Bioethics: Bioethics & Justice
Otto Cars, The cornerstones of modern medicine are crumbling
Course Goal from Syllabus for Part 3
On completion of the course, the student should be able to:
- analyse different views on the role of technology in society, the relationship between technology and sustainable development, and how individual human beings influence and are influenced by different technologies;
- apply conceptual, analytical and ethical tools to understand the role of technology in individual as well as collective meaning making processes;
- critically review different technologies, the use and development of technology and its consequences from a power perspective, and methods for risk assessment and evaluation of these consequences.
Tasks
The online seminar for part 4 takes place on March 27th (or a date the same week that you agree upon within your group). Detailed seminar instructions will be posted the week before the seminar.
Readings
In course books
Nye, Technology Matters (course book): Expanding Consciousness, or Encapsulation?
Hulme, Can Science Fix Climate Change? (course book), chapters 3 & 4.
Other readings
Galaz, V., D. Galafassi, J. Tallberg, A. Boin, E. Hey, C. Ituarte-Lima, J. Dunagan, P. Olsson, R. Österbergh and F. Westley (2014). Connected Risks, Connected Solutions. Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, and the Global Challenges Foundation, Stockholm, chapter 1 (pp. 6-11) and chapter 3 (pp. 15-19)
Maynard (2008). Synthetic Biology, Ethics and the Hacker Culture. 2020 Science.
Little (1996). Why a Feminist Approach to Bioethics? Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 6(1).
Stirling (2013). Why the precautionary principle matters. The Guardian, july 2013.
Fuller (2013). Beyond the precautionary principle. The Guardian, july 2013.
Cascio (2006). The Open Future: The Reversibility Principle, Worldchanging, march 2006.
European Environment Agency (2002). Late lessons from early warnings: the precautionary principle 1896-2000, Introduction (6 pages) and chapter 10 – Asbestos: from 'magic' to malevolent mineral (10 pages).