New technologies: for whom?
The case of nanotechnology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52712/issn.1850-0013-669Keywords:
technoscience, accessibility of technology, social exclusion, precautionary principle, nanotechnologyAbstract
The article presents some reflections about the implications and consequences of the growing relevance of the activities known generally as “technoscience”. Such activities contribute substantially to the solidification of a model of social and economic organization that segregates wide sectors of the population from its benefits, and at the same time endangers the sustainability of the planet. The items that we examine are: a) the diffusion and accessibility of these technologies among diverse social sectors; b) the bases for legitimacy alleged by those who favor the uncritical acceptation of the scientific and technical advances; and c) the role that scientific and technical institutions should play so that these practices serve a genuinely democratic society. This article analyzes the case of the present developments in the field of nanotechnology in the aforementioned aspects. Although there is at present an important consensus among specialists that nanotechnology will be a crucial factor for the solution of the serious problems originated by the social exclusion affecting a great part of the planet, this world of promises must be set beside another world, one that refers to the possibility that this new technology be dangerously employed towards less altruistic ends.
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