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Nanotechnology: societal implications Mihail C. Roco, William Sims Bainbridge, National Science Foundation (U.S.), World Technology Evaluation Center 0 Resenhas Springer, 2007 - 450 páginas Advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology promise to have major impacts on human health, wealth, and peace in the coming decades. Among the expected breakthroughs are orders of magnitude increases in computer efficiency, human organ restoration using engineered tissue, 'designer' materials created from directed assembly of atoms and molecules, and the emergence of entirely new phenomena in chemistry and physics. This book includes a collection of essays by leading scientists, engineers, and social scientists reviewing the possible uses of these impending technical developments in various industrial, medical, and national security applications, and the corresponding ethical, legal, social, economic, and educational issues that they raise. The report outlines potential areas for research into societal implications of nanotechnology, as well as some preliminary suggestions for how potential positive impacts of nanotechnology can be maximized, while minimizing any possible negative impacts, real or imagined. This book also provides the beginning of a blueprint for how one should address second-order consequences of the new technology, either positive implications or potential risks. This material was prepared under the auspices of the US National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). The issues raised in the book are global in scope, going far beyond the immediate impact of the NNI. They ask the general questions of how history and the human condition are affected by technological progress, and how individuals and institutions can seek to guide that progress in ways most beneficial to mankind in the long run

Implementing the precautionary principle: perspectives and prospects Elizabeth Charlotte Fisher, Judith S. Jones, René von Schomberg 0 Resenhas Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006 - 336 páginas This challenging book takes a broad and thought-provoking look at the precautionary principle and its implementation, or potential implementation, in a number of fields. It first considers the challenges faced by public decision-making processes when applying the precautionary principle, including its role in risk management and risk assessment. Frameworks for improved decision-making are considered followed by a detailed analysis of prospective applications of the precautionary principle in a number of emerging fields, including nanotechnology, climate change, natural resource management and public health policy. The analysis is both coherent and interdisciplinary, employing perspectives from law, the social sciences and public policy with a view on improving both the democratic legitmacy and effectiveness of public policy at national and international levels.

Managing nano-bio-info-cogno innovations: converging technologies in society William Sims Bainbridge, Mihail C. Roco, National Science Foundation (U.S.), World Technology Evaluation Center 0 Resenhas Springer, 2006 - 390 páginas This book provides a unique review of technical developments related to the unification that is rapidly taking place today among nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science (NBIC).It assesses potential for revolutionary applications of these developments and their likely impact in improving the human condition and offers a wide variety of scholarly views on the likely societal impacts and policy implications of these developments and applications, including assessments of educational, economic, commercial, legal, ethical, political, and social implications

Global Risk Governance: Concept and Practice Using the IRGC Framework Ortwin Renn, K. Walker 0 Resenhas Springer, 2007 - 367 páginas The establishment of the international risk governance council (IRGC) was the direct result of widespread concern within the public sector, the corporate world, academia, and society at large that the complexity and interdependence of health, environmental, and technological risks facing the world was making the development and implementation of adequate risk governance strategies ever more difficult. IRGC set out to conduct a thorough examination of the fundamental principles and structures that guide the way emerging risks and issues are identified, assessed, managed, and communicated. From this process, a framework for risk governance was developed and proposed, which forms part I of this volume. This IRGC framework was then subjected to rigorous peer review and comments from other experts and the public at large were invited; these comments make up part II of the volume. The framework was also tested by applying it in a series of diverse, international case studies on such diverse topics as genetically modified crops, acrylamide in food in Germany, construction of the Nagara River Estuary Barrage in Japan, energy security in the Baltic, and nanotechnology, among others. This constitutes part III of the work. The last part of the book, part IV, consolidates the lessons learned, and proposes a path forward that, it is hoped, will lead to better management of global risks.