The Ethics of Nanotechnology
Vikram Jogi
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Agenda
•Introduction
• What is Nanotechnology?
• Goals of Nanotechnology
• Potential Benefits
• Potential Dangers
• Ethical Issues & Analysis
• Conclusion
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Article Highlights
Examining nanotechnology in the light of ethical decision-making will help
us to answer questions such as:
•Do we need to create and enforce global laws for its development?
•How do we minimize potential dangers, such as weaponry uses?
•Is it our duty to share research with other nations?
•How can we ensure that technology is used for the common good?
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Introduction
Imagine a world in which …
•cars can be assembled molecule-by-molecule
•garbage can be disassembled and turned into beef steaks, and
•people can be operated on and healed by cell-sized robots
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Sounds like a science fiction ?
Nanotechnology is the practical everyday application of a futuristic science so amazing
you may have trouble believing it’s for real. But for investors, it is very real.
Well, with current semiconductor chip manufacturing encroaching upon the nanometer scale
and the ability to move individual atoms at the IBM Almaden laboratory, we are fast approaching
the technological ability to fabricate productive machines and devices that can manipulate things
at the atomic level
Laboratories, such as the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF), have already been researching
nanofabrication techniques with applications in fiber optics, biotechnology,
microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and wide variety of other research fields relevant to
today's technology.
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Cont..
MEMS are already being used in automobile airbag systems as accelerometers to detect
collisions and will become an increasing part of our everyday technology.
In 1986, a researcher from MIT named K. Eric Drexler already foresaw…
the advent of molecular machines and published a book,
Engines of Creation, in which he outlined the
possibilities and consequences of this emerging field,
which he called nanotechnology.
K.EricDrexler with a picture of a
molecular machine component in the
background.
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Today…
A lot of attention and funds are being channeled into nano research.
nanotechnology research and development is quite wide spread, although not high profile yet.
•Numerous universities
•U.S. government
•DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
• NSF
With so many resources dedicated to its development, nanotechnology will surely have an
Impact within our lifetime, so it is important to examine its ethical implications while it is
still in its infancy.
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What is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology, also called molecular manufacturing, is "a branch of engineering
that deals with the design and manufacture of extremely small electronic
circuits and mechanical devices built at the molecular level of matter."
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Goals of Nanotechnology
The goal of nanotechnology is to be able to manipulate materials at the
atomic level to build the smallest possible electromechanical devices,
given the physical limitations of matter. Much of the mechanical systems
we know how to build will be transferred to the molecular level as some
atomic analogy.
In essence, the purpose of developing nanotechnology is to have tools to work on the
molecular level analogous to the tools we have at the macroworld level.
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Potential Benefits...
Just given the basic premises of nanotechnology, you can imagine the vast potential
of this technology. Some of it's more prominent benefits would be:
• Manufacturing
o Precision Manufacturing
o Material Reuse
o Miniaturization
• Medicine
o Pharmaceutical Creation
o Disease Treatment
o Nanomachine-assisted Surgery
• Environment
o Toxin Cleanup
o Recycling
o Resource Consumption Reduction
Respirocytes with Red Cells.
(by Vik Olliver, 1998)
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Contd..
Along with all the obvious manufacturing benefits, there are also many potential medical and
environmental benefits. With nanomachines, we could better design and synthesize pharmaceuticals;
we could directly treat diseased cells like cancer; we could better monitor the life signs of a patient;
or we could use nanomachines to make microscopic repairs in hard-to-operate-on areas of the body.
With regard to the environment, we could use nanomachines to clean up toxins or oil spills,
recycle all garbage, and eliminate landfills, thus reducing our natural resource consumption.
Future Human body
Gastronanorobot
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Potential dangers…
Unfortunately, the technology can be used for dangerous ends.
The flip side to these benefits is the possibility of assemblers and disassemblers
being used to create weapons, be used as weapons themselves, or for them to run
wild and wreak havoc.
• Weapons
o Miniature Weapons and Explosives
o Disassemblers for Military Use
• Rampant Nanomachines
o The Gray Goo Scenario
o Self Replicating Nanomachines
• Nanoterrorism
• Surveillance
o Monitoring
o Tracking
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Contd..
• Weapons
extending today's weapon capabilities by miniaturizing guns, explosives,
and electronic components of missiles would be deadly enough
• Nanomachines and Nanoterrorism
There could be a use for nanomachines in combating current threats such as bio and chemical
weapons. In addition, following recent events, such as September the 11th, we cannot by
any means ignore the threat of global terrorism.
• Gray Goo Disaster
with nanotechnology, armies could also develop disassemblers to attack physical structures
or even biological organisms at the molecular level. A similar hazard would be if general
purpose disassemblers got loose in the environment and started disassembling every
molecule they encountered
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Ethical Issues & Analysis
With such awe full potential dangers inherent in nanotechnology, we must
seriously examine its potential consequences.
We must examine the ethics of developing nanotechnology and
create policies that will aid in its development so as to eliminate or at least minimize
its damaging effects on society.
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Ethical Decision Making Worksheet
We are reaching a critical point where technology will enable us to build complex molecular
machines. Molecular assemblers and disassemblers could be developed from this technology,
which would have great potential for both good and bad. The two greatest threats from
development of nanotechnology are catastrophic accidents and misuse.
•Professional Issues
• Legal/Policy Issues
• Ethical Issues
• Stakeholders
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Contd..
• Possible Actions
One possible ethical decision: ban self-replicating nanomachines.
• Consequences of Actions
 Action #1:
 Action #2:
 Action #3:
• Individual Rights/Fairness
• Common Good
• Final Decision
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Conclusion
Ethical guidelines are needed to ensure that nanotechnology is not used for
harmful purposes.
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References
http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/chen.html
http://cseserv.engr.scu.edu/StudentWebPages/AChen/ResearchPaper.htm
http://nanotech-now.com/ethics-of-nanotechnology.htm
http://www.portfolio.mvm.ed.ac.uk/studentwebs/session5/13/weaponhome.html#nanoterrorism
http://people.cornell.edu/pages/bvl1/NanoSEI.htm
http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine/Gallery/Captions/
http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/expressnews/articles/ideas.cfm?p_ID=5226&s=a
http://www.stt.nl/stt2/projecten/nano/nanolinkstekst.htm
http://www.nano.org.uk/nano.htm
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Questions????
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