Evaluating New Technologies The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology VOLUME 3 Editors Anthony Mark Cutter, Centre for Professional Ethics, University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom Bert Gordijn, Ethics Institute, Dublin City University, Ireland Gary E. Marchant, Executive Director, Center for the Study of Law, Science, & Technology, University of Arizona, USA Alain Pompidou, Former President, European Patent Office, Munich, Germany Editorial Board Ruth Chadwick, Director, ESRC Centre for Economic & Social Aspects of Genomics, Cardiff, UK Henk ten Have, Director, UNESCO Division of Ethics of Science and Technology, Paris, France Søren Holm, Director, Cardiff Centre for Ethics, Law & Society, Cardiff, UK George Khushf, Humanities Director, Center for Bioethics, University of South Carolina, USA Dieter Birnbacher, Professor, Institute of Philosophy, Heinrich-Heine-Universit¨at, Germany Edmund Pellegrino, Chair, President’s Council on Bioethics, Washington, DC, USA Graeme Laurie, Co-Director, AHRC Centre for Intellectual Property and Technology Law, UK Bartha Maria Knoppers, Chair in Law and Medicine, Universit´e de Montr´eal, Canada Roger Brownsword, Professor of Law, King’s College London, UK Paul Stephen Dempsey, Professor & Director of the Institute of Air & Space Law, Universit´e de Montr´eal, Canada Justice Michael Kirby; High Court of Australia, Canberra, Australia Rene Oosterlinck, Director of External Relations, European Space Agency, Paris Serge Gutwirth, Professor of Human Rights, Comparative Law, Legal theory and Methodology, Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium John Weckert, Professor, School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Australia Michael Froomkin, Professor, University of Miami Law School, Florida, USA David Krieger, President, The Waging Peace Foundation, California, USA For other titles published in this series, go to www.springer.com/series/7761 Paul Sollie · Marcus Duwell¨ Editors Evaluating New Technologies Methodological Problems for the Ethical Assessment of Technology Developments 123 Editors Paul Sollie Marcus D¨uwell Utrecht University Utrecht University Ethics Institute Ethics Institute Heidelberglaan 8 Heidelberglaan 8 3584 CS Utrecht 3584 CS Utrecht The Netherlands The Netherlands [email protected] [email protected] ISBN 978-90-481-2228-8 e-ISBN 978-90-481-2229-5 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-2229-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2009921731 c Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper 987654321 springer.com Contents 1 Evaluating New Technologies: An Introduction ................... 1 Paul Sollie and Marcus Duwell¨ Part I A Case Study: Ultrafast Communication 2 Ethical Aspects of Research in Ultrafast Communication ........... 11 Alfred Driessen 3 Whose Responsibility Is It Anyway? Dealing with the Consequences of New Technologies ........................................... 21 Anton Vedder and Bart Custers 4 Ethics in and During Technological Research; An Addition to IT Ethics and Science Ethics ....................................... 35 Anke van Gorp 5 The Need for a Value-Sensitive Design of Communication Infrastructures ................................................ 51 Noemi¨ Manders-Huits and Jeroen van den Hoven Part II Evaluating New Technologies: Methodological Issues 6 The Moral Relevance of Technological Artifacts ................... 63 Peter-Paul Verbeek 7 Interdisciplinarity, Applied Ethics and Social Science .............. 79 Niels Nijsingh and Marcus Duwell¨ 8 Facts or Fiction? A Critique on Vision Assessment as a Tool for Technology Assessment ......................................... 93 Nicole C. Karafyllis v vi Contents 9 Exploring Techno-Moral Change: The Case of the ObesityPill .......119 Tsjalling Swierstra, Dirk Stemerding and Marianne Boenink Part III Evaluating New Technologies: Uncertainty and Precaution 10 On Uncertainty in Ethics and Technology .........................141 Paul Sollie 11 New Technologies, Common Sense and the Paradoxical Precautionary Principle ........................................159 Steve Clarke 12 Complex Technology, Complex Calculations: Uses and Abuses of Precautionary Reasoning in Law .................................175 Deryck Beyleveld and Roger Brownsword 13 Ethics of Technology at the Frontier of Uncertainty: A Gewirthian Perspective ....................................................191 Paul Sollie Contributors Deryck Beyleveld Durham Law School, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom; Ethics Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands [email protected] Marianne Boenink Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands [email protected] Roger Brownsword School of Law, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom [email protected] Steve Clarke Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom [email protected] Bart Custers Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands; Capgemini Consulting Services, Utrecht, The Netherlands [email protected] Alfred Driessen MESA+ Research Institute, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands [email protected] Marcus Duwell¨ Ethics Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands [email protected] Anke van Gorp Innovation Policy group, TNO Quality of Life, Leiden, The Netherlands [email protected] Jeroen van den Hoven Faculty of Technology, Policy, and Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands [email protected] Nicole C. Karafyllis College of Humanities and Social Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain (Abu Dhabi), United Arab Emirates [email protected] Noemi¨ Manders-Huits Faculty of Technology, Policy, and Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands [email protected] Niels Nijsingh Ethics Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands [email protected] vii viii Contributors Paul Sollie Ethics Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands [email protected] Dirk Stemerding Rathenau Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands [email protected] Tsjalling Swierstra Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands [email protected] Anton Vedder Tilburg Institute of Law, Technology, and Society, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands [email protected] Peter-Paul Verbeek Department of Philosophy, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands [email protected].