New Initiative: The Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies (C-PET)
July 17, 2007
Developments in such fields as information technology and biotechnology have already had profound effects on our lives as individuals and communities. There is general agreement that the compounding effects of “emerging technologies” (ET) will radically re-shape the future of human society. While there is uncertainty and disagreement as to the likely pace and direction of such change, its far-ranging social and personal impact are indisputable. Business, NGOs, the scientific community and government have a common interest in public engagement on issues of technology policy, and critical evaluation of particular applications. Yet popular understanding and civil society debate on the implications of emerging technologies remain very limited.
As ETs increase their impact on all aspects of society, including all industrial sectors, it will be hard to overstate the importance of mature, informed discussion within civil society as the context for policy development by governments and multilaterals. This has been illustrated by the insurgent ET debates over genetically-modified (GMO) foods (mainly in Europe), and over embryonic stem-cell research/cloning. If, as observers from various perspectives claim, nanoscale technological “convergence” is set to offer the disruptive and transformative technology of our generation, such current controversies should be seen as samples of the kind of political and social upheavals that loom ahead. One lesson from the GMO controversy, in particular, is the importance of informed dialogue on ET issues early in a technology’s development, as a key component in the search for policy solutions – and in order to mitigate risk.
Why C-PET?
There is at present no standalone think tank in Washington, DC, with broad interests in science and technology policy issues.
C-PET key issues
The focus will be on issues of strategic significance that have not yet entered the policy mainstream, including the following:
* Artificial intelligence (AI) and enhanced human intelligence; ET military applications; Surveillance/privacy, including RFIDs; Distributive justice (e.g., “nano-divide”) issues; Neuroscience, neurotechnology, and behavioral control; Risk and public policy; Human augmentation (“enhancement”); Nanotechnology and “converging technologies;” Synthetic biology; Developments in Genomics
Steering committee
The Steering Committee represents the nonpartisan character of C-PET by drawing on thought leaders from across the spectrum of political, cultural and religious/secular opinion:
* Daniel Caprio, former Chief Privacy Officer and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy, Department of Commerce; Patricia Smith Churchland, Presidential Chair in Philosophy, University of California, San Diego; Andrew Kimbrell, Director, International Center for Technology Assessment; Carl Mitcham, Professor of Liberal Arts and International Studies, Colorado School of Mines; editor, Encyclopedia of Science, Technology and Ethics; C. Ben Mitchell, Professor of Bioethics and Contemporary Culture, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; editor, Ethics and Medicine; Jonathan Moreno, Professor of Medical Ethics and of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania; Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Charles Rubin, Associate Professor of Political Science, Duquesne University; contributing editor, The New Atlantis; Daniel Sarewitz, Professor of Science and Society; Director, Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, Arizona State University; Cynthia P. Schneider, Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy; Executive Director, Perspectives of the Future of Science and Technology, Georgetown University; former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands; Gregory Stock, Director, Program on Medicine, Technology, and Society, School of Public Health, UCLA
Current C-PET initiatives
Early projects include:
* Establishing the Atlantic Dialogue on Emerging Technologies (ADET), to bring together corporate, NGO and government perspectives from Europe and the United States
* Building partnerships with collaborating organizations, including the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Center on Nanotechnology and Society, the Consortium for Science and Public Outcomes at Arizona State University, and the Converging Technologies Bar Association
* Developing a web-based global clearing-house on technology policy and its societal implications.
C-PET is being organized as a nonpartisan, not-for-profit, 501(c)3 corporation.
Nigel M. de S. Cameron
Research Professor of Bioethics and Associate Dean, Illinois Institute of Technology
President, Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies