2,879 research outputs found
Knowledge politics and new converging technologies: a social epistemological perspective
The “new converging technologies” refers to the prospect of advancing the human condition by the integrated study and application of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and the cognitive sciences - or “NBIC”. In recent years, it has loomed large, albeit with somewhat different emphases, in national science policy agendas throughout the world. This article considers the political and intellectual sources - both historical and contemporary - of the converging technologies agenda. Underlying it is a fluid conception of humanity that is captured by the ethically challenging notion of “enhancing evolution”
Nanotechnology in a Globalized World: Strategic Assessments of an Emerging Technology
PASCC Report Number 2014-006Nanotechnologies are enabling, dual-use technologies with the potential to alter the modern world
significantly, from fields as wide-ranging as warfare to industrial design to medicine to social and
human engineering. Seizing the technological lead in nanotech is often viewed as an imperative for
both 21st century defense and global competitiveness. Only revolutionary technologies are believed
to allow a country to take advantage of its relative backwardness—in the sense of its lack of
commitment to existing, incremental technologies—and leap ahead of existing technological leaders
in developing and deploying a revolutionary new technology. New technologies, however, are only
likely truly to revolutionize an economy and society if there is a broader national base that allows a
new technology to spread and transform from its initial niche application, whether civilian or
military, and if society is willing to adopt the technology in question. Globally, there is significant
belief in the revolutionary potential of nanotechnology, not only to transform warfare, economy and
society, but also the international geopolitical hierarchy. Between 2001 and 2014, over sixty countries
followed the United States and established nanotechnology initiatives. These countries range from
advanced industrial countries in Europe to Japan to the emerging markets of Russia, China, Brazil,
and India to developing countries such as Nepal and Pakistan.U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Center on Contemporary Conflict (CCC),
Project on Advanced Systems and Concepts for Countering WMD (PASCC
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