Assessing Expectations: Towards a Toolbox for an Ethics of Emerging Technologies.
Assessing Expectations: Towards a Toolbox for an Ethics of Emerging Technologies.
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DOI：
10.1007/s11569-011-0119-x
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发表时间：
2011-08
期刊：
影响因子：
1.3
通讯作者：
Boenink, Marianne
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lucivero, Federica;Swierstra, Tsjalling;Boenink, Marianne
近年来，一些作者认为，新技术的可取性应该在早期评估，当它们仍然新兴时。从定义上讲，对新兴技术的这种伦理评估侧重于一个难以捉摸的目标。通常，技术的承诺、期望和愿景被作为起点。然而，正如诺德曼和瑞普在最近的一篇文章中指出的那样，伦理学家不应该想当然地认为这种期望和愿景是可行的。在本文中，我们将探讨如何在对新兴技术的可取性进行反思时评估对新兴技术的期望的质量。我们建议，预期的可实现性的评估应该集中在技术可行性，社会可用性和期望的技术的愿望的声明。尽管可行性陈述以及在较小程度上的可用性陈述经常是相当未来主义的，但相反，关于可取性的声明经常显示出对未来的保守立场。评估代表新兴技术的期望和愿景的质量需要谨慎和有针对性地使用怀疑论和想象力。最后，我们简要概述了伦理学家可以用来评估代表新兴技术提出的主张并改善对它们的伦理反思的工具和方法。
In recent years, several authors have argued that the desirability of novel technologies should be assessed early, when they are still emerging. Such an ethical assessment of emerging technologies is by definition focused on an elusive object. Usually promises, expectations, and visions of the technology are taken as a starting point. As Nordmann and Rip have pointed out in a recent article, however, ethicists should not take for granted the plausibility of such expectations and visions. In this paper, we explore how the quality of expectations on emerging technologies might be assessed when engaging in a reflection on the desirability of emerging technologies. We propose that an assessment of expectations’ plausibility should focus on statements on technological feasibility, societal usability, and desirability of the expected technology. Whereas the feasibility statement and, to a lesser extent, the usability statements are frequently quite futuristic, the claims on desirability, by contrast, often display a conservative stance towards the future. Assessing the quality of expectations and visions on behalf of emerging technologies requires, then, a careful and well-directed use of both skepticism and imagination. We conclude with a brief overview of the tools and methods ethicists could use to assess claims made on behalf of emerging technologies and improve the ethical reflection on them.