As
science and technology shrinks in scale and increases in complexity, a question
is raised as to who really benefits from these high-tech advancements. The
history of technology waves would suggest that major new technologies initially
demean marginalized people and allow the wealthy to anticipate, manipulate, and
prosper from technological bursts (Etcgroup, pg. 4). The reason for this is
because people with financial means are able to sustain themselves, regardless
of the success of the technological advancement, while the rest suffer.
Nanotechnology and technological convergence in particular has the potential to
bring about staggering societal effects and raise serious threats to human
rights and our democracy. Technological convergence is defined as derivation of
fundamental building blocks of all sciences from nano-engineered materials. The
utilization of complex technology, such as nanotechnology, is inherently
inclined to satisfy the rich and leave everyone else helpless.
Economically,
nanotechnology has the ability to "topple commodity markets, disrupt trade
and the livelihoods of the poorest and most vulnerable workers who do not have
the economic flexibility to respond to sudden demands for new skills or
different raw materials" (Etcgroup, pg. 4). As mentioned in "The
Accountability of Science and Engineering", though developments in technology
have the ability to provide for and benefit the less fortunate, this is
accomplished by destroying all competitors that are unable to financially
support newer, more expensive machinery, laborers of higher skill level, and
any other products needed to sustain the facility.
Furthermore,
if the new nano-engineered material can be produced at a lower cost and
outperform a conventional material, it is reasonable to expect that the
nanomaterial will replace the conventional commodity (Etcgroup, pg. 4). This
monopolizes the industry and gives an excess of power to those that have the
resources to manipulate and create those nano-engineered materials. As raw
materials are broken down to the nano-scale, a convergence of diverse
technologies becomes possible. "As the Wall St. Journal puts it,
'companies that hold pioneering patents could potentially put up tolls on
entire industries" (Etcgroup, pg. 7). The livelihoods of manual laborers
and their families in our own country in addition to third world countries that
provide us with raw materials would be put in jeopardy with the ability to
simply spawn materials with nano-materials.
A long
term goal of the US government is to eventually improve human performance in
all aspects of daily life. If this aspiration is achieved, then the government
risks the exacerbation of the already increasing rift between those who will be
"improved" through technological convergence and those who will be
left "unimproved" either by choice or lack of choice (Etcgroup, pg.
9). It is at this point that scientists, engineers, and political powers must
seriously address who really benefits from extreme advancements of technology
and whether those lives are worth more than the ones left behind.
References
ETC
Group. "A Tiny Primer on Nano-scale Technologies and 'The Little Bang
Theory'". ETC Group. June 2005. Web. 4 April 2014.
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