Cet événement est commandité par :	Converging technologies The next challenge CONFÉRENCIER: Émilio Mordini Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship – Rome (IT) Résumé: Quel est le mobile des Technologies convergentes? La combinaison synergique de quatre secteurs majeurs "NBIC"(nano, bio,info,cogno) de la science et de la technologie, chacun de ces secteurs progressant à un rythme rapide: a) nanoscience et nanotechnologie, b) biotechnologie et bio médecine, y compris le génie génétique; c) la technologie de l'information, y compris le calcul et les communications avancées; d) la science cognitive, y compris la neuroscience cognitive. (Roco and Bainbridge, 2002: ix). Conférence: People who confuse science with technology tend to become confused about limits, they imagine that new knowledge always means new know-how, some even imagine that knowing everything would let us do anything. E.DREXLER, 1986, Engines of Creation. The Coming Era of Nanotechnology , Anchor Books Information and communication technology helped produce the profound transformation of daily life in the 20th Century. Biotechnology is transforming agriculture, medical diagnosis and treatment, human and animal reproduction. Most recently, the transformative potential of nanotechnology has captured the imagination. Add to this that cognitive and neuroscience are challenging how we think of ourselves, or that the rise of the social sciences parallels that of bureaucracies and modern forms of governance. The convergence of these profoundly transformative technologies and technology-enabling sciences is the first major research initiative of the 21st Century. If these various technologies created controversy and anxiety each on their own, their convergence poses a major challenge not only to the research community, but from the very beginning also to policy makers and European societies. European High-Level Expert Group: “Foresighting the New Technology Wave”, Executive Report, Sept 2004 Converging technologies (CT) result from the merging of (a) Nanoscience and nanotechnology; (b) Biotechnology and biomedicine, including genetic engineering; (c) Information technology, including advanced computing and communications; (d) Cognitive science, including cognitive neuroscience (NBIC). Converging Technologies seem science-fictional, but they are rapidly becoming a real and recognized bioengineering discipline. Experts estimate that they will reach the European S&T policy level within 4 years (European High-Level Expert Group: “Foresighting the New Technology Wave”, Executive Report, Sept 2004). Their condition is not different from the state of recombinant rDNA research in the 1970s. There is a story, probably apocryphal, that scientists like to tell when justifying to their paymasters work that has no tangible practical benefit. The story involves Michael Faraday, the inventor of the electrical generator, and William Gladstone, then Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer. Faraday is showing his invention to Gladstone, who asks him: “But of what use is this electricity, Mr Faraday?” In one version, Faraday replies: “Of what use is a new-born baby?” In another, more cynical, version, he suggests: “One day, sir, you may tax it.” Many discoveries and inventions shaped the 20th century, but there is a good case to argue that electricity was the most important of them. As the 19th was the steam century, the 20th was the electric one. There is a distinct possibility that the 21st may be the converging technology century. Definitions In public debate two views have emerged on the meaning of convergence. The first view refers to a simple interdisciplinary convergence related to the impact of nanotechnology on other technologies. The second view looks at converging technologies as a totally new field of knowledge and practice. The Royal Society & The Royal Academy of Engineering states that “Convergence refers to the multiple ways in which nanotechnologies will combine in the future with other developments in new technology reflecting its genuinely interdisciplinary nature” (The Royal Society & The Royal Academy of Engineering, 2004). The European Commission Communication “Towards a European Strategy for Nanotechnology” observes that “Nanoscience is often referred to as “horizontal”,“key” or “enabling” since it can pervade virtually all technological sectors. It often brings together different areas of science and benefits from an interdisciplinary or “converging” approach and is expected to lead to innovations that can contribute towards addressing many of the problems facing today’s society” (COM-2004-338: 1.1.2) The “European High-Level Expert Group on Foresighting the New Technology Wave” defines Converging Technologies as: “enabling technologies and knowledge systems that enable each other in the pursuit of a common goal. Converging Technologies for the European Knowledge Society (CTEKS) are introduced as a European approach to CTs. This approach focuses on the need to set agendas or common goals for convergence” (HLEG, Final Report, Part 1, September 2004). Roco and Bainbridge define “convergent technologies" as: “the synergistic combination of four major "NBIC" (nano-bio-info-cogno) provinces of science and technology, each of which is currently progressing at a rapid rate: (a) nanoscience and nanotechnology; (b) biotechnology and biomedicine, including genetic engineering; (c) information technology, including advanced computing and communications; (d) cognitive science, including cognitive neuroscience” (Roco and Bainbridge, 2002: ix). NBIC stays for: — Nanotechnology: Technology related to features of nanometer scale (10-9 meters), thin films, fine particles, chemical synthesis, advanced microlithography, and so forth; — Biotechnology: The application of science and engineering to the direct or indirect use of living organisms, or parts or products of living organisms, in their natural or modified forms; — Information Technology: Applied computer systems – both hardware and software, including networking and telecommunications; — Cognitive Science: The study of intelligence and intelligent systems, with particular reference to intelligent behaviour as computation. The “Convergence Movement” Some observers were early to notice the progressing technology convergence. In his massive study of the Information Society, Manuel Castells writes, "Technological convergence increasingly extends to growing interdependence between the biological and micro-electronics revolutions, both materially and methodologically […] Nanotechnology may allow sending tiny microprocessors into the systems of living organisms, including humans" (Castells, 2000: 72). In his influential book, Consilience, Edward O. Wilson (1998) wrote about the unification of scientific knowledge. There have also been critics of the nascent field of converging technologies (Cetina KK, 2004; Nowotny H, 2004), whose critiques have ranged from the practical (how well will all this work) to the fanciful (science-fiction scenarios). USA In 2001 Mihail C. Roco, probably the most influential leader of the US National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), took the initiative to bring together a small number of especially knowledgeable scientists and engineers at a planning meeting, May 11, 2001, held at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Arlington, Virginia. Plans were made for a major meeting to identify opportunities and a research agenda for Converging Technologies, that meeting was held at NSF December 3 and 4, 2001. A second Converging Technologies meeting was held in Los Angeles in February 2002, and the book-length report was edited by Roco with Carlo Montemagno (2004). The third conference was held in New York, February 2004 (Bainbridge and Roco, forthcoming), and a fourth is planned for early 2005. During this period, convergence evolved in US from a trend into a movement that seeks to accelerate the unification of science with the aim to give human beings a vastly wider range of powerful technological options. However security concerns and military applications of NBIC technology are today playing a significant role in S&T developments in US, and this is raising a number of ethical questions. EUROPE Europe has recognized the potential of nanotechnology at an early stage and has developed a strong knowledge base in nanosciences. In EU countries many nanotechnological initiatives are embedded within biotechnology, microtechnology and infotechnology programs. The EU Commission in its communication of 12.5.2004 Towards a European Strategy for Nanotechnology called for investments that focus on “integration at the macro-micro-nano interface and interdisciplinary (converging) R&D” also calling for a “synergy with the European strategy on Life science and Biotechnology”. This convergence – states the document- will not consist merely of a collection of separate interdisciplinary fields that splice together different sciences and technologies in a piecemeal fashion, but a completely integrated set of theories and tools. In December 2003 the European Commission constituted a high level expert group (HLEG)“Foresighting the New Technology Wave” charged with exploring the potential and the risks of Converging Technologies. The group mandate was to find out what convergence is, how it will impact the future, and what Europe needs to do to meet its own policy objectives. In September 2004 the HLEG ended its work and issued its final report and recommendations. The expert group identified four likely characteristics of CT applications: Embeddedness: CTs will form an invisible technical infrastructure for human action – analogous to the visible infrastructure provided by buildings and cities […] Unlimited Reach: Nanotechnology’s dream to control everything molecular follows upon information technology’s increasing ability to transform everything into information. As the convergence draws in other technologies and technology-enabling sciences, it would appear that nothing can escape the reach of CTs […] Engineering the Mind and the Body: Some proponents of CTs advocate engineering of the mind and of the body. Electronic implants and physical modifications are to enhance our current human capacities[…] Specificity: Research on the interface between nano- and biotechnology allows for the targeted delivery of designer pharmaceuticals that are tailored to an individual’s genome in order to effect a cure without side effects[…] (European High-Level Expert Group: “Foresighting the New Technology Wave”, Executive Report, Sept 2004) Bioethical implications of NBIC Technologies Most reviews of ethical and social implications of innovations are actually devoted to nanotechnology For a comprehensive discussion see: Nanoforum Consortium, Benefits, Risks, Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects of Nanotechnology (at www.nanoforum.org).. Commentary specifically devoted to CT range from the highly optimistic to the almost apocalyptic. What does seem clear however is that near and mid term applications within NBIC technologies are likely to concern healthcare and biomedicine. They will be interventions primarily conducted for medical benefit. These innovations can be summarised under three main headings: 1) PREVENTIVE MEDICINE: Preventive health care will take advantage of convergence of nanotechnology with ICT and biotechnology. Miniaturised diagnostics could be implanted for early diagnosis of illness. Nanotechnology-based coatings can improve the bioactivity and biocompatibility of implants. Biosensors and chips can be integrated in complex networks to significant computational power. Nanosensors and micro wearable computers can enable the continual monitoring of the state of health of elderly people. Remote control of life styles will be possible thanks to ambient intelligence (Mordini E, 2004b). Such developments could be used to achieve individualised disease prevention but also to limit individual and group privacy and liberty (Rose SPR, 2004). 2) DISEASE TREATMENT: Self-organising scaffolds pave the way for new generations of tissue engineering and biomimetic materials, with the long-term potential of synthesising organ replacements. Artificial skin is already a reality while nano scale transport drug containers are under development as well as intelligent autonomous agent for body repair (cleaning out arteries, stomach operations, etc). Increasingly sophisticated medical care pose many ethical problems about future clinical trials (Mordini E, 2004a), safety and intrusiveness of monitoring and treatment of diseases in “home-care” environment, respect for individual dignity and autonomy. Diverging biomedical resources on research on NBIC technologies might also intensify the health care gap between rich and poor countries The so called "10/90 gap", that is to say less than 10% of worldwide health research is devoted to diseases that account for 90% of the global burden of disease (Global Forum for Health Research, 2000). , which is a major bioethical issue (EGE, 2003). 3) DISABILITY ALLEVIATION: Drawing the line between necessary therapy and discretionary enhancement is genuinely difficult. NBIC technologies will increasingly blur the border between alleviating the effect of disabilities and “human enhancing”. Biomedical applications of nanotechnology are already contributing to develop cochlear and retinal implants, which will improve or restore hearing and eyesight. Yet some disability right groups have objected to these “enhancement” interventions that might lead to stigmatisation of those without enhanced capacities. Indeed a pure “technical fix” of disability is ethically problematic. Many disabled people may prefer resources to be allocated on social interventions rather than on high tech cures (UN, 1975) and some scholars argue that this is only the tip of the iceberg. A new generation of cosmetic microsurgery, performance-enhancing and cognitive-enhancing drugs is developing (Mordini E, 1998). In the next few years nano implants in the brain might allow the development of treatment for neurodegenerative diseases but also to develop devices enhancing information storage and retrieval, and mood enhancers (Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 2002). The “post-human”debate The possibility to supplement, modify or replace biological components with nanotechnology components - also within the brain - and to network it with external machines and computer networks form the current background for discussions among futurologists. The spectre of those who fear the advance of converging technology (and, conversely, the hope of those who uphold it) is that it will one day be capable of “enhancing” human beings (Harris J, 1992; Wreye S, 2004). Some worry that this may blunt the differences between individuals, turning society into one homogeneous mass. Others see the opposite risk: a division between the privileged and the unenhanced. The longer term uncomfortable questions raised by NBIC technology are those that go to the heart of what it is to be “human”, what is “normal” and what is not. Through bionic prostheses, bio-implants, and bio-chips, technological artefacts can be already integrated into the human organism and with convergence of nano, bio, info and cogno technologies this trend may progress till a point to produce a new kind of beings: post humans. Some postmodern theorists have taken a favorable position on the “post human” issue (D. Haraway, 1991). In contrast, other scholars, such as F. Fukuyama (2002), foresee tremendous possible risks toward human liberty, health and safety, in integration between human “natural” bodies and techno artefacts. Potential dystopias (or hutopias, according to different perspectives) always make good press. This is probably the reason why the “post-human” issue is so fascinating to the general public. Military and Security Applications of CT Nanoparticles developed to transport therapeutic drugs through the blood-brain barrier or into specific cells, could also be used to carry incapacitating or lethal agents. Technologies developed for individualized therapy or for selective destruction of cancer cells – such as releasing an agent or triggering a certain molecular action only after a certain DNA pattern has been detected – could be applied to produce selective chemical or biological warfare agents – affecting only people with certain genetic traits, or even only a single individual. Nanocomposite materials may allow all-plastic firearms and micro-missiles that evade detection by x-rays and metal detectors. Extremely powerful computers together with new levels of artificial intelligence and advances in robotics could lead to autonomous fighting robots or vehicles. Cheap very small sensors and mobile micro-robots, even electronically controlled animals, could be sent for surveillance and for (surprise) attack. Body manipulation applied to soldiers (against sleep-deprivation effects, for shorter reaction times) could create faits accomplis undermining a broad societal debate also on the civilian benefits and risks of such interventions There is no safeguard against some of the challenges to ethics and human self-understanding that are implicit in the CT themselves. It is also no safeguard against dual use or unintended consequences of CT application. Particularly troubling and internationally destabilizing are “Converging technologies for domination on the battlefield.” They exploit the most dangerous potential of CTs, including technologies for surveillance and invasions of privacy, for the enhancements of soldiers’ bodies, for remote manipulation of soldiers’ minds, and for autonomous killing machines. CT weapon systems might act to infiltrate and attack computers, combine with selective bioweapons, or target individual politicians. In any event, the very uncertainty about their capabilities may lead to a new, highly unstructured and non-negotiable arms race. New military threats and their perceptions may decrease stability and endanger international security. Also, many of these CT may undermine and jeopardize the international law of warfare. It is easy to imagine that the concerted effort of the armed forces of various countries will inspire abuses by small groups of militants, by criminals, perhaps by businesses and even government. For example, business can market consumer spin-offs of military developments and thus prepare the ground for enhancement technologies and other controversial applications. Also, business and government might employ surveillance technology for sophisticated forms of industrial espionage or to gather data about consumers and citizens. This dimension of risk requires supra-national, trusted mechanisms for monitoring and assessing national, European, and international CT developments, as well as proactive negotiations of limitation treaties and codes of good conduct. Conclusions “We feel that even if all possible scientific questions be answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all. Of course there is then no question left, and just this is the answer.” L.Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 6.5. This well known Wittgenstein’s quotation summarises the sense of my paper. My suggestion (I do know that it is largely non-ritual) is now to re-read the paper through the lens of this quotation.