GENERIC LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT SOCIETAL RESPONSES TO EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES PERCEIVED AS INVOLVING RISKS

Abstract

Supported by the DOE Office of Science Program on Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications of Research on Alternative Bioenergy Technologies, Synthetic Genomics, or Nanotechnologies (ELSI), a research team organized by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is conducting a study of “Lessons Learned about Societal Responses to Emerging Technologies Perceived as Involving Risks.” This project seeks (a) to consider the historical experience in the United States with developing new technologies associated with public concerns about risk, and (b) to consider how lessons learned from this experience might be relevant to societal implications of emerging technologies such as bioengineering for alternative energy production. The central research question for the project is whether past experience in the United States with technologies associated in the public mind with risk, along with relevant socialscientific literatures, can inform strategies for emerging new technologies that are also likely to be associated with societal concerns about risks, with particular attention to possible concerns about bioenergy technologies associated with genetic engineering.