Éthique et nanotechnologie

Ethics and Nano Technology

Introduction

Without the largest part of the public even noticing, Nano Technology has become an integral part of our daily lives in recent years. It is used for a variety of different purposes: For instance, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are used as accelerometers in the airbags of cars. Sunscreens use nano-particles to block damaging ultraviolet light from our skins. And many tooth pastes contains small abrasive nano particles in order to whiten our teeth.

These are just a few of the many ways Nano Technology is already utilized. According to the „Project On Emerging Nano Technologies ,“ there was more than a thousand products containing nano technology on the market in 2009. Whether we want it or not, Nano Technology is likely to have a large impact on societies, life styles, and the future of the human race. Some scientists believe it will change the world on the same scale as the development of the Internet did in the 1990’s. Whether this impact will be positive or negative in the long term, cannot be determined yet at this point. After all, what preceded the development of nuclear arms was Einstein’s theory of relativity. However, the development of the nuclear bomb then caused a generation to grow up in the fear of a nuclear catastrophy in the course of the Cold War, and even nowadays the possession of nuclear arms is an important asset for repressive regimes to assure their continued existence. I am referring to Iran, as you might have figured.

This is an example of how scientific progress can be a danger for the human race. One may however also argue that nuclear energy has served the human race in many ways: it provides cheap energy and helps to fulfill the energy needs of the Western societies and increasingly also those of the new emerging economies like China or Brazil.

The open question is, whether there are similar implications for Nano Technology. Which are the risks to the human race, and how could we benefit from Nano Technology? Do the risks outweigh the benefits or do the benefits outweigh the risks? In the course of this paper, I will focus only on those benefits and risks with ethical implications in order to determine whether Nano Technology offers more advantages or disadvantages from an ethical point of view.

Benefits of Nano Technology

The earth’s ressources are not unlimited and overexploitation of ressources has been directly linked to man’s uprise in the course of the industrialisation. But what happens when the ressources we depend on run short, like it is already the case with oil? Nowadays, wars are fought in order to assure the resources that we need for economic growth – like the Iraq war, where the oil seems to have been a side factor. In future, many scientists predict, there will be wars around water, because the amount of unpolluted water available for domestic use is steadily decreasing while the world’s population is increasing. And already today, clean water isn’t available for up to 1.6 billion people, according to the United Nations. Besides, an even larger number of people, up to 50% of the world’s population, don’t even have enough water to provide for their sanitary needs. Interestingly, there is more than enough water on the earth to supply for a much larger population than there is today; but the biggest part of it has been polluted and has become unusable: More than 85% of the world’s water ressources are being used for agriculture and industry. Here, Nano Technology can help in replacing certain industrial processes that require large amounts of water. Furthermore, it can help to reduce the pollution created by industrial processes. And finally, it can be used to cleanse polluted water to an extent that has not been considered possible in the past: In Fountain Valley (California, USA) drinking water is produced from sanitary wastewater. Pores on the nanometer-scale enable this new generation of water treatment plants to remove all bacteria and poisons from the polluted water. Scientific studies have shown that the water is entirely pure, in fact it is even purer than the drinking water in most countries. By the process depicted above, Nano technology can help to prevent potential future wars caused by the scarcity of water! It can help to better the living conditions of billions of people by providing new ressources of pure water. And, last but not least, this new technology can also save energy: Instead of transporting water to regions with water scarcity under the massive use of energy, a single water treatment plant could reproduce all the water needed for the population.

By providing for clean sanitation, Nano Technology can also reduce the appearance of dangerous illnesses such as Cholera or other water-related diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of people per year in poor countries. In 2009, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimated there was 1 billion people suffering from hunger in the world. By moving agriculture to greenhouses, the production of food would become far more independent from climatic conditions. Using Nano Technology, these greenhouses would be affordable on the large scale, because the water used could be „recycled“ infinitely. By virtue of greenhouses, water recycling and the betterment of sanitary conditions in poor countries, Nano Technology is likely to provide affordable ways to fight poverty in the very near future.

I will now share my point of view, that these changes in the living conditions of billions of people are the single most important condition for human development in the underdeveloped countries of our world: Please consider „Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs“ :

What this pyramid suggests is that humans actually do have a hierarchy of needs: Before our physiological needs are met, we aren’t interested in material safety. Before our safety needs aren’t met, we aren‘t interested in Social Needs. And so on. But how does this relate to Nano Technology?

Well, as stated above, Nano Technology has the potential to greatly diminish material poverty in the world. Hence, it could enable us to fulfill the physiological and safety needs of a much larger percentage of the population in poor countries( I am referring especially to the underdeveloped countries on the African continent). Now these people will start becoming interested in their societies and their country’s future development, because they finally have the mental and physical capacities to stand up for their democratic rights. In this way, Nano Technology has the power to transform societies, countries, continents by diminishing poverty!

Risks and Dangers

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