A new Rockefeller foundation funded report on Nanotechnology and the Poor : Opportunities and Risks popped out of the nanomorass today. A noble cause, and clearly these are important issues to explore, however, as previously noted in the RS/RAE report, most of them are not unique to nanotechnology.
Issues around governance, privacy, health and public engagement are relevant to all technologies which have the potential to affect society. Only when hype such as molecular manufacturing, a cure for cancer, or radical human enhancement is believed, does nanotechnology become something to be feared, controlled, or stopped altogether.
The report looks, for example, at the Drexlerian utopian vision of molecular manufacturing making developing world raw material producers obsolete without the addressing the tricky issue of whether it is better to die of dust induced emphysema or starve to death. When highlighting the fact that development agencies have little interest in funding nanotechnology, the choice between providing affordable clean water or a building a nanoscience research institute seems straightforward to us. Perhaps we are missing something?
We maintain that nanotechnology is not, and never will be a development issue any more than chemistry or physics. Nanotechnology is no ‘deus ex machina’ that will either end poverty or enslave humanity, it is merely an evolution of our understanding of the natural world. The uses that knowledge will be put to are at the mercy of the political and economic tides of the planet.
We dont need another report telling us all this again. We do need social scientists to figure it out and then to tell us how we go about doing it, and we do need development experts to guide the technology to areas where it can have a positive effect.
In fairness, this is only the opening shot in a long campaign by Meridian that we wholeheartedly support. While the report may not tell us anything new, it may, through its focus and origin, fall into the hands of those outside the nanotechnology community who may be able to stimulate the political will and action required to address development issues. In the meantime, there are a lot of things far more basic than nanotechnology that can make a much bigger difference, and we would do well to avoid missing the big picture for the sake of the minutae.
Time to get on with it