Society Impact

7/30/2019 Society Impact

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Society Impact&

Ethical Issues


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OUTLINE

Nanotechnology and Social Impact

Nano Ethics


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SOCIAL IMPACT

What will life be like in the heyday ofnanotechnology?

How will its development actually impact

people's day-to-day lives?What do they ultimately mean to me in my

life?

When will nanotechnology actually enter ourlives and become not the next big thing, butthe current one?

The answer is "NOW"

The original ideas behind nanotechnologygo back some 20 years


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INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS

This technique was first developed by Mobil andby some estimates saves approximately 400million barrels of oil per year (around $12 billion)in the United States alone.

Energy PolicyPetroleum and Oil

Refining

Zeolites

Gasoline


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COATINGS AND LAMINATES

So what forms of nanotechnology are we

most likely to see and touch?

Perhaps first on the list of consumer

nanogoods are smart materials such as

coatings and laminates.

Audi A4 Series

Cars

Reduce

Skin Cancer

The Institute for New Materials in

Germany is manufacturing windows

that contain a nanolayer of material

that changes from clear to dark bluewhen a switch is thrown. This

approach could be used as an

alternative to window shades orwindow tinting


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NANOGATE TECHNOLOGY

German and Japanese manufacturers such as NanogateTechnologies have started selling bathroom andkitchen tile that cannot get dirty since it is impossiblefor dirt and grit particles to cling to the coating

These self-cleaning tiles can also be impregnated withbiocidal (antimicrobial) nanoparticles.

This prevents growth of rots and fungi that infestbathrooms and enhances overall sanitation.

These tiles may put an end to the ever-unpleasant taskof bathroom cleaning, a prospect many might considersufficient cause to support all of nanotechnology


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COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS

Nanotechnology offers so much to the world

of computing.

Even for those who don't particularly want a

quantum computer on their desktops, a

variety of very exciting products will soon be

available.


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COMPUTER DISPLAY

CRT LCD

LED


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Nano-Tex

Advances in molecular-scale composite materials haveallowed companies like Nano-Tex to create next-generation cloth and clothing.

Materials almost totally resistant to stains

Materials that combine the comfort of cotton ornatural fibers with the strength and durability ofsynthetics like nylon are already hitting the market inproducts from Eddie Bauer, Lee Jeans, and Nano-Texparent, Burlington Industries.

These fabrics could be of great use in hospitals, wherepathogens are common and patients are currently atsignificant risk from each other's infections.


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SPORTS EQUIPMENT

Carbon fiber and graphite composites made theirdebuts in lightweight bikes and America's Cup

sailboats.

Fiberglass and plastics have been used for better

football and hockey pads.

Wilson's Double Core tennis balls use a

nanocomposite clay to keep balls bouncing longer

Babolat has introduced super-strong nanotubes intoits tennis racket line for improved torsion and flex

resistance.

Nanotubes are sure to see wider adoption in sports

equipment as their prices come down


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MEDICINE

Medicine has not traditionally been considered a consumermarket, nanotechnology may be changing that.

Home pregnancy tests have already seen improvements inease of application, speed of results, and overall accuracysince they have started employing nanoparticles, and otherhome tests are becoming feasible.

Some scientists hope to see tests for everything fromanthrax to AIDS made simple enough for self-applicationthrough the use of nanotechnology, and goods like bracesand prosthetics are already targets of early nanotechnologyventures.


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All in all, while much of the promise

of nanotechnology remains in the

future, it is already slipping into ourlives through our houses, our

computers, our games, and even our

bodies. The age of nanotechnology is

truly upon us.


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Utopian dreams

1. Pollution-free environment

2. Ideal society3. Disease-free life

4. Long and healthy life


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Apocalyptic nightmares1. War of the world

2. Epidermic of nanobots into the

food chain and ecosystems3. Economic break-down


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Nano Ethics


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Nano Ethics

Research ethics and the use of implantingnano-devices in humans: i.e. implantingartificial devices.

Liver and Eye Implantation


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Cont.

Increase of Uneven Military Power


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Cont.

Increasing of economical gap betweendeveloped and developing countries


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Cont

Increasing possibilities of misused personalinformation: i.e. revealing a medicalinformation (in a DNA chip) to an insurancecompanies


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Increasing Possibilities of Privacy Violation


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Cont

Under current laws in many countries,developers and research companies canpatent drugs as well as genetic patterns and

synthesis techniques. Researchers areafforded this patent protection for the samereasons that other firms in other industriesare awarded patentsto encourage them to

innovate and to allow them to recover thecosts of research, development, and testing oftheir products.


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Cont

More sinister applications from the darker

pages of science fiction could conceivably be

possible. For example, some organizations

might seek to create viruses that only targetpeople with specific genetic characteristics or

even to customize a virus for a specific person.


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Cont

There is already much consternation about

the ethics of human and animal cloning. Both

it and the debate over stem cells, which

essentially asks whether pre-embryonic lifecan be sacrificed in order to create treatments

that can prolong and improve the lives of

people suffering from Alzheimer's,Parkinson's, juvenile diabetes, or other

degenerative diseases


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Cont

May help unlock true artificial intelligence

If this occurs, how should artificial intelligence betreated?

What rights and privileges should it have?What if it should become self-replicating?

If interfaces between humans and computersimprove to the point where they are hard todifferentiate, what will that mean for humancivilization?

Even if nanocomputation fails to producemachines that think, one of its stated goals

is to break codes. If this reaches fruition, all

common forms of digital cryptographyfrom the sort that protects e-commerce to

the kind that protects nuclear secrets could

be compromised. The implications for

national security and for personal privacy

cannot be overstressed.


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The whole ethical debate overnanotechnology is one of the most importantreasons for the public to know what nano is

and what it could mean.Nanotechnology is already, by its very nature,

a multidisciplinary science. Perhaps we don'tneed the involvement only of scientists andengineers, but of thinkers, ethicists, lawyers,theologians, and politicians as well.


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