Tsjalling Swierstra
NEST Ethics Reproductive technologies, cloning, genetic modification of plants and (non)human animals, These recent examples illustrate how New and Emerging Science and Technology sometimes provokes fierce ethical controversies in society. In my lecture I will explore the recurring argumentative patterns and rhetorical tropes that characterize these controversies. Biotechnology and Brave New World It has become quite common to refer to the dystopian world Aldous Huxley sketched in 1932 as an illustration of the immanent dangers of modern biotechnology, and converging technologies more in general. I will argue that in fact Brave New World has little to tell about biotechnology, and that the attitudes and values that Huxley proposed as an alternative have become either outdated, or adopted by the proponents of the biotechnological revolution. Click here for more info on Dr. Swierstra. |