The Mission of Science and Technology Ethics Research and Education in Our Era
title: "The Mission of Science and Technology Ethics Research and Education in Our Era" slug: "fanchunping-tech-ethics-education-mission-2019.en" date: "2019-08-26" category: "education" author: "Fan Chunping" excerpt: "How should ethical principles and norms for science and technology be established? How can relevant personnel deeply internalize them and translate them into action? How should ethical violations be punished? These questions require a long process of consensus-building and educational outreach."
The Mission of Science and Technology Ethics Research and Education in Our Era
Author: Fan Chunping (Senior Editor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology)
Published in Guangming Daily, Theory Section, August 26, 2019
The world today finds itself amid a new scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. Fueled by advances in data technology and network technology, the efficiency of translating research outcomes has increased dramatically. The physical sciences, life sciences, information technology, artificial intelligence, new materials, new energy, aerospace—all are developing at breathtaking speed. Frontier scientific research is penetrating the deepest layers of material structure and natural law, bringing humanity enormous benefits while simultaneously introducing immense uncertainties and risks.
On July 24, 2019, the ninth meeting of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform approved the Plan for Establishing the National Science and Technology Ethics Committee, stating: "Science and technology ethics constitute the value standards that scientific and technological activities must observe. The purpose of establishing the National Science and Technology Ethics Committee is to strengthen overall planning, guidance, and coordination, and to promote the construction of a comprehensive, clearly oriented, well-regulated, and coordinated ethical governance system for science and technology."
Characteristics and Challenges of Contemporary Technological Risk
Because technological applications have now reached deep into material structures and natural laws, with multiple disciplines intersecting and the world interconnected in all dimensions, the risks of contemporary technology exhibit the following characteristics: comprehensiveness, systemic depth, chain-reaction effects, and exponential growth.
Such risk characteristics pose three types of challenges to technological and social development:
First, challenges to values and academic principles: Whether core scientific values such as "science for science's sake" and "no forbidden zones in scientific research" need to be reevaluated.
Second, challenges from economic and international competition: Frontier technology applications are often tied to economic and even national competitiveness, creating a "prisoner's dilemma" dynamic.
Third, practical challenges: The path from "ought" to "is" is far from straightforward. If abstract ethical principles cannot be translated into concrete technical details, the macroscopic consensus is effectively nullified.
What Is Science and Technology Ethics For?
Ethics, as a code of moral conduct, involves both conventional wisdom and rational construction. Ethical norms are soft measures, but the state of ethics marks the level of civilization of a society, an organization, and individuals—and will also determine the direction of humanity's future.
Science and technology ethics is the embodiment of general human ethics in the domain of science and technology. It requires the scientific-technological system to fulfill its social responsibility of promoting healthy societal development and benefiting humanity. The best prevention is to institutionalize ethical constraints into the details of technology and management, and to embed them deep within human consciousness.
The Era Calls for Science and Technology Ethics Research and Education
The research tasks for science and technology ethics lie at three levels: first, value choices and theoretical foundations; second, the construction of ethical theories, principles, and normative systems for science and technology; and third, how to translate abstract ethical principles and normative systems into management practice and technical details.
Ethical norms can only become spontaneous behavior requiring no reminder when they are deeply rooted in the substratum of personal values. This demands that all current and future scientific and technological personnel fully understand the value, history, and logic of science and technology ethics—and this can only be achieved through education.
Published in Guangming Daily, Theory Section, August 26, 2019