Uncertainty & Progress: Taking Risks to Make Life Safer

Bioerror or bioterror, nuclear accidents or bombs, Skynet or HAL: the fear of dangerous new technologies is spreading and gaining intensity. Are governments equipped to decide which discoveries to ban and which to support? Do safety measures make us safer? In this workshop, we will discuss how intellectuals and policymakers have thought about risk and safety and how they have sought to justify regulating new breakthroughs. In a discussion led by philosopher Steve Fuller, we will draw on his book The Proactionary Imperative as well as Averting Catastrophe by Cass Sunstein. We will search for what principles can guide our judgment in deciding when technology is a tool or when it might become our master.

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