The Ethics of Invention, Sheila Jasanoff
The Ethics of Invention, Sheila Jasanoff
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The Ethics of Invention
Technology and the Human Future

Author: Sheila Jasanoff

Narrator: Jo Anna Perrin

Unabridged: 9 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/25/2016


Synopsis

Technology rules us as much as laws do. It shapes the legal, social, and ethical environments in which we act. Every time we cross a street, drive a car, or go to the doctor, we submit to the silent power of technology. Yet, much of the time, the influence of technology on our lives goes unchallenged by citizens and our elected representatives.

Our embrace of novel technological pathways, Sheila Jasanoff shows, leads to a complex interplay among technology, ethics, and human rights. Inventions like pesticides or GMOs can reduce hunger but can also cause unexpected harm to people and the environment. Advances in biotechnology have given us tools to tinker with life itself, leading some to worry that human dignity and even human nature are under threat. But despite many reasons for caution, we continue to march heedlessly into ethically troubled waters.

As Jasanoff ranges across these and other themes, she challenges the common assumption that technology is an apolitical and amoral force. Technology, she masterfully demonstrates, can warp the meaning of democracy and citizenship unless we carefully consider how to direct its power rather than let ourselves be shaped by it.

About Sheila Jasanoff

Sheila Jasanoff is a professor of science and technology studies at Harvard Kennedy School. She is the author of many books on technology, including Science and Public Reason and Designs on Nature. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ryan on January 24, 2017

This was a pretty good overview of some of the ethical policy issues surrounding technology, though Jasanoff focuses more on biotechnology than other technologies. (GMOs in both food and non-food, cloning, etc.). She lays out her argument against three ideas: Technological determinism (the idea that......more

Goodreads review by JC on February 20, 2021

I’ve been in the process of preparing an application to an STS program the past few weeks, and have been actively trying to integrate more STS literature into my reading lists. Sheila Jasanoff helped found the STS program at Cornell and now directs Harvard’s STS program, so I thought her work might......more

Goodreads review by Alejandro on September 02, 2022

An interesting book about the role of ethics and the development of the law in technology-driven innovation. Jasanoff a legal scholar with studies and experience in Science and Technology in Society (STS), focuses on bioengineering related topics like genetically modified organisms, cloning, and dru......more

Goodreads review by Devon on August 02, 2024

If you have ever felt uncomfortable being told to simply "vote with your dollars" as the world around you moves forward at 100 mph and changes with each new technology, this would be a fascinating read. Jasanoff shows us why being an informed consumer is not enough- we need more ways as everyday cit......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on December 12, 2018

Sheila Jasanoff reminds us that technology, in many ways, is an embedded politics. Its design and its promotion are never value-neutral, even if they are often treated as such. She highlights--and debunks--three central fallacies that dominate conventional wisdom around technology: (1) the determini......more