Caution in Wonderland
Cal Poly Professor, Colleagues Look at Science Through Lens of Ethics
By Matt Lazier
Some people fear the uncertainty of the Large Hadron Collider and its aim to recreate the aftermath of the Big Bang – with a few hypothesizing that the device will create microscopic black holes that could, possibly, swallow up the Earth.
Patrick Lin, a visiting professor of philosophy
at Cal Poly, thinks a doomsday scenario
is highly unlikely. He just wants to be
sure the possibility isn’t ignored.
“It feels like some scientists are underplaying the possible risks,” Lin said. “Even if the risk of catastrophe is one in 50 million, the world is literally at stake.”
It’s an opinion Lin holds of all science and technology – a belief that led him to co-found The Nanoethics Group, a nonpartisan collection of experts from around the world promoting discussions of ethics and emerging technologies.
Lin stressed that the group, based with him at Cal Poly, is
not anti-technology. “We like to think of ourselves as being in
the middle of the spectrum,” Lin said. “Technology is developing
at such a rapid clip that we’re inventing things faster than
we can consider their impacts. We want to raise issues of possible
concern with the advance of technology, to try to look at
issues in a more measured, sensible and grounded way.”
Lin earned a doctorate degree in philosophy from UC Santa
Barbara in 1997. He formed The Nanoethics Group in 2003
with professors from Dartmouth College and Western Michigan
University. He is the group’s research director. Its advisory
board includes 36 professors, researchers and other experts
from around the world.
So far, the group has published two anthologies of papers
and has presented research at several conferences. As well,
its research team received $250,000 in grants from the U.S.
National Science Foundation in 2006 to study human enhancement
and nanotechnology. The studies are being done
at Dartmouth and Western Michigan University. As the group
moves forward, Lin hopes to strike a better balance between
academic work and a broader presence – getting the word out
in mainstream media.
“I’m not sure how much good it does to write a paper if only 10 other people are going to see it,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to get people to think and engage.”
Meanwhile, he is working with about 30 other professors
in several disciplines at Cal Poly in the Ethics and Emerging
Technologies Working Group. The group is working on Navy funded
research with collaborators at Yale, Rutgers and Indiana
University on the military’s use of autonomous robots.
Lin hopes the group can put on conferences and start a lecture series at Cal Poly. And he is teaching a new course in the upcoming winter quarter on nanoethics. In the longer term, he hopes the group can become a full-fledged center at Cal Poly. The campus provides a perfect mix of academic disciplines and is strategically placed between San Francisco and Los Angeles, he said.
For more on The Nanoethics Group, visit www.nanoethics.org. For more on the Ethics and Emerging Technologies Working Group, visit http://ethics.calpoly.edu. For more on Lin’s thoughts on the Large Hadron Collider, visit: www.newtimesslo.com/commentary/994/armageddon-it/.