SOCIAL CONTROL OF

SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 14 Popular arguments used to defend

and oppose SCOST Six most Influential Forms of SCOST

Is there a need for

society to attempt to control its scientific

and technologic

al enterprise

and activities?

Justification• Unprecedented magnitude of the

potential effects or consequences of some modern scientific or technological innovations.

Rebuttal• Firms are responsible for any loss.

Justification• Importance of fostering freedom in

the form of voluntary consumer choices.

Rebuttal• Concerned citizens can obtain all

pertinent information if they but make effort.

Justification• So much contemporary scientific and

technological activity is funded, in whole or in part, with government money, a significant part of which is ultimately derived from the taxpaying public.

Rebuttal• If technically knowledgeable researchers

were given total control over the allocation of government funding, better technical outcomes would result.

SIX INFLUENTIAL MODES OF SCOST

1. Government RegulationWatershed- government regulation of

scientific and technological activities in the private sector is a permanent feature of the landscapes of Western industrial societies.19th century- advent of the high-pressure steam boat that gave rise to the 1st restrictive government regulation of a sector of private industry

Between 1816 and 1851- 235 steamboats exploded (many on Mississippi River) losing 3,000 lives.

Steamboat Explosion in Mississippi

Current Situation- 1852 law gave rise to the first of the many government regulatory agencies and positive regulatory activities. Thus, employing 112,300 people fulltime at a cost of almost $9 billion.

An Important Recent Case- Proliferation of government regulation was making American business less competitive. Ronald Reagan made “regulatory relief” his new economic program, ensuring cost-benefit-risk analysis bulked larger in the formulation and adoption of government regulations.

Outstanding Issues- executive agencies are subject to periodic politicization. In the early and mid 1980s an effort was made to remove or reduce regulatory restraints on business (due to a business-oriented president).

“Primary role of government: Increase industrial activity and profits or to protect workers and

the public?”

2. GOVERNMENT FUNDING AND PERFORMANCE

OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYWatershed- research and

development effort to build an atomic bomb (The Manhattan Project). The A-bomb effort was a watershed episode in SCOST in two ways:

1. National defense2. Federal government’s

assuming a controlling position vis-à-vis basic scientific research in the postwar era.

Current Situation (With regards to funding) - Amount spent on research and development work in 1989 is $ 130.8 billion. Three fifths of the money expended in academia in basic research

Recent Important Cases of Government Funding of Science and Technology-

Two most important government research and development: Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or the “Star Wars”

project Space Transportation System or the “Space Shuttle”

projectThese are devoted to developing a space-based weapon system and to develop a means of routinizing transportation of people and cargo between earth and a future space station.

Stars Wars Project

Space Shuttle Project

Outstanding Issues and ProblemsSkewing effect of the Big Science and

Technology trend on American research and development

The lack of a coherent, carefully prioritized government science and technology policy

Exceedingly costly Big Science and Technology projects:• Space Station ($13-$30 billion)• Superconducting supercollider ($4-$6 billion)• Hypersonic jet aircraft ($3-$12 billion)• 15-year to sequence human genome ($3 billion)• Test Reactor ($1 billion)

Funding such megaprojects has the effect of denying capital funding to less visible, less grandiose small projects.

“Science in the U.S. is dying of gigantism… big projects are the worst way to arrive at basic discoveries.”- Philip Anderson (Nobel laureate)

Nondefense-related research and development

• Federal republic of Germany (1986)- 2.6 %

• Japan (1985)- 2.75%• United States (1987)- 1.88%

Germany Japan United States

00.5

11.5

22.5

3

Development Fund

Development Fund

3. Product Liability Litigation

Watershed- product in question, under certain conditions its producers can be found liable for distributing or installing it and can be made to pay compensatory and, possibly, punitive damages.

Manufacturer can be found liable for one of its products:NegligenceBreach warrantyMisinterpretationStrict liability

Current Situation- product liability suits filed in U.S. federal courts have proliferated in recent years

1975 1985 1,579 13,554

Recent Noteworthy Cases1. Dalkon Shield intrauterine birth control device

(IUD)- Between 1971 and 1974, 2.7 million American women purchased

Many suffered infertility, birth defects, spontaneous abortions, traumatic infections and 20 deaths attributed to the Dalkon IUD.

2. Grimshaw v. Ford Motor Co.- a California jury awarded a plaintiff $127.8 million in damges against Ford “as a result of an accident caused when 1972 Ford Pinto stalled on a freeway and was hit from behind by another car. The gas tank exploded and the Pinto burned, killing the driver and seriously injuring her passenger.

Outstanding Issues and Problems- difficulty of establishing the causes of certain harms suffered by humans.Ex.• Case of Agent Orange (1984)- an herbicidal

defoliant containing dioxin. The suit ended in a $180 million out-of-court settlement.

• Case of diethylstilbestrol (DES)- an FDA-approved drug to prevent miscarriage. DES is held responsible for over 300 cases of cancer in “DES daughters”.

Due to the DES case of Sindell v. Abbott Laboratories, “market share

doctrine of product liability” was promulgated by the court.

4. Mechanisms for Environmental and Technological AssessmentWatershed- in the closing years of

the war in Vietnam, NEPA was passed in the Congress to “declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment.”

This mandated prospective analysis is referred as Environmental Impact Statements (EIS).

Current Situation- the Office of the Technology Assessment (OTA) is on controversial topics that the executive branch no longer monopolizes the terms of technical information sources feeding into government debates on such issues via release of the position papers generated by its own agencies.

Recent Noteworthy Cases- 10-year struggle over the project along the west side of Manhattan Island (1974). 11th year was the revocation of the project because of its effect on the river’s striped bass population.

Outstanding Issues and Problems- EIS has the problem in the case of regulation.

5. Public ParticipationWatersheds-citizens have been asked to approve

or disapprove of the start-up, continuation, expansion, or restriction either of nuclear power in general or of particular facilities.

Current Situation and Noteworthy Recent Cases- two things are striking about this citizen-initiative exercise in SCOST.1. Control is exercised by shifting the burden of proof

from “innocent until proven guilty” to “guilty until proven innocent”.

2. Implementation of the law and the degree to which it imposes a burden on commerce will depend critically on the precise operational meanings given to vague phrases such as “clear and reasonable warnings” and “no significant risk”.

Outstanding Unresolved Issues and Problems- effectively “buy” the desired outcomes of private parties and voters are called upon to simply vote “yes” or “no”.

6. Legislative Limits on Science and TechnologyLandmarks- (tech. development)

Termination of the commercial supersonic transport (SST) aircraft in America.• $839 million already spent (the

Congress voted not to provide any more money)

- (Science development) post-World War II controversial prohibitions: “Delaney Clause” forbids the inclusion in food, drugs, or cosmetics, of any additives shown to be carcinogenic in humans or laboratory animals (zero-risk standard)

Current Situation- abandonment of some projects seem advisable to the very legislative bodies that authorized their initiation

ex. American SST project

- post-World War II era of life sciences emerged but legislative bodies have been asked to seriously consider various kinds of bans or forced discontinuations of research.

Noteworthy Recent Cases and Developments- bans in the last decade are reproductive biology, embryology, and genetics.

*researches at issue is not prohibited per se, but rather banned unless it meets certain conditions. Thus:• Commercial surrogate motherhood BANNED• Surrogate motherhood per se ALLOWED• Embryos beyond 14 days after fertilization

BANNED• “spare” embryos from in vitro fertilization

ALLOWED

Outstanding Issues and Problems• pressure on the right to freedom of

scientific inquiry.• Funding needs of Big Science and

Technology projects• Delaney clause• “Mature discrimination or filtering out

unwanted costs?”• No consensus exists about the proper role

of democratic legislature in advancing or moderating the pace of developments in controversial new fields of science and technology

CONCLUSION Survey indicates that the SCOST mechanism evolved by modern industrial societies,

particularly in U.S., is a complex, hydra-headed

construct.

Taken together, these modes of SCOST may be seen as

potential parts of a kind of comprehensive trial process

that all contemporary scientific and technological endeavors must undergo.

Such an endeavor is subject to intervention by potent social forces attempting to shape its

nature, channel its course, or modify its conditions and likely

consequences.