Themes, arguments, predictions HSCI E137 May 11, 2011 Please fill out a course evaluation on Ext...

Themes, arguments, predictions

HSCI E137 May 11, 2011

Please fill out a course evaluation

on Ext school website

Some themes

1. The power of narrative as shaping views of biotech

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The story of technology as risk: Icarus



TechnologyAs Risk:“The Birth-mark”(1843)

The story of technology as design: the Panopticon



Technology as design: the labyrinth



TechnologyAs

Design:Gattaca



Technology as Instrument of Standardization: Brave New World



Technology as ethicaltransgression:Frankenstein (1816)

What about these stories?

• They long predate the advent of biotech.

• They are nightmares.

• They all turn on the ambiguous figure of the technical expert.

Theme #2

• The strangeness of the biotech debates

• Whence this disagreement among liberals?

The biotech debates as debates among areligious liberals

• What are the values on which liberals can no longer agree?– The role of the technical expert– The free market– Science for profit: a historical shift



J. Craig Venter inBusiness Week,2004

A historical shift in the setting of science

• From academia to corporation

• And what difference does this make?

Theme #3

• The social meaning of technology– As value-neutral– As value-laden

Predictions

• The USDA’s decisions favoring GM crops

• The expansion of forensic DNA databases

• The overturning of Lamberth’s injunction

• The striking down of Myriad’s gene patents

• The debate over DTC genetic testing

Themes, arguments, predictions HSCI E137 May 11, 2011 Please fill out a course evaluation on Ext...

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