S.NET IN SEATTLE (SLEEPLESS?)

CENTER FOR WORKPLACE DEVELOPMENT

Last weekend (September 8-11) the folks at the Center for Workplace Development at the University of Washington held a one-day graduate student nano-ethics program. I spoke on uncertainty and how it is used strategically by NGOs and toxicologists to secure memberships, funds, and prestige at the expense of regulation. I believe all the presentations on that day were recorded and will be posted somewhere. I have copies of my powerpoint at our NIRT site at NCSU. You can download it.

THEN CAME S.NET

S.net is a new organization or not. Its mission while well written seems to open opportunities for international cooperation especially between Europe and the United State (who dominate the organization) to engage in scholarship on the philosophy and ethics of emerging technologies (read as nanotechnology at this time). Whether we need another organization seems unclear to me. Personally, I belong to AAAS, 4S, ACS, MRS.... and am loathe to join another. Of course as you are aware I am not a philosophy professor though I am an amateur ethicist. Though I probably won't participate actively in this group, they have every right to exist but I am not sure what they are going to offer the debate over nanotechnology.

So S.net [Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies](which doesn't seem to have a dedicated web presence yet) got a $50,000 grant from the NSF to piggyback their first conference at the same site at the U Washington CWD project. There were three days of papers and some plenary presentations. I attended some. The papers were mixed as they always tend to be though the event showcases two schools more than any others: UCSB and ASU (both current CNS (Centers for Nanotechnology in Society) sites with both directors on the operating board of S.net. Hopefully, S.net will be more than a showcase for these two schools since they already have extensive press machines funded in part by the NSF. We will see. There is a call for papers for the second conference to be held in Germany (see Nanotech Now.

Presentations by Mowery, Vogt, Kysar, and Baird were accessible and informative. Mine was adequate as well. You should check out the CWD site at U Washington for more.

I am at the NISE.net meeting for three days before getting back to Raleigh on Friday.