Challenge the future Delft University of Technology Responsibility issues in the governance of responsible innovation Ibo van de Poel, Philosophy

2 Responsible Innovation Overview Responsible innovation Responsibility Governance of responsible innovation Responsibility problems Directions for solutions

3 Responsible Innovation What is Responsible Innovation?

4 Responsible Innovation Responsible Research and Innovation is a transparent, interactive process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually responsive to each other with a view to the (ethical) acceptability, sustainability and societal desirability of the innovation process and its marketable products (in order to allow a proper embedding of scientific and technological advances in our society). (Von Schomberg 2012)

5 Responsible Innovation European Union The European Commission (EC) … wants to promote the responsible use of science and technology both within the European Union (EU) and worldwide. This goal involves striking a balance between ethical and socio-cultural diversity, both at the EU level and globally, while respecting internationally recognized fundamental values ― and promoting their further development. (Directorate-General for Research and Innovation EU. (2012). Ethical and RegulatoryChallenges to Science and Research Policy at the Global Level.

6 Responsible Innovation

7 Process and product dimension Procedural Accountability Transparency Stakeholder involvement Product That reflects deeply held public values Safety Sustainability Privacy Justice etc.

8 Responsible Innovation What is Responsibility?

9 Responsible Innovation Notions of responsibility Cause Task or role Capacity Virtue The (moral) obligation to see to it that Accountability Blameworthiness Liability.

10 Responsible Innovation Moral responsibility Backward-looking Accountability Blameworthiness Liability Forward-looking Obligation Virtue

11 Responsible Innovation Governance of responsible innovation

12 Responsible Innovation Governance ProductProcess Backward-looking responsibility Forward-looking responsibility

13 Responsible Innovation Governance ProductProcess Backward-looking responsibility Product liabilityISO 9000 Forward-looking responsibility VSDCTA

14 Responsible Innovation Implications for governance We would like to further all four kinds of responsibility But can we at the same time? Responsibility problems may arise

15 Responsible Innovation Responsibility problems

16 Responsible Innovation Three types of responsibility problems Trade-offs between the four kinds of responsibility Problem of many hands Uncertainty and ignorance

17 Responsible Innovation Trade-offs: an example DC-10 Crashed just outside Paris on 3 March 1974, killing all 346 people on board. Cause was a cargo door that opened Problem was known (a memorandum by Convair engineer Applegate in 1972) Convair and McDonnell Douglas took no action, allegedly partly out of fear of liability (“better not to know of the problem”) Seems to reveal tension between backward-looking and forward-looking responsibility

18 Responsible Innovation Trade-offs Forward-looking responsibility requires learning, transparency, and willingness to act This may be at odds with backward-looking responsibility Maybe not with accountability But certainly with blameworthiness and (legal) liability To avoid blame and liability, people might prefer not to know or not to act which hinders learning and the assuming of forward- looking responsibility

19 Responsible Innovation The problem of many hands The problem of many hands (PMH) occurs if a collective is morally responsible for φ, while none of the individuals making up the collective is morally responsible for φ Can apply to different kinds of reponsibility Forward-looking and backward-looking

20 Responsible Innovation Avoiding responsibility Accepting responsibility

21 Responsible Innovation Problem of many hands The allocation of (forward-looking) responsibility in the case of secondary emissions may lead to problem of many hands: Many people are involved and division of tasks and responsibility is unclear. Each of the parties tends to allocate responsibility to others. “Nobody” is responsible.

22 Responsible Innovation Uncertainty: an example EU Council Directive 85/374/EEC for product liability Article 7 The producer shall not be liable as a result of this Directive if he proves: (…) (e) that the state of scientific and technical knowledge at the time when he put the product into circulation was not such as to enable the existence of the defect to be discovered (…)

23 Responsible Innovation Types of ‘uncertainty’ HazardPossibility that a technology causes undesirable effects Risk Specification of a hazard, usually in terms of probabilities and consequences Uncertainty Situation in which hazards are known but cannot be expressed as risks due to a lack of knowledge IgnoranceSituation in which hazards are unknown Indeterminacy Consequences (hazards) are causally open, for example because they depend on user or operator behaviour Ambiguity Situation in which there are different disagreeing perspectives on the nature and the (un)desirability of a hazard

24 Responsible Innovation Uncertainty and responsibility Uncertaintymay be an excuse in the case of backward-looking responsibility (esp. blameworthiness and liability) Uncertainty makes it more difficult to take forward-looking responsibility at the product level At the process level, uncertainty may be less of a problem

25 Responsible Innovation Directions for solutions Trade-offs Design approach to governance/responsibility distribution: institutional design Problem of many hands Procedural approach to distribute responsibility (Doorn) Based on John Rawl’s WRE approach Uncertainty New technologies as social experiments Conditions for morally responsible experimentation