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

The story of technology as risk: Icarus

Technology As Risk: “The Birth-mark” (1843)

The story of technology as design: the Panopticon

Technology as design: the labyrinth

Technology As Design: Gattaca

Technology as Instrument of Standardization: Brave New World

Technology as ethical transgression: 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 in Business 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