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Science, Technology, and Society
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Mission

The Program on Science, Technology, and Society studies the moral, political, philosophical, and social questions posed by modern science and technology.
 
As a method of accumulating factual knowledge, science has been wildly successful, even exceeding the hopes of the philosophers who launched the scientific enterprise some four centuries ago. Yet very fundamental questions -- especially relating to how science shapes our values by transforming our understanding of the world and ourselves -- remain as significant as ever. These questions are especially critical in America, the nation that most shapes scientific and technological progress and the world. What is the appropriate role of science in the formulation of public policy? What are the responsibilities of the scientist as a citizen? What role ought educators and the press play in ensuring that our democracy is not just well-informed about science and technology, but actually thoughtful about the problems it provokes? And how can we embrace the benefits of technological advancement without allowing the transforming effects of technology to erode the principles and values we cherish?

To answer these and other questions, the program hosts public lectures and conferences, and its fellows and scholars publish books and articles in leading magazines and newspapers. Also, the program joins EPPC’s Program on Biotechnology and American Democracy in publishing the widely acclaimed new journal, The New Atlantis.

Latest News & Publications

Indignity and Bioethics
Steven Pinker discovers the human-dignity cabal.
By Yuval Levin
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Human dignity has long been a contentious subject in American bioethics. A frequently employed if ill-defined concept in European political life, in international law, and in the ethical tradition of the West, dignity has had a particularly hard time finding its precise meaning and place in the Anglo-American sphere.
Everyone Is Talking
By Christine Rosen
Monday, April 21, 2008
A new technology has disrupted the unspoken social rules that had previously governed public space, and people are left searching for ways to reinstate them -- some more effective than others. But the technology itself, of course, is more than the enemy of decorum.
For the Love of the Game
Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, the Mitchell Report, and the adulteration of American sports.
By Eric Cohen, Leon R. Kass
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
While the Mitchell Report about steroids in major-league baseball gives voice to a widespread concern about the disturbing effects of performance-enhancing drugs on modern athletics, it also demonstrates our inability (or unwillingness) to confront the deeper sources of the trouble. We seem to know that biotechnological enhancement is a threat to the "integrity of the game," but we cannot really articulate why. The reason is that we have lost an understanding of what makes sports truly admirable, and hence worthy of our attention and our devotion.
The Clipboard of the Future
Why Health Care Records Are So Low-Tech
By James C. Capretta
Monday, March 3, 2008
Most Americans have instantaneous access to their banking records over the Internet, but they never see their medical records. They do not have ready access to their children's immunization history, they forget the last time they had their cholesterol checked, and they generally have no idea what all the tests they have had over the years mean for their future. In EPPC's journal The New Atlantis, Fellow James C. Capretta explains how information technology could improve American health care.
Technology and Society
The New Atlantis, Fall 2004/Winter 2005
TiVo, iPod, and the Age of Egocasting

EPPC fellow Christine Rosen was interviewed on National Public Radio about her article New Atlantis article analyzing the rise of personalized entertainment and asking whether TiVo, iPod, and other "egocasting" devices really improve the quality of American culture. 

What They Say
Leon Kass
Leon R. Kass
American Enterprise Institute

"The Center is a pillar of moral seriousness and a beacon of moral clarity.  Through its conferences and publications, it offers indispensable and profound analyses of the most important moral and political issues of our time – from matters of war and peace to the challenges technology raises for human freedom and dignity.  It is a unique and uniquely valuable institution." 

Robert Park and Robert Zubrin
Major Debate on Space Policy
Zubrin and Park square off

Two leading commentators on space policy discussed President Bush's new vision for NASA at EPPC in February 2004. Sparks flew as Robert Zubrin, a leading advocate of manned space exploration, and Robert Park, a leading critic, debated face to face for the first time. 

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