ANNUAL REPORTS
These reports contain a more or less complete accounting of the activities of the
USC nSTS group for each academic year since 2003-2004.
Comming soon: 2005-2006, 2006-2007.
2004-2005
Annual Report
2003-2004
Annual Report
EARLY HISTORY OF THE GROUP
On June 15, 2001 the NanoCenter at the University of South Carolina was founded.
But the pursuit of nanoscale research here—and elsewhere—takes on a
particular intellectual risk. Gary Stix characterizes it in a recent issue of
Scientific American: "Any advanced research carries inherent risks.
But nanotechnology bears a special burden. The field's bid for respectability is
colored by the association of the word with a cabal of futurists who foresee nano
as a pathway to a technical utopia: unparalled prosperity, pollution-free industry,
even something resembling eternal life." Caught between nano-visionaries and
nano-skeptics, "the nanotech field struggles for cohesion" and a clear
definition. Even serious publications and reports about the totally new promise
of research at the nanoscale echo many of the nano-visionaries' predictions.
Though they indirectly profit from, and are to some extent inspired by the
"hype" surrounding nanotechnology, serious scientists need to distance
themselves from such overreaching claims. They need to do so not only for reasons
of intellectual honesty, but also because overstated technological promise has a
flipside: It can easily engender irrational fears that undermine public acceptance.
The field's bid for respectability therefore concerns not only its standing in the
larger scientific community but also its perception by those who shape public
understanding of science and technology.
In July 2001, a number of humanities scholars at the University of South Carolina
formed a Working Group for the Study of the Philosophy and Ethics of Complexity and
Scale [SPECS]. Their goal is to develop a scientifically, philosophically and
ethically informed understanding of the critical developments of the sciences and
technologies that are set to define and transform the 21st century: nanoscience
and nanotechnology, robotics, genetic engineering, earth systems science, the
study of complex and autocatalytic systems. One of the group's first topics for
discussion was Bill Joy's "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us." Joy moves
far too hastily from contentious predictions to a sweeping call for a moratorium
on many kinds of basic research. Nonetheless, his dystopian vision should stimulate
careful scrutiny of how basic research takes shape in the wider context of the
university, the economy, and contemporary culture. This is SPECS's task. A search
of databases in the history and philosophy of science and technology revealed that
nanoscale science and technology had received only limited attention. This also held
in the area of legal studies. The March 2001 NSF report, Societal Implications of
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, produced a template for discussion but left
particular investigations for the future. SPECS was therefore the first university-based
interdisciplinary initiative to bring close scrutiny to this new area of science and
technology. In August 2001 SPECS received seed funding from USC's Office of Research
for AY 2001/02. By December 2001 SPECS had consolidated as a Nanoscale Interdisciplinary
Research Team, and had submitted an application to NSF for a NIRT grant. that was
partially funded for 2002/03. We were encouraged to reapply in 2002 for a full four-year
award (July 2003 through June 2007), which we finally received with a research proposal
entitled "From Laboratory to Society: Developing an Informed Approach to Nanoscale
Science and Technology" (see media coverage).
Since then the group has continously been increased with new team
members having joined us and new projects of research,
education, and outreach having
been added.
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