• NOGUCHI Kazuhiko (symbiosis between humans and science and technology, risk management, and safety engineering)
  Visiting Professor, IAS Center for Creation of Symbiosis Society with Risk, Yokohama National University

Although there are different approaches to analyze ELSI of science and technology, we are going to analyze it from the perspective of risks here.

Risk is a concept of interaction between what has an impact and what is affected. Therefore, when examining risk, it is necessary to understand and analyze it from the perspective of both the specialist science and technology that has an impact and the ELSI perspective that is affected. The results of risk analysis will vary greatly depending on the perspective and assumptions used.

Science and technology, which is the object of study of ELSI, is composed of various areas of expertise because of its sophistication. It is becoming necessary to analyze an expert's perspective from multiple viewpoints and the understanding of science and technology also requires studies from various viewpoints.

Three important features of the analysis of science and technology are shown below:

The first is that, due to the nature of technology, subsequent technologies evolve rapidly with additional knowledge and continue to progress on the basis of the early technologies. People cannot discard the technology they have already acquired, and if clues to its development are found, it will be difficult to stop its evolution.

The second is that the impact science and technology exert on society becomes obvious in various ways. The impact of science and technology may become apparent in a short period of time, after a certain period of time, or in situations where its implementation has reached a certain level. The impact may become obvious in different ways depending on the prevalence of the technology in society, and the effects of science and technology on life and social activities may be greater with longer periods of use. In addition, the time when the content of the impact becomes obvious also differs by the speed of social implementation and the structure of the society for the implementation.

The third is that basic technology in science and technology can have unexpected developments thanks to its wide applicability, or can be used beyond the intent of the developer. In science and technology, the risk becomes more diverse and difficult to understand, when the technology has a broad range of applications.

Therefore, to understand science and technology in the context of study of ELSI, we need to assess not only the technologies, products or systems currently under development but also the potential of the science and technology.

On the other hand, ELSI, the perspective of the study, is an acronym for the concept of Ethical, Legal and Social Issues. As shown below, we attempt to organize viewpoints and assumptions in considering risks regarding ELSI.

Ethics is a concept that has been established from the past as the culmination of human experience and wisdom over the course of life, and it can be regarded as a norm for human beings to live as a group. For this reason, understanding of human beings themselves and "living" will become necessary, and understanding of historical human societies will also be necessary.

Regarding the legal viewpoint, as a mechanism for controlling science and technology, it is necessary to study the problem of technology development and the necessity of a new law mechanism, when it is considered in the system of the present law. It may also be necessary to study how a legal approach, related to cutting-edge technology with a rapid development rate, will contribute to the social implementation of advanced science and technology in the future.

When discussing social issues, we must remember that society consists of multiple parts, including countries, regions, organizations, and individuals, and the issues vary depending on from which perspective you see them.

Considering the characteristics of ELSI, we understand that it is difficult to make an appropriate analysis from a single perspective when analyzing science and technology. Furthermore, the concept of ELSI has multiple perspectives and even if you analyze it appropriately from each perspective, it is not easy to combine these analyses to organize the study of ELSI in a systematic and balanced manner.

Considering ELSI of science and technology can also affect the purpose of the analysis. When we make an analysis of the social acceptance of the technology to promote the target technology or system, we often end up in current assessment of the technology. As a result, we may not be able to understand the full potential of that technology or the system. Since science and technology are developed for the purpose of bringing affluence to society, we may lose the initiative to analyze potential undesirable effects of their nature. We make judgement fundamentally from the results obtained from a risk analysis. But in some cases, it is not appropriate to make an analysis to determine the conclusion and support the conclusion.

Science and technology can exert a large impact on society as it becomes more sophisticated. Therefore, the social problem becomes too large in recurrence prevention in which the improvement is considered after the accident is experienced. The concept of ELSI is a key concept to understand the risks of science technology in advance and consider how to deal with them.

Analyzing ELSI of science and technology is thinking about the ideal way to navigate the 21st-century society.

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