ZPEnergy.com - The Virtue of Innovation and the Technological Imperative

By Andrew Apel
"The rise of the precautionary principle in public policy and international relations has called into question the role technological innovation should be allowed to play in society. [1] According to the precautionary principle, no novel technology, regardless of its benefits, should be deployed if it poses risks to human health or the environment. [2] Under some interpretations of the principle, these risks need not even be testable hypotheses, but may merely be posited. [3] In the latter case, the principle merely says that technological innovation is too dangerous to be allowed.

Critics of technological advance have also invented a doctrine which is antithetical to the precautionary principle, and dubbed it the ‘technological imperative.’ In its first formulation, this doctrine only existed as a ‘straw man’ argument, something put forth so that it may be attacked at convenience by its creators. The doctrine has no canonical statement, its existence is at best claimed to be "implicit," it has no discernible champions, yet its critics abound. [4]

In spite of its dubious origins and lack of formulation, the technological imperative actually exists in Western philosophy and jurisprudence. In ethics technological invention is a virtue and in law it is protected and encouraged; and in both, a duty exists to allow the dissemination and use of novel technology..."

Read the whole article at: Virtue of Innovation