From speculation to reality: Enhancing anticipatory ethics for emerging technologies (ATE) in practice

Various approaches have emerged over the last several decades to meet the challenges and complexities of anticipating and responding to the potential impacts of emerging technologies. Although many of the existing approaches share similarities, they each have shortfalls. This paper takes as the object of its study Anticipatory Ethics for Emerging Technologies (ATE) to technology assessment, given that it was formatted to address many of the privations characterising parallel approaches. The ATE approach, also in practice, presents certain areas for retooling, such as how it characterises levels and objects of analysis. This paper results from the work done with the TechEthos Horizon 2020 project in evaluating the ethical, legal, and social impacts of climate engineering, digital extended reality, and neurotechnologies. To meet the challenges these technology families present, this paper aims to enhance the ATE framework to encompass the variety of human processes and material forms, functions, and applications that comprise the socio-technical systems in which these technologies are embedded.

Automated summary

Various approaches have been developed in the past few decades to address the challenges and complexities of dealing with the potential impacts of emerging technologies. Although these approaches share similarities, they each have their shortcomings. This paper focuses on Anticipatory Ethics for Emerging Technologies (ATE) as a way to address these deficiencies, but acknowledges the need for improvements in certain areas. The paper presents findings from the TechEthos Horizon 2020 project, which evaluates the ethical, legal, and social impacts of climate engineering, digital extended reality, and neurotechnologies, and aims to enhance the ATE framework to incorporate the diverse human processes and material forms in which these technologies are embedded.