On Uncertainty in Ethics and Technology

Abstract

The article aims to examine uncertainty in technology development and its subsequent ramifications for ethical technology assessment. Although uncertainty is a pivotal feature of complex technologies, its importance has not yet been fully appreciated within the field of ethics. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to study uncertainty in technology development and its consequences for ethics. Going on the insight of other scientific disciplines such as environmental studies or economics the concept of uncertainty is disentangled and a typology of uncertainty is proposed and introduced to ethical theory. The uncertainty typology results in a series of questions with regard to the collection of information about the object of assessment (i.e. complex technologies and their development) and the framework of assessment (i.e. ethical theory and its practical aim of guiding the assessment of technology development). What is more, the uncertainty surrounding technology development has ramifications for ethical technology assessment. Any attempt to provide an account of ethics of technology may seem daunting given the fact of uncertainty, because uncertainty results in a lack of information to guide our moral decision-making. In order to deal legitimately with uncertainty, I claim that any adequate ethics of technology needs to account for both substance and procedure. The paper concludes with requirements for any future ethics of technology under uncertainty.