A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology

Looking Forward

Cross-national surveys conducted between 2000 and 2004 suggest that the US public continues to view science and technology more favorably than the European or Japanese publics. US government agencies, business, universities and charitable foundations continue to finance R&D at a record pace, still accounting for more than a third of the global total in 2000.⁷ American policies and institutions that foster technology-based entrepreneurship are envied and emulated the world over. Even nuclear power is getting a new look, as policy-makers begin to explore the options for addressing climate change realistically.

Voices of dissent have become fainter in recent years, with one prominent exception. Christian fundamentalists have blocked federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, which they see as murder, for several years. Yet this success is quickly crumbling as other countries and even US states leap into the void. The liberal regime of international trade, investment and communication, of which the US has been the primary sponsor, has stripped from this country the power to control the pace and direction of technological change. To understand governance of technological change in the coming century, we shall need to understand culture, institutions, organizations and individual behavior on a global scale.