Scientists Under Scrutiny?A Critique of Responsibility

Gerald WaltherBradford Disarmament Research Centre

University of Bradford

Overview

• From Recognition to Action

• Scientific Responsibility and Codes of Conduct

• Systems Theory: Society as systems

• What is a system?

• Science as a system

• Precognition versus discovery

• A carte blanche for science?

• Dual-use: a shared responsibility

From Recognition to Action

• Recognition of a problem• Recognition of who is responsible for the problem

– Who caused it– Who needs to deal with it

• Recognition/understanding of how to deal with the problem

• Action (Implementation of plan/strategy)

Scientific Responsibility/Codes of Conduct

• Dual-use Responsibility:– Developing a culture of responsibility – Promoting responsible conduct of research

• Codes of Conduct:– e.g. Dutch Codes of Conduct:

• “A scientific practitioner is co-responsible… for the scientific and societal value of the research programmes in which he participates.”

• The emphasis is on the scientific community in terms of who is responsible for creating the problem, as well as who is responsible to deal with the problem.

Systems Theory: Society as systems

Rabbit

• Niklas Luhmann: German Sociologist, 1927 – 1988

• There is no such thing as modern society, but only an interaction of specialised subsystems

• Every subsystem fulfils a certain role:– Law, politics, science, economy, religion, etc.– Our society is thus ‘poly-contextural’

• Society is a ‘result’ of the communicative interaction between the various subsystems

• Features of a system:– Systems reduce the complexity of the world by

producing system/environment entities– The structure of the system determines the systems

internal and external relations– Further subsystems can emerge in systems to further

decrease complexity– Autopoiesis (self-reproducing) versus allopoiesis

(producing for something external)• A biological cell contains everything it needs for its own

reproduction and maintenance• An assembly line has a definite input (metal) and an output

(cars)

– While they are operationally closed, social systems are capable of communication with its environment (semipermeable)

What is a system?

Science as a system

• The system of science works according to the following binary code: true / false

• It is the only system that has this code• Anyone working according to this code is part of

the system• Because it is operationally closed, any new

operation is always dependent on past operations, as well as the structure

Precognition versus discovery

• Replace true/false with harm/benefit– No more knowledge, just mere opinions– Truth (knowledge) becomes normative

• By asking about risk, the future interferes with the present operation

• Risk also requires science to reveal its own uncertainties:– Our understanding of technology operates retrograde

• E.g. Challenger mission 1986; leaky O-rings

• Risk of Paralysis: the answer for science is to fall back to its original binary code true/false

• Responsible for their work but also for non-work

A carte blanche for science?

• If science is unable to deal with questions of harm/benefit and risks, can it add nothing to the question of dual-use?

• Politics may ask scientific question about dual-use:– If you want to misuse this technology, what would you

need? How would you do it?– What is required to turn this research finding into a

weapon? Equipment? Personnel?

• Science knows about science and technology

Dual-Use: A shared responsibility

• If science is indeed unable to deliver on precognition on harm/benefit of research and technology, it falls into the political domain to develop tools to deal with dual-use concern as they come along

• Politics can ask for the help of science, if they are scientific questions

• Scientist should be educated about dual-use, not because they are responsible for it, but because they need to understand the political and security challenges that are associated with the products of their system.

• Education might help to open up communication channels between these two systems