ABSTRACT
The scope of humankind's technological capability is immense. Man is closer today to the dream of omnipotence than he has ever been, although this dream was attested well before the age of modern technology: as Horace said, 1 'nil mortalibus ardui est'. At the same time modern society is a risk society. 2 In our age, political thought, which used to be guided by the idea of revolution, is led by a vision of future catastrophe. The heuristic that governs our technological choices is one of fear. 3 There is an apparent tension between this boundless power and this bottomless fear, which indeed lies at the very foundation of the ethics of science and technology.
