ABSTRACT
Technology is a social process. Each technological delivery system involves a constellation of people and institutions in an intricate web of communications, using a wide range of knowledge beyond the purely scientific. The roots of science and technology advice thus lie in ethics. But the wings lie in foresight, in the notion of radar for the ship of state to detect opportunities as well as hazards. The Science and Technology Policy Act of 1976 made this concept abundantly clear. Far more issues on the President's agenda depend on the structure and processes of technology than on science. Quite apart from expanding the theater of parameters in technological choice by looking at broader social, economic, political and ecological effects, technology assessment (TA) also can illuminate future consequences of today's options. The social management of technology becomes a matter of moral vision as well as technical.
