ABSTRACT
The positive and negative interplay between technology and social processes is much too complicated to comprehend if only one aspect, technology, rather than technology in the context of society as a whole is dealt with. There are typical ways to defend oneself against such threats: by "not hearing" or misunderstanding the speaker's choice of points of emphasis and context of qualifying remarks; by translating and transforming what he emphasizes into a problem or a syntax with which the auditor is comfortable and familiar, thereby shifting the plane of discourse; by attending to the speaker's mood rather than to what he says, and so on. In the application of biological technology—-the engineering of man's biological self and his biological enviroment—we will face moral, ethical, psychological, and political issues, which will make those faced by the atomic scientists look like child's play.
