ABSTRACT
A defining characteristic of being human is making and using technology; a defining characteristic of human society today is a collective interest in managing technology, along with both its benefits and its risks. Technology is largely responsible for the looming threat of CO2-induced climate change, as well as offers potential remedies such as alternative energy production and alternative forms of transportation that contribute less to the average individual’s carbon footprint, alongside more radical and controversial solutions such as geoengineering. Technologies also raise other questions and concerns. These include concerns over ethics, access to benefits, exposure to risks, and economic impacts. As technologies first emerge, there are often more uncertainties than answers as to what benefits will actually be realized by most people and what foreseen and unforeseen risks will emerge—nanotechnology is no exception. Technology thus presents us with powerful potentialities and great uncertainty.
