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Science and technology have suffused all aspects of human
life. Some critics allege that science and technology reinvent what it
means to be human, as they collectively influence and control how people
perceive and understand themselves and the rest of the natural world. Also,
the imperatives and discoveries of science and technology create new
possibilities for human interactions and beliefs, and by so doing they
reconfigure ethical domains. Finally, the rational scientific and
technological perspectives have become for many the principal approach for
answering questions about cultural, social, political, educational, and
ethical values. These are the complex issues that this year’s speakers and
events for CEWS will attempt to examine.
Key thematic queries for the year include:
What is gained in the processes of technical enhancement and
scientific discovery and what is lost?
How do science and technology affect our sense of who we are
as a people, as a species?
Are science and technology remaking the human being and, if
so, how exactly?
Are science and technology thwarting or enhancing the human
potential to be good or to be evil?
Has technology become an end in itself rather than a means to
a human end?
Are human behavior and thought becoming more machine-like as
powerful technologies and the scientific enterprise dominate all aspects of
human life?
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