The Survival Nexus

Download or read book The Survival Nexus written by Charles Weiss and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-13 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The impact of science and technology on world affairs is shaped by politics, economics, business, ethics, law, psychology, and culture. This nexus is a neglected aspect of international affairs. It cuts across and unites diverse issues critical to human survival: climate change, global health, nuclear weapons, Internet governance, cybersecurity, jobs, competitiveness, poverty, hunger, and the management of new technologies like autonomous weapons, hypersonic missiles, geoengineering, and gene drivers. Advances in science and technology promise both great benefits and critical threats. Appropriate policies can stimulate and guide scientific and technological advance to create new ways to achieve a healthy environment, sustainable energy systems, equitable growth, full employment, and reduced poverty. But we are allowing technology to push ourselves into uncharted and dangerous territory. Long-standing modes of international cooperation are under increasing pressure, and we are making too little effort to strengthen and update them. Nor are we building the strong global norms that we need to manage new technologies. Underlying all of the global problems discussed in this book are considerations of basic ethics: our willingness to respect scientific facts, to act today to forestall long-run dangers, and to ensure equitable sharing of the benefits, costs, and risks from advances in science and technology"--