Nanotechnology and Human Factors

The topic of nanotechnology has fascinated me for several years.  The potential impact (both good and bad) to the human race, and to the planet as a whole, is substantial.

This weekend I finished reading an interesting book on this topic entitled Nanotechnology Challenges: Implications for Philosophy, Ethics and Society edited by Joachim Schummer and Davis Baird.  While most of the content was informative, the following excerpt really resonated with me:

Nanotechnology has already impacted society by virtue of its visionary character and will do so more by means of its commercial products.  Any society has from the very beginning shaped nanotechnology through visionary ideas, science fiction stories, and innovative research and funding programs.  Finally, the public relation and public debates have tried to keep up with these interactions between nanotechnology and society.  As with all technologies, the future shape of nanotechnology – or nanotechnologies – will result from these interactions between human beings, with their creative minds and skills, their hopes and fears, and their values, interests, and power relations.  The more we understand these interactions, the more we understand current and future nanotechnology, and the more we are able to shape it in a desirable and human way. (pp. 1-2)

In essence, the editors are discussing what the emerging field within the discipline of human factors and ergonomics – nanoergonomics – seeks to accomplish.  This topic has been touched upon by Waldemar Karwowski in some of his recent writings (2006a, 2006b).  Nanoergonomics focuses on designing nanotechnology “to enhance human performance and improve the quality of human life” (2006a).  I will further discuss this topic in future posts.

References

Karwowski, W. (2006a).  From past to future: Building a collective vision for HFES 2020+.  Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Bulletin, 49(11), 1-3.

Karwowski, W. (2006b).  The discipline of ergonomics and human factors.  In G. Salvendy (Ed.), Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 3rd (pp. 1-31).  Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.