An Ethical Framework for Evaluating Experimental Technology
Open accessAbstract
How are we to appraise new technological developments that may bring revolutionary social changes? Currently this is often done by trying to predict or anticipate social consequences and to use these as a basis for moral and regulatory appraisal. Such an approach can, however, not deal with the uncertainties and unknowns that are inherent in social changes induced by technological development. An alternative approach is proposed that conceives of the introduction of new technologies into society as a social experiment. An ethical framework for the acceptability of such experiments is developed based on the bioethical principles for experiments with human subjects: non-maleficence, beneficence, respect for autonomy, and justice. This provides a handle for the moral and regulatory assessment of new technologies and their impact on society.
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According to van der Poel, the full benefits, risks, and ethical issues of a technology become evident only after its widespread adoption.
“We employ this concept in a descriptive sense to denote a situation in which – according to van der Poel – the full benefits, risks, and ethical issues of a technology become evident only after its widespread adoption95.”
From The ethics of ChatGPT in medicine and healthcare: a systematic review on large language models (LLMs) (2024) · cites this paper as [95]
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- Authors
- van de Poel, I.
- Venue
- Science and Engineering Ethics
- Published
- 2015-11-14
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 667-686
- ISSN
- 1353-3452 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-5546
- PMC
- PMC4912576
- OpenAlex
- W2173820309
- Cited by
- 143
- References
- 72
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 14.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Science and Engineering Ethics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Repository (Delft University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- NWO (277-20-003)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Bioethics and Human Rights Issues
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics and bioethics in healthcare
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Keywords
- experimental technology, social experiment, ethics of technology, bioethical principles, non-maleficence, beneficence, respect for autonomy, justice, uncertainty, social change, technology regulation, moral judgment
- MeSH terms
- Industrial Development, Humans, Social Change, Social Justice, Beneficence
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