The Ethics of Invention

Technology and the Human Future

By: Sheila Jasanoff

Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin

Technology rules us as much as laws do. It shapes the legal, social, and ethical environments in which we act. Every time we cross a street, drive a car, or go to the doctor, we submit to the silent power of technology. Yet, much of the time, the influence of technology on our lives goes unchallenged by citizens and our elected representatives.

Our embrace of novel technological pathways, Sheila Jasanoff shows, leads to a complex interplay among technology, ethics, and human rights. Inventions like pesticides or GMOs can reduce hunger, but can also cause unexpected harm to people and the environment. Advances in biotechnology have given us tools to tinker with life itself, leading some to worry that human dignity and even human nature are under threat. But despite many reasons for caution, we continue to march heedlessly into ethically troubled waters.

As Jasanoff ranges across these and other themes, she challenges the common assumption that technology is an apolitical and amoral force. Technology, she masterfully demonstrates, can warp the meaning of democracy and citizenship unless we carefully consider how to direct its power rather than let ourselves be shaped by it.

©2016 Sheila Jasanoff (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Sheila Jasanoff opens our eyes to the fact that societies are governed by technical systems as much as by the rule of law." (Professor Alfred Nordmann, Darmstadt Technical University)

Masterful Performance!

Sheila Jasanoff writes about the technologies that are impacting us in various and profound ways. Those who would like to know the background information on the technological incidents that created headlines and controversies will learn a lot from this book. However, what I like most of all is the reading, which is clear and easy to follow. I listened to the whole book in only a few days while driving back and forth from work. It's delightful.

Superb, compelling, scholarly work but awful narration

Wonderful work by Sheila Jasanoff. Timely, compelling, and necessary. Despite what I say below, this is critical listening for anyone interested in the way science and technology impact social and legal paradigms.

Sadly, the narrator is utterly robotic and places inflections in entirely the wrong places, almost clipping sentences off and sometimes making the meaning hard to discern. More and more academic work is becoming available on audiobook format, which is to be celebrated, especially where clear and concise writers like Jasanoff can be published this way, and producers actually have a duty to make such work available for public consumption. This means selecting narrators capable of both understanding and conveying meaning.