A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology

5. How Special Is Technology?

It is a common view among risk analysts that all risk issues should be treated with uniform criteria. If this is done, then risk management decisions can be so adjusted that the (marginal) price paid for a saved life is the same in all social sectors. This may seem fine in theory, but in practice any attempt to implement this idea will run into severe difficulties. Risk issues are dispersed over the whole social agenda; more often than not, they are parts of various larger and more complex issues. Traffic safety is closely connected to issues of traffic and community planning. It is often impossible to divide the costs of a traffic investment in a non-arbitrary way between costs of improved safety and costs of improved accessibility. Workplace safety issues are similarly integrated with issues of industrial productivity, etc. In short, the risk issues of different social sectors all have important aspects that connect them to other issues in their respective sectors. Therefore, we cannot base risk decisions on a unified calculation for all social sectors without introducing a far-reaching system of central planning for all these sectors.

The more general lesson to be learned from this is that issues of risk and our technological future cannot be isolated from other social issues. They have to be treated in the same decision procedures as other issues. In particular, there is no reason to refer them to more technocratic or expert-dominated forums than ...