Governance Challenges of Technological Revolutions

[Brian Lucas Kim]

When addressing the regulations regarding the development and use of new technologies such as the internet/e-commerce, biotechnology and nanotechnology, Fukuyama and Wagner believed that new forms of governance are needed. They note regulation difficulties created by trying to control the intangible (e.g. internet commerce and genetic-enhancing biotechnological medicines) and allowing for difference of cultural ethics when regulating technologies (e.g. designer babies and genetically modified foods). They suggest using international regulatory agencies such as standard setting bodies, citizen councils, or non-government organizations.

As you consider possible solutions to the problems identified by Fukuyama and Wager, please also consider the following questions:

• What powers should international organizations have to enforce their decisions?
• How would political power be reshaped if International Organizations had power to make and enforce international laws?
• Could/should biotechnology be regulated on a national level according to each culture, and if so, how would this be accomplished?
• Do you foresee a possible future where these technologies do not need to be regulated? Why?

[Charlie Page]

I think that it is very difficult at this point in time to give an international body significant authority to enforce its decisions. I feel that for the authority of an institution to be accepted by those subject to it, there has to be some cohesiveness and shared identity. For instance, most Han Chinese have common culture that ties them together, allowing them to be controlled by a central government. If you tried to rule a billion people, but people from divergent cultures with no common identity, people would not feel like members of a group but like subjects of oppression. Imagine trying to fuse India and the United States into one country. Most Americans would not feel so much like regular citizens but slaves to the will of Indian voters.
Thus, I feel any international accords must be enforced as they are in the modern UN, with diplomacy, bribes and trade sanctions, even if technology renders purely national laws ineffective. If people are going to Peru for designer babies, it may be undesirable, but it is less so than the monster a powerful international government would unleash. Maybe one day there will be enough world identity for people to support a more powerful international government. For now, such a thing would only be tyranny.