Foresight Nanotech Institute Public Policy

Foresight Institute focuses its public policy activities on maximizing the benefits and minimizing the downsides of nanotechnology. Our highest priority is identifying and promoting policies that can assist with the Foresight Nanotech Challenges.

Addressing these challenges involves many policy areas: from setting an appropriate level of safety research funding, to exploring how to increase access to nanotechnologies; from helping promote specific technical breakthroughs, to reviewing how publicly funded nanotech patents can be better administered for greatest societal benefit.

As the largest civil society organization focused specifically on nanotechnology issues, Foresight Institute uses a variety of processes to develop and deliver policy education and recommendations. These include commissioning policy studies, speaking on policy topics for diverse audiences, testifying for government committees, briefing the press on policy matters, conducting surveys, and discussing policy issues in open online public discussions.

Individuals and organizations are invited to participate in Foresight policy activities. We encourage your suggestions for policy study topics, critiques of our positions on the issues, and comments on our weblog.

We are particularly interested in cooperating with other organizations in policy studies on how nanotechnologies will affect their areas of concern, from medicine, to the environment, the developing world, and other areas that will experience a strong impact from nanotech. Individuals are invited to join as Foresight members, and corporations can participate through corporate membership, conference sponsorship, or underwriting policy studies of mutual interest. Foundations and other organizations with an interest in our work should speak with Christine Peterson, Foresight's VP, Public Policy.

Foresight policy white papers

Policy Announcements

ICON Environmental, Health, and Safety Practices Survey, summer 2006

"The University of California, Santa Barbara has contracted with the International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON) to design and administer a survey examining the environmental, health, and safety practices of companies working with nanomaterials. This survey will be implemented internationally during the summer of 2006. Current practices for managing nanomaterial risks will be discovered through this survey. The results will be aggregated according to nanotechnology industry; ICON will then publicly disseminate the aggregated results. …"

Invitation For Interview, PDF file, 124 KB

Policy Issues Briefs

U.S. Federal Nanotech R&D Funding, by Jacob Heller and Christine Peterson
Human Enhancement and Nanotechnology, by Jacob Heller and Christine Peterson
Nanoparticle Safety, by Jacob Heller and Christine Peterson
Nanotech and IP, by Jacob Heller and Christine Peterson
Nanotech Export Controls, by Jacob Heller and Christine Peterson
Nanotechnology, Poverty, and Disparity, by Jacob Heller and Christine Peterson
Nanotechnology and Surveillance, by Jacob Heller and Christine Peterson
"Valley of Death" in Nanotechnology Investing, by Jacob Heller and Christine Peterson

Discussions of Policy Topics

"Balancing the National Nanotechnology Initiative's R&D Portfolio", by Neil Jacobstein, Ralph Merkle, and Robert Freitas, May 2002 (PDF - 68 KB)
Foresight Position Statement on Avoiding High-Tech Terrorism
Nanotechnology: Six Lessons from Sept. 11
"How good scientists reach bad conclusions" by Ralph C. Merkle, April 2001
"Environmental Regulation of Nanotechnology: Some Preliminary Observations", by Glenn Harlan Reynolds, 2001, PDF format, 112 KB. Requires ACROBAT READER by ADOBE.
"A Dialog on Dangers" by K. Eric Drexler, 1988
"Regulating Nanotechnology Development" by David Forrest, 1989
Arguments made by Arthur Kantrowitz about "The Weapon of Openness" are crucial to thinking about policy toward nanotechnology.
Analysis of "Some Limits to Global Ecophagy by Biovorous Nanoreplicators, with Public Policy Recommendations", written by Robert A. Freitas Jr., takes a technical look at some classic "gray goo" scenarios and concludes that early detection is the key to an effective defense.
The topics page for the May 2000 Senior Associates Gathering "Engines of Creation 2000: Confronting Singularity" provides a primer on issues to be faced with the advent of molecular nanotechnology.
"Nanotechnology and Global Security", a talk presented at the Fourth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology by Admiral David E. Jeremiah, United States Navy (Retired), former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
"Nanotechnology and International Security" was presented at the Fifth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology by Mark A. Gubrud
"Molecular Nanotechnology and the World System", by Thomas McCarthy, available on his Web site.
"Law Enforcement and Emerging Technology", a Guest Viewpoint presented in Update 49 by Captain Thomas J. Cowper, New York State Police.
Essays to explore basic aspects of human nature and political economy that will impact how emerging technologies affect the societies into which they emerge.