Virtue Technology Development
Discovering the secrets of the universe is virtuous
Tim Hwang and Ian Banks recently wrote a piece in favor of “virtue metascience.” You should read it (it’s not long) but in a nutshell it argues for valuing science for the virtues it promotes in people and society, rather than the utilitarian value it creates. That is, science is worthwhile not just because it is an instrumental tool for conquering disease and improving lives but because the scientific endeavor embodies values like determination and truth seeking and that discovering the secrets of the universe itself is virtuous.
The world has shifted so far towards consequentialism that it’s even hard to establish the premises on which to argue for a different framework for valuing science. It’s beyond the scope of a short piece and far too philosophical for this blog.
But! The idea of virtue metascience raises two more practical corollaries:
The first corollary is that individual scientists (you!) can value what they are doing based on its virtue rather than just its utilitarian value. This is a much cleaner solution to so many of the problems we see in science today instead of an infinite regress of incentive-munging and institution-twiddling. A stirring “whereas” clause1 could be a much more compelling start to a grant proposal than “X line of scientific inquiry will, if we squint hard enough, eventually lead to technology Y.” Imagine: “Whereas a robust study of eukaryotic cell structure breeds humility by showing us the means of our descent from simple forms of life and breeds awe by demonstrating that each of us contains multitudes, I will further humanity’s sense of wonder at the universe by…”
The second corollary is the idea of virtue technology development. Today the main justification for creating new technologies is their utilitarian value: improving lives, strengthening the economy, bolstering military might. But what if creating new technology was worthwhile because of the virtues it instilled in inventors (tenacity, curiosity, wonder) and because it just made humanity more awesome.
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The universal declaration of human rights has a great whereas.
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