TECHNOSCIENCE: CHARACTERISTICS, APPLICATIONS, ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS - TECHNOLOGY - 2025

The Technoscience refers to scientific knowledge is produced in a highly technological form. The main advantage of the technology is that it favors a much faster and more effective production of knowledge.

This acceleration in the speed of the production of scientific knowledge allows a timely application of it in very specific settings. This application is currently very necessary, especially in the context of immediacy in which society is immersed.

The term technoscience was born at the end of the 20th century in the United States, and very soon it spread to other countries in the world. This process looks for specific applications that help to quickly generate different innovations, which in turn are highly profitable in the commercial field.

Technoscience brings to the fore the fact that scientific knowledge is transversely influenced by technological and social areas. As is well known, all human action -including the processes of obtaining knowledge- is immersed in a specific social context and technology is an important part of this context.

The union between science and technology allows the first to have a very useful platform to continue developing and generating very specific applications in the lives of human beings.

characteristics

Technoscience has applications in the field of biology and genetics. Source: pixabay.com

Consider the social aspect

Both science and technology are absolutely influenced by the social context that is generated in a certain community. Therefore, the characteristics of a society are essential to understand the scope and challenges that actions framed in the development of technoscience may have.

For example, access to education and production systems is necessary for technoscience to develop. Likewise, the disposition of people in relation to new ways of approaching knowledge will determine the scope that this type of process can have.

Seeks to facilitate the application of science

Technology has the advantage that it is capable of accelerating the acquisition of knowledge thanks to the use of different technological procedures and instruments.

In this way, possible scientific solutions can be put into practice quickly and in a timely manner, with the main intention of solving certain problems.

It is highly experimental

Since it generates clearly instrumentalized knowledge, technoscience dedicates its efforts to experimentation in the search to understand and control different processes.

Through technoscience, the components that participate in certain scientific processes are created, destroyed, isolated and, in general, manipulated in order to obtain the required results while eliminating uncertainty as much as possible.

Pursue innovation

Everything that is produced through technoscience seeks to be innovative. The intention is to build instrumentalized processes and tools that represent a great transformation in a given context.

Promotes joint work between engineers, scientists and citizens

One of the main premises of technoscience is that it advocates the instrumentalization of the processes of obtaining knowledge, and in this context the work of feedback from the different actors in the technological, scientific and social fields is necessary.

This interrelation allows projects to have a greater impact on societies, and for scientific production to be in line with the needs of the societies in which it is applied.

Depending on its use, it can be beneficial or harmful

The great scope that technoscience has is seen by some as a hopeful fact, and by others as something that generates many concerns.

The sectors that have this last feeling indicate that a misuse of technoscience can lead to very precarious situations, such as the monopolization of spaces and indoctrination exercised on a large scale thanks to the immense scope of technological processes.

Faced with this argument, various scholars indicate that, indeed, society must be careful; However, there is no place to criminalize science or technology in itself, since it is the use made of these that will determine the benefits or damages that may arise.

Applications

- The environmental field uses technoscience through the generation of proposals that allow to have a friendly relationship with the environment. These types of developments are in search of sustainability.

- In the educational area, it is possible to make use of technoscience through ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) to generate more efficient training experiences.

- Political spheres can use technoscience to create structures that limit access to certain types of information.

- The area of ​​biology uses technoscience to create innovations related to the structure of DNA, thanks to which it is possible to anticipate and / or treat various diseases or health conditions.

Technoscience in society

Given the wide scope that technoscience has, currently the daily dynamics of people is traversed and, in part, determined by this type of knowledge processes. For this reason, many of the social settings are directly related to technoscience.

In fact, advances in science and technology undeniably promote the development of a nation, and this facilitates the politicization of the term as such.

The results obtained through technoscience will depend to a large extent on the motivations of the one who considered putting it into practice, be it a public or private entity. For this reason, there has been much debate about the responsibilities of social actors in terms of technoscience and its productions.

All areas of society (political, economic, cultural, military, etc.) are immersed in technoscience, and the proposals generated within each one may be positive or negative, but in any case they will always have a high impact.

In this sense, it is up to the social actors to take responsibility for their motivations and promote a fair application of this powerful tool.

Ethical implications

One of the fears of those who view technoscience with some suspicion is that it is a tool that can be used by people or entities with power as an instrument of repression and submission.

In this sense, voices such as that of the sociology professor Daniel Lee Kleinman have indicated that technoscience is highly integrated into everyday life, so much so that it is difficult to generate spaces for evaluation and debate in relation to its applications.

Many governments and private institutions have directly financed technoscience projects, in some cases related to acts of war or to the monopolization of markets and ideologies.

The biggest criticism is that the goals that are pursued through technoscience are determined by those who invest money in these processes, and in many cases these goals can be detrimental to society as a whole.

To make an ethical use of technoscience, it is always necessary to take into consideration whether the proposed action within the framework of a certain technoscientific advance is good or bad for human beings and for the environment in general.

Examples of techno-scientific inventions and advances

1000 genomes, 1000 Chilean

This program is promoted by various Chilean institutions, such as the Genome Regulation Center, the Mathematical Modeling Center, the Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases and the Millennium Institute of Integrative Biology, among others.

The intention of this initiative is to collect 1000 genomes of Chilean inhabitants (both human beings and other endemic species in the region) in order to create a large map. This projection will make it possible to understand which are the most common health conditions in Chileans, to be able to foresee treatments that are effective and timely.

Likewise, all this information can be the source of innovative discoveries related to the biological structures of the different species, from which future actions can be planned for the benefit of Chilean society.

Google's first quantum computer

A team of scientists from the Google Quantum IA Lab group is developing Google's first quantum computer under the leadership of scientist John Martinis.

This type of technology implies an immense acceleration of the processes. This type of machine will have a special application in the areas of quantum chemistry: thanks to quantum computers, it will be possible to study topics such as molecular structure in a much faster and more reliable way than through conventional computers.

Hydrogen as a future fuel

In Israel, researchers at the Technion Institute of Technology have developed a technology that will allow hydrogen to be extracted efficiently, in order to turn it into a fruitful source of fuel. According to connoisseurs of the subject, a kilo of hydrogen has as much energy as 4 liters of gasoline.

Liquid hydrogen is completely benign for the planet - unlike that used as a pesticide, which is generated from fossil fuels - and it is only obtained in liquid form when it is separated from water (water has two molecules of hydrogen and one of oxygen). This separation process is very expensive and inefficient.

However, thanks to the technology designed by these Israeli scientists, it is possible to separate hydrogen from water with 98.7% effectiveness. The application of this new technology would imply a world free of carbon emissions.

References

1. "Israel seeks to position hydrogen as the fuel of the future" (2019) in La Tribuna del País Vasco. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from La Tribuna del País Vasco: latribunadelpaisvasco.com
2. "Education, technoscience and political-business interests" in Trends21. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from Trends21: trends21.net
3. Acevedo, E. "Technological innovation, economy and society: a necessary reflection for CTS" in Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture: oei.es
4. "Science and Technology for Sustainability" in the Global Action Program. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from the Global Action Program: oei.es
5. Barandiaran, X. “Technoscience as a political space. Towards new forms of organization and interaction of techno-scientific production ”in Sin Dominio. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from Sin Dominio: sindominio.net
6. "Tecnociencia" in EcuRed. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from EcuRed: ecured.cu
7. Ibañez, J. "Technoscience, definitions and objectives" in Madri + d. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from Madri + d: madrimasd.org
8. "Technoscience" in Wikipedia. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from Wikipedia: wikipedia.org
9. Brooks, H. "The relationship between science and technology" in Science Direct. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from Science Direct: sciencedirect.com
10. "Science and Technology" in Oxford Reference. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from Oxford Reference: oxfordreference.com