The Continuing Shock of the New: Some Thoughts on why Law, Regulation, and Codes are Not Enough to Guide Emerging Technologies.

The authors claim that emerging technologies, such as nanotechnology, demand the skills of ethical analysis and judgment and that laws and codes are necessary to guide responsible development of such. Topics covered include what is different about emerging technologies and why ethics is necessary, the functions of regulation and professional codes in engineering education, and the development of courses on nanotechnology that considers societal, ethical, environmental, and safety issues.