http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
1 online resource (255 pages): digital file.
Certain to provoke debate within a wide range of academic and professional communities, Culture Clash reveals one of the most important and defining conflicts in contemporary American life.
Exposing how the legal system both supports and restricts American science and technology, Goldberg considers the role and future of three projects - artificial intelligence, nuclear fusion, and the human genome initiative - to argue for a scientific vision that infuses research with social goals beyond the pure search for truth.
Law, in accordance with the American ideal of giving everyone a fair say, stresses process above all else, seeking an acceptable, rather than a scientifically correct, result. This characteristic has been especially influential in light of the explosive growth of the legal community in recent years.
In this controversial book, Steven Goldberg provides a compelling look at the intersection of two of America's most powerful communities - law and science - to explain this apparent contradiction. Rarely considered in tandem, law and science highlight a fundamental paradox in the American character, the struggle between progress and process. Science, with its ethic of endless progress, has long fit beautifully with America's self image.
And yet the actual implementation of these technologies is often sluggish and much delayed.
It is an article of faith in America that scientific advances will lead to wondrous progress in our daily lives. Americans proudly support scientific research that yields stunning breakthroughs and Nobel prizes. We relish the ensuing debate about the implications - moral, ethical, practical - of these advances. Will genetic engineering change our basic nature? Will artificial intelligence challenge our sense of human uniqueness?
1. Introduction -- 2. Lawyers and Scientists. Progress in Science. The Kuhn Critique. The Limited Role of Practical Applications. Process in Law. The Daubert Case. Defining Terms -- 3. The Constitutional Status of Basic Research. The Enlightenment Background. Free Speech for Scientists. Government Support for Science. Science Spending for the General Welfare. The Tension between Freedom and Funding -- 4. The Statutory Framework For Basic Research. Delegation to Agencies of Funding Decisions. The Absence of a Department of Science. Limits on Executive and Legislative Control of Agencies. The Virtual Absence of Judicial Review. The Privileged Legal Status of Science -- 5. Science versus Religion in American Law. The Framers' Conception of Religion and Science. The Modern Dispute over the Theory of Evolution. Creationism in the Courts. The Growth of Civil Religion. Science, Progress, and Values -- 6. Legal Restrictions on New Technology: The Regulatory Gap and the Emergence of the Science Counselor.
The Constitutional Basis for Regulating Technology. Statutory Regulation through Delegation to Agencies. The Stringent Judicial Review of Regulatory Decisions. The Regulatory Gap. The Case of Nuclear Fission. Computers and Regulation. The Emergence of the Science Counselor. Superconductivity and the Science Counselor -- 7. The Human Genome Initiative and Human Responsibility. The Development of Modern Genetics. The Political History of the Genome Initiative. Big Science versus Little Science in Genome Research. Science Counselors at Work. The Regulatory Issues Ahead: Gene Therapy and Privacy. Determinism and Human Values -- 8. Nuclear Fusion: Boundless Optimism and Limited Energy. The Underlying Science. The American Fusion Program. Alternative Approaches to Fusion. The National Environmental Policy Act and Fusion Research. Funding Problems for Fusion. The Solar Comparison and the Dream of Limitless Energy -- 9. Artificial Intelligence and the Essense of Humanity. The Origins of Artificial Intelligence.
Artificial Life. The Practical Impact of Artificial Intelligence. Consciousness and Human Uniqueness. The Debate over Computer Consciousness: Science versus Science. Consciousness and the Legal Definition of Death -- 10. Conclusion.
Issued as part of book collections on Project MUSE.
Open Access Unrestricted online access star
Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-249) and index.