Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26062747›Full record

ArticleScience and engineering ethics2016

Facing up to Complexity: Implications for Our Social Experiments.

Ronnie Hawkins

Abstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Science and engineering ethics, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Ronnie HawkinsDepartment of Philosophy, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816-1352, USA. 2ronniehawkins@gmail.com.ORCID 0000-0003-3394-5759

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Biological systems are highly complex, and for this reason there is a considerable degree of uncertainty as to the consequences of making significant interventions into their workings. Since a number of new technologies are already impinging on living systems, including our bodies, many of us have become participants in large-scale "social experiments". I will discuss biological complexity and its relevance to the technologies that brought us BSE/vCJD and the controversy over GM foods. Then I will consider some of the complexities of our social dynamics, and argue for making a shift from using the precautionary principle to employing the approach of evaluating the introduction of new technologies by conceiving of them as social experiments.

Indexed as

Ethics, ResearchHumansInventionsModels, StatisticalResearchSocial ValuesSystems AnalysisComplexity theoryGenetically modified organisms (GMOs)Ibo van de PoelInsertional mutagenesisJohn SearleOntological subjectivityPrecautionary principlePrion disease (BSE, vCJD)ReductionismSocial cageSocial constructionSocial experimentSubstantially equivalentWhistleblowing

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.