Technological Innovation Doesn't Have to Make Us Less Human

In a world where personal information is ubiquitous and accessible, shouldn't you have the right to be forgotten? How should we deal with traces of our online selves? These are just two of many questions and issues explored in Sheila Jasanoff's new book, The Ethics of Invention, which published this week. Jasanoff, a professor of science and technology studies at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, explores ethical issues that have been created by technological advances--from how we should deal with large-scale disasters such as Bhopal or Chernobyl to the more hidden conundrums of data collection, privacy, and our relationship with tech giants like Facebook and Google. Jasanoff believes we don't sufficiently acknowledge how much power we've handed over to technology, which, she writes, "rules us as much as laws do."