IEET Fellow Wendell Wallach recently co-published an article in the National Academy of Sciences‘ ISSUES in Science and Technology journal, with ASU law professor Gary E. Marchant,  The piece is entitled Coordinating Technology Governance and it explores the need for, and application of, a nimble authoritative coordinating body, referred to as a Governance Coordination Committee, to fill an urgent gap with regard to the assessment of the ethical, legal, social and economic consequences of emerging technologies.

This newly created entity, with broad functions that are detailed in the paper, would manage issues unique to nascent technologies.  It would “act like an orchestra conductor,”  focusing on the harmonization and integration of the various realized or proposed governance approaches and flag those that should be abolished or amended due to their present-day impracticality and inefficiency.  The article explores not only the need for such a governing body but also looks at other precedent-setters, proposes what an effective program should look like and addresses its potential challenges and concerns.  Wendell Wallach is also a scholar at the Yale University Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics and ASU’s Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics. Gary E. Marchant is the Lincoln Professor of Emerging Technologies, Law & Ethics at ASU, and Director of the newly established Governance of Emerging Technologies Program at ASU’s Center for Law, Science and Innovation.