Boundaries and Challenges for Socially Responsible Science: Lessons From Frankenstein

This talk will discuss the basis for social responsibilities for scientists, what bounds social responsibility, and some of the inherent challenges for scientists addressing social responsibility, such as the difficulties of foreseeing the societal implications of scientific research and the allure of technical sweetness (that satisfying feeling when a solution snaps into place), which can blind scientists to everything beyond scientific success, as it did for the fictional Dr. Frankenstein.