Английский язык: Аннотирование и реферирование текста

287 Throughout this discussion, we assume that most people will be alert in matters concerning their personal safety, and that some will be alert in matters concerning world safety. During the 1970s, people awakening to the new large-scale, long-term problems of technology often felt isolated and powerless. They naturally felt that technology was out of their control, in the hands of shortsighted and irresponsible groups. Today, there are still battles to be fought, but the tide has turned. When a concern arises regarding a new, obvious technology, it is now much easier to get a hearing in the media, in the courts, and in the political arena. Improving these mechanisms for social vigilance and the political control of technology is an important challenge. Cur- rent mechanisms are imperfect, but they can still give a big push in the right directions. Though we assume alertness, alertness can be a scarce resource. The total amount of concern and energy available for focusing on long- term problems is so limited that it must be used carefully, not squan- dered on problems that are trivial or illusory. Part of our aim in this chapter is to help sort out the issues raised by nanotechnology so that attention can be focused on problems that must be solved, but might not be. The next few sections deal with accidents of conventional sorts, where safety benefits are obvious. Later sections discuss more novel problems, some tough enough that we have no good answers. Industrial Safety We've already seen how post-breakthrough technologies can eliminate oil spills by eliminating oil consumption. A similar story could be told of almost any class of industrial accident today. But what about accidents – spills and the like – with the new technologies? Rather than trying to paint a picture of a future technology, of how it could fail and what the responses could be, it seems better to try a thought experiment. What could be done to deal with oil spills, if oil were still in use? This will show how nanotechnologies can be used to cope with accidents: