The objects of technology assessment. Hermeneutic extension of consequentialist reasoning

Since the beginning of this century, the established consequentialist approach of technology assessment (TA) has been seriously challenged by several new and emerging sciences and technologies (NEST). TA’s established mode of assessing and evaluating the anticipated consequences and impacts of technology no longer works. The paper asks for the objects of TA to be assessed beyond consequentialism. It identifies the societal meaning attached to new technology as the core object of TA reasoning. This view brings the processes of generating, disseminating, and contesting the meaning assigned within the focus of TA. These processes will be modeled as hermeneutic circles with inputs and outputs, where competing offers of meaning enter the field, motivating modifications and enabling reflexive learning. This allows complementing the consequentialist approach of TA with hermeneutic investigation and reflection, as well as drawing several conclusions for TA, e.g. with respect to role concepts and the Control Dilemma.