Foreward

Ethics, Science and Society: Challenges for BioPolitics is an international project of academic research, scientific dissemination, and social and political responsibility, sponsored by the Luso-American Development Foundation. Its main objective is to stress the importance of this triptych-style approach- ethics, science, society-to address some of the current and major challenges facing humanity. The balance we achieve today between these three realities strongly defines our present and will have a decisive impact upon our common future: scientific progress shapes our modem societies which, from an ethical perspective, should always be acknowledged as being the ultimate goal for science and one which, by contributing to a common good, corroborates its ethical dimension. Therefore, we wanted to highlight some of the most groundbreaking developments in scientific knowledge and technological innovation, also identifying major trends and upcoming advances. We focus first on life sciences and biotechnologies, mostly in genetics, as one of the most innovative fields for more than a half century; and proceed to computer sciences and digital technologies, highlighting the importance of Artificial Intelligence and robotics as today's most important areas of impact. […].