introduction

When the successful cloning of a lamb called Dolly was announced in February of this year by Scottish researchers, it set off a spate of anxious questions. Many of them concerned the ethics of cloning, but another set asked about the unanticipated consequences. If we go down the cloning road, where will it lead? The answer is that we don't know. All of our technological roads twist and turn, and we can never see around the bend or through the fog.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ubiquitous phenomenon of unanticipated consequences. We begin with a look at some definitions which shed light on the matter, and then consider the nature of change. This leads to a broadening of the definition of the word 'technology', and a look at what was one of our earliest examples of unanticipated consequences. We then address the crucial question of why we have such consequences. Some additional examples follow, and we then look at what society does in the face of unanticipated consequences. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the ethical implications of acting when we know that there can be unanticipated consequences to our actions.