Design for Values

Dr. Jeroen van den Hoven

Professor of Ethics and Technology

European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE)

Dear Professor van den Hoven,

Under leadership by the late great Prof. Wubbo Ockels, TUDelft became a key player in Airborne Wind Energy (AWE), a transformational new energy technology. As the First Dutch Astronaut and a natural humanist, Wubbo brought everyone together in whatever he did. His philosophy was inherently Design for Values oriented. Wubbo taught us we could choose to shape AWE in any way we best dreamed, for the good of all; not one fatalistically determined path with haves and have-nots. Perhaps you knew Wubbo, and you both learned from each other. The Hollandsche Molen tradition is an ideal Design for Values wind-tech model.

Wubbo tragically passed away some years ago and left a huge moral gap in AWE. Google for a time dominated AWE R&D with a huge influx of capital. TUDelft "spin-off" venture capitalists embraced Google domination even as EU soured on their "soft fascism" model. With over a half-billion in private and public investment, these secretive VCs promised fast spectacular success. They forget Wubbo's example, as technological hubris and greed drove them to wholly unrealistic prematurely scaled-up over-complexity of unsafe and uneconomic poor design. They forgot KIS, and ignored that hands-on DIY kite sports were AWE's noble roots.

It came as seismic shock to the VC insiders when Google's venture failed after a spectacular mega-crash off the coast of Norway, all details of which are still covered up in corporate secrecy. TUDelft's venture circle did not fare so well either. Many years of slipped milestones culminated in a dangerous break-away and crash incident at Valkenburg, also with suppressed details. These cover-ups are in direct conflict with aviation tradition of open reporting of safety information. The VCs continue to seek capital on misleading hype, and are increasingly turning to militarization of AWE as a business strategy. Wubbo would be very saddened.

AWE is too important a technology to ignore. This is a request that you and the European Group on Ethics in Science and Technology begin to review AWE, just as Biotech needed (and still needs) conscientious scientists to raise Design for Values public discourse. The Upper Wind resource is so abundant it may be the key to a sustainable future for the planet. How AWE technology unfolds, and who controls it, is of paramount importance. Please begin a systematic review of AWE, for European Commission leadership to have the best possible guidance. Please help AWE become the most ethical and wonderful possible technology.