Tradeoffs occur under constraints similar to zero-sum games in which one participant's gain (or loss) is balanced by another's loss (or gain). A tradeoff is an exchange that occurs as a compromise, giving up one set of interlocked advantages and disadvantages in order to gain another, more desirable set. The benefits that are foregone in a particular case are often referred to as the opportunity-costs of that decision. Many personal and policy decisions regarding scientific research, technological development, and the use of technological products, processes, or systems depend either consciously or unconsciously on accepting tradeoffs. In many cases so-called ethical criticisms of science and technology are themselves criticized as ignoring the need for tradeoffs. Analysis of the concept of tradeoffs is thus an important feature of any general appreciation of relations between science, technology, and ethics.

Examples in Science and Technology

Human life is saturated with tradeoffs because...