Totalitarianism is defined as a political system or regime in which the government seeks total control of society. This requires breaking down all the intermediate associations of civil society or turning them into agencies of the government, so that all that exists are, on the one hand, atomistic individuals and, on the other, the unity of the state.

Totalitarian systems have significant implications for science, technology, and ethics. Totalitarian governments rely on communications technology to spread an official ideology and to monitor subjects, while totalitarian control of the economy creates major hurdles to technological invention and innovation. Scientists face numerous ethical challenges in totalitarian systems, from ideological conditions often imposed on their research (a rejection of Jewish science in Germany and the promotion of Trofim Lysenko's genetics of the inheritance of acquired characteristics in the Soviet Union) to the kinds of projects on which they may be required...