Search Results

Future Directions

Huatong Sun

in Cross-Cultural Technology Design: Creating Culture-Sensitive Technology for Local Users

This concluding chapter suggests future directions for the research and practice of cross-cultural technology in a glocalization age. Centering on a dialogical approach, it analyzes what the ... More

This concluding chapter suggests future directions for the research and practice of cross-cultural technology in a glocalization age. Centering on a dialogical approach, it analyzes what the cross-cultural design community could learn from the user localization efforts to design for, invoke, nurture, encourage, support, and sustain culturally localized user experience —the consummate experience—for emerging technologies. It studies the characteristics and value as well as the role and functions of user localization in a technology’s whole design, production, and use cycle and discusses how to route those user efforts into the design process to better address user needs and expectations in this rising participatory culture. Real-world examples are supplemented to further the discussion beyond the case study when needed.Less

The Growing Intimacy between Us and Our Devices

Anindya Ghose

in Tap: Unlocking the Mobile Economy

This chapter predicts that several emerging technologies will soon be integrated with the mobile ecosystem and further amplify the power of the nine forces discussed in this book. All these ... More

This chapter predicts that several emerging technologies will soon be integrated with the mobile ecosystem and further amplify the power of the nine forces discussed in this book. All these technologies will create captive audiences, enhance connectivity, harness more robust data from new sources, and offer better experiences. Business solutions will thrive in the mobile ecosystem, which will remain the hub for many applications and will power amazing business and societal solutions. Some of the biggest advancements will come via wearable technologies that will harness consumers' biometric, neurological, and physiological data, giving birth to a new force that leverages a consumer's physical state of being.Less

Emerging Technologies

in In Defense of Japan: From the Market to the Military in Space Policy

This chapter examines emerging technologies that Japan has developed from its long experience with rockets and satellites, discussing the progress of Japan's efforts to develop the H-IIB, Galaxy ... More

This chapter examines emerging technologies that Japan has developed from its long experience with rockets and satellites, discussing the progress of Japan's efforts to develop the H-IIB, Galaxy Express, the Advanced Solid Rocket, and those rockets resulting from Ballistic Missile Defense. It also considers other space activities, particularly those focused on Reusable Launch Vehicles, scramjet research, and the ASNARO/Sasuke spy satellite. The chapter furthermore argues that the survival, viability, and profitability of some of Japan's emerging satellite and rocket technologies depend on securing a military angle.Less

The End as a New Beginning

Stefan Lorenz Sorgner

in We Have Always Been Cyborgs: Digital Data, Gene Technologies, and an Ethics of Transhumanism

This chapter reflects on the philosophical issues concerning the insight that we have always been cyborgs. Technology has always been a part of us, and this applies to the emerging technologies, too. ... More

This chapter reflects on the philosophical issues concerning the insight that we have always been cyborgs. Technology has always been a part of us, and this applies to the emerging technologies, too. The chapter argues that the judgements that nature is good and technology is evil are part of a traditional dualistic mindset which is no longer plausible and which has many dangerous implications. This does not mean that there are no dangers connected to emerging technologies. The more efficient a technology is, the better the advantages, but also the greater the risks. These can be terrible, given inappropriate political circumstances.Less

Investing in new technologies

Dieter Helm

in The Carbon Crunch

This chapter explains that new technologies are required and that hence, R&D has to be a major element of climate change strategy. The new and emerging technologies may enable us to address the ... More

This chapter explains that new technologies are required and that hence, R&D has to be a major element of climate change strategy. The new and emerging technologies may enable us to address the climate change problem, provided that coal has not wreaked too much damage in the meantime. Technical developments focus on the temperatures for combustion, including so-called super-critical power stations. The coming of new information technologies provides an opportunity to make electricity an active system, thereby allowing the demand side of the market to come into play. In allocating resources to R&D, it is important to design R&D policy such that there is no attempt to overtly pick winners, but that resources are concentrated in promising areas. R&D creates public goods, and these need to be distributed as rapidly as possible around the globe, given that climate change is a global public bad.Less

Resistance to Risky Technology: When Are Our Environmental Fears Justified?

Paul B. Thompson

in Philosophy, Technology, and the Environment

Paul B. Thompson argues that defenders and critics of novel technologies share the same fundamental assumption that technological innovation is the key source of greater efficiency in production. ... More

Paul B. Thompson argues that defenders and critics of novel technologies share the same fundamental assumption that technological innovation is the key source of greater efficiency in production. Although they question how social institutions incentivize innovation and distribute benefits, innovation as such is always seen as a good thing -- except when it comes to certain emerging technologies: agricultural biotechnologies, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology. Then public perception is skeptical, negative, even outraged. Thompson turns to risk assessment to figure out what makes some technologies more disturbing than others. He examines the “social amplification of risk,” the cognitive and social phenomena that distort perception and cause people to see a situation as more risky that it is, other times as less risky. Thompson identifies two different approaches to the risk amplification: purification and hybridization. The former excludes irrational social fears, outrage, and distrust from a risk assessment; the latter takes these motivating influences seriously and incorporates them into a risk assessment. Thompson warns that purification can engender the suspicion that powerful actors are indifferent to social perceptions, and suggests that hybridization can be an effective response to the perception of environmental harms.Less

Do New Media Have Old Politics?

Christina Dunbar-Hester

in Low Power to the People: Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism

This chapter follows radio activists’ assessments of emerging Internet-based technologies (primarily wi-fi networks). Particularly for urban areas where LPFM licenses were out of reach, the activists ... More

This chapter follows radio activists’ assessments of emerging Internet-based technologies (primarily wi-fi networks). Particularly for urban areas where LPFM licenses were out of reach, the activists considered other “appropriate technologies” to as platforms for community media. The chapter shows that radio activists were selective in their adoption of or resistance to various options, some of which they largely rejected (such as webcasting) and others of which they cautiously embraced (such as community wi-fi networks). Having identified radio as the artifact with which their politics best aligned, they were circumspect about the promotion of other technologies that were less obviously tied to the values they identified in radio.Less

When emerging biomedical technologies converge or collide

Debra J.H. Mathews

in Neuroethics: Anticipating the future

Neuroethics is concerned with the ethical, legal, and policy issues raised by the neurosciences and their applications in medicine and society. However, neuroscience sometimes involves other emerging ... More

Neuroethics is concerned with the ethical, legal, and policy issues raised by the neurosciences and their applications in medicine and society. However, neuroscience sometimes involves other emerging biomedical technologies, such as genetics, regenerative medicine, and synthetic biology, which generate their own ethics and policy conundrums. When emerging biomedical technologies converge or collide in a single project, application, or product, challenges are compounded. These challenges may be mitigated by the development of shared models for ethical analysis focused not on the details of a particular technology but rather on the nature of the class of technologies, such as whether they are emerging, rapidly evolving, and ethically contentious. These challenges and characteristics, and a framework approach to managing them, are the focus of this chapter.Less

Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Simply Trying to Do the Right Thing

Roger Brownsword

in Understanding Human Dignity

In a context of rapidly emerging technologies, this chapter considers the bearing of human dignity on the regulatory environment. It opens by suggesting that one of the reasons why moral communities ... More

In a context of rapidly emerging technologies, this chapter considers the bearing of human dignity on the regulatory environment. It opens by suggesting that one of the reasons why moral communities are now debating human dignity with such intensity is because of concerns arising from the rapid development of novel biotechnologies. Next, it considers how far it is possible to satisfy ideals of regulatory coherence when the regulation of emerging technologies hinges on our divided understanding of human dignity. Thirdly, it identifies two threats to human dignity that are immanent in modern regulatory thinking. One threat is a risk-management mentality that marginalizes (and possibly excludes) moral considerations; and the other is an over-reliance on technological instruments such that the complexion of the regulatory environment denies humans the opportunity to express their dignity.Less

The Civil-Military Implications of Emerging Technology

Risa Brooks

in Reconsidering American Civil-Military Relations: The Military, Society, Politics, and Modern War

This chapter argues that adaptation of emerging technology—artificial intelligence (AI), among other forms—will introduce new stresses and tensions in civil-military relations across a variety of ... More

This chapter argues that adaptation of emerging technology—artificial intelligence (AI), among other forms—will introduce new stresses and tensions in civil-military relations across a variety of domains and contexts. Specifically, the analysis highlights four areas of potential stress. The first area is the organizational implications of technological change and innovation for military institutions and civilian actors. The second is the opportunities and obstacles emerging technology poses for civilian oversight of the military. A third area includes how the introduction of technology in advisory processes at the senior level may affect tensions in strategic assessment and the provision of military advice in those processes. A final issue is the evolving character of the profession of arms and the diminution of the military’s exclusive domain of expertise relative to civilian actors.Less

Twenty-First-Century Virtue: Living Well with Emerging Technologies^*

Shannon Vallor

in Science, Technology, and Virtues: Contemporary Perspectives

This chapter identifies the growing difficulty of making ethical decisions—choices that aim at the “good life”—in our present human condition, one in which the unpredictable, complex, and ... More

This chapter identifies the growing difficulty of making ethical decisions—choices that aim at the “good life”—in our present human condition, one in which the unpredictable, complex, and destabilizing effects of emerging technologies on a global scale make the shape of the human future increasingly opaque and hard to fathom. The chapter suggests that this twenty-first-century challenge for ethics, which we can identify as a state of acute technosocial opacity, is best addressed from a particular philosophical tradition: virtue ethics. It argues that the classical traditions of Aristotelian, Confucian, and Buddhist virtue ethics offer us more resources for managing this contemporary problem than do other, more modern moral theories. The chapter concludes that only the cultivation of distinctly technomoral virtues will preserve humanity’s chances to live well with emerging technologies, and flourish in an increasingly opaque future.Less

emerging technologies: artificial intelligence

marcia santana fernandes

in The Picture of Health: Medical Ethics and the Movies

This chapter uses the film Artificial Intelligence (2002) to set the stage for a discussion of the ethics of emerging technologies. The film focuses on an 11-year-old artificial boy, David (Haley ... More

This chapter uses the film Artificial Intelligence (2002) to set the stage for a discussion of the ethics of emerging technologies. The film focuses on an 11-year-old artificial boy, David (Haley Joel Osment), who was created to give love without demands: he would need no food, no rest, no love in return. The film addresses questions such as: What is our responsibility toward our own creations? How can society deal with enhancement technologies applied to the human body? The chapter reflects on these topics from a bioethical standpoint, and argues that responsibility and humility should guide medical activity, as illustrated in parts of the Hippocratic Oath. Emerging technologies and their applications to health care should not be subjected to wholesale legislative limitations, regardless of context or culture. Law-making must be interdisciplinary, intimately involved in the discussion of and reflection on bioethical issues, in order to deal with their complexity as well as their social aspects and peculiarities.Less

Virtue Ethics, Technology, and Human Flourishing

Shannon Vallor

in Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting

Starting with an overview of virtue ethics in the philosophical tradition of the West, beginning with Aristotle, I discuss the contemporary revival of virtue ethics in the West (and its critics). In ... More

Starting with an overview of virtue ethics in the philosophical tradition of the West, beginning with Aristotle, I discuss the contemporary revival of virtue ethics in the West (and its critics). In reviewing virtue ethics’ advantages over other traditional ethical approaches, especially consequentialism (such as utilitarianism) and deontology (such as Kantian ethics), I note that virtue ethics is ideally suited for managing complex, novel, and unpredictable moral landscapes, just the kind of landscape that today’s emerging technologies present. Yet I also note that an exclusively Western approach to virtue would be inadequate and provincial; moreover, emerging technologies present global problems requiring collective action across cultural and political lines. Finally, I review the various ways in which contemporary philosophers of technology have addressed the ethical dimensions of technology, the limits of those previous approaches, and the potential of a global technosocial virtue ethic to go beyond them.Less

Survival Governance

Peter Drahos

in Survival Governance: Energy and Climate in the Chinese Century

The success of the project of survival governance, which requires states to focus on the repair of ecosystems, depends on the success of China’s experimental cities and whether China can manage to ... More

The success of the project of survival governance, which requires states to focus on the repair of ecosystems, depends on the success of China’s experimental cities and whether China can manage to develop core technologies in the face of opposition from the US national security state. The technologies that are central to the construction of the bio-digital energy paradigm are also the ones that matter to US military power. The United States is using regulatory mechanisms such as intellectual property and export controls to block or slow China’s acquisition of core technologies. The United States has already created a technological fork in global technology markets, making it more or less impossible for companies like Google to deal with Chinese companies like Huawei. Less clear is whether multinational capital will support this fork. It may choose to support the new circuits of accumulation that emerge as states embrace survival governance.Less

A New Kind of Eden

Jamais A. Cascio

in Science, Conservation, and National Parks

What would a sustainable future look like? This chapter explores three 50-year scenarios of how we may develop a globally sustainable society and what each might foretell for national parks. ... More

What would a sustainable future look like? This chapter explores three 50-year scenarios of how we may develop a globally sustainable society and what each might foretell for national parks. Professional foresight, or “futurism,” surveys the dynamics of change across disciplines in order to construct scenarios of future changes to society. Foresight scenarios are not intended to be predictions, but examinations of different ways in which current trends and likely future developments may co-evolve. Such scenarios can illuminate options and highlight unexpected challenges for decision-makers. In this endeavor, scenarios of success can be as useful as scenarios of risk. The narratives in this chapter consider a future for national parks in three scenarios; each attempts to illustrate how we might succeed in overcoming the global sustainability crisis, in direct response to the dominance of apocalyptic narratives in popular discussions of sustainability. The first describes a future in which sustainability emerges from increased control over the economy by global institutions. The second describes a future in which, subsequent to a global climate disaster, civil society creates new institutions through open-source and collaborative tools. The third describes a future in which radical technological developments allow for unprecedented social, economic, and environmental transformation.Less

Introduction: Envisioning the Good Life in the 21st Century and Beyond

Shannon Vallor

in Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting

The introduction identifies the growing difficulty of making ethical decisions—choices that aim at the ‘good life’—in our present human condition, one in which the unpredictable, complex, and ... More

The introduction identifies the growing difficulty of making ethical decisions—choices that aim at the ‘good life’—in our present human condition, one in which the unpredictable, complex, and destabilizing effects of emerging technologies on a global scale make the shape of the human future increasingly opaque and hard to fathom. I suggest that this 21st century challenge for ethics, which I identify as a state of acute technosocial opacity, is best addressed from a particular philosophical tradition: virtue ethics. Surprisingly, the classical traditions of Aristotelian, Confucian, and Buddhist virtue ethics offer us invaluable resources for managing our distinctly contemporary problem, as the remainder of the book will show. The introduction closes with an expression of hope that cultivating the technomoral virtues will allow humanity to live together more wisely with the emerging technologies that will shape our future.Less

Technomoral Wisdom for an Uncertain Future: 21st Century Virtues

Shannon Vallor

in Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting

This chapter integrates the lessons of Part III regarding moral practice, and takes up the challenge of adapting the practice to contemporary technosocial needs—specifically, the need for the global ... More

This chapter integrates the lessons of Part III regarding moral practice, and takes up the challenge of adapting the practice to contemporary technosocial needs—specifically, the need for the global cultivation of technomoral virtues. The bulk of this chapter is a taxonomy of twelve such virtues: technomoral honesty, self-control, humility, justice, courage, empathy, care, civility, flexibility, perspective, magnanimity, and their integration in the comprehensive virtue of technomoral wisdom. While each virtue is examined against the background of prior moral philosophies and traditional cultures, the emphasis in chapter 6 is on adapting and redefining each of these virtues as called for by the acute technomoral needs of the global human family in the present. Various examples illustrate their relevance to concrete ethical challenges presented by today’s emerging technologies, from new social media and ‘Big Data’ to robotics and digital surveillance.Less