It is fully possible to design diets that are nutritionally adequate, with 65% lower greenhouse gas emissions, and which do not cost more than the baseline diet.
Category: Ethics
Reimagining Digital Public Spaces and Artificial Intelligence for Deep Cooperation
By Peter Lewis on August 20th, 2023 in Articles, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Commentary, Ethics, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
What role does and can AI play in us being able to enjoy security in our places and spaces? Perhaps we could design technology-enabled spaces for the purpose of strengthening the community and empowering community action.
Securitization for Sustainability of People and Place
By Katina Michael on August 4th, 2023 in Articles, Editorial & Opinion, Ethics, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
The purpose of this special issue is to explore and address complex securitization-related challenges, from a broader perspective and across various dimensions and sectors, that transcend disciplinary boundaries, focusing on the role of technology relevant to the securitization of people and place, while also considering the transdisciplinarity and the socio-historical originals of securitization.
Futural Appropriation
By Jeremy Pitt on July 24th, 2023 in Articles, Editorial & Opinion, Ethics, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
Generation Z and Millennials face different types of insider threat, in three different dimensions of space: to resources, to citizenship, and to boundaries.
SSIT/CSIT Co-Founder Stephen H. Unger Dies
By terribookman on July 15th, 2023 in Articles, Blog Posts, Ethics, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
Stephen H. Unger, one of the founders of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology, Life Fellow of the IEEE, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Columbia University, champion of engineering ethics, and a prominent figure within SSIT, has died at the age of 92.
BOOK REVIEW: How to Talk to a Science Denier
By Jacob Ossar on June 15th, 2023 in Articles, Book Reviews, Case Studies, Environment, Ethics, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
The fact that science denial is deeply implicated in identity helps explain why science deniers are usually unmoved by contrary evidence that on a purely rational level should be extremely convincing.
BOOK REVIEW: The Smart Wife: Why Siri, Alexa, and Other Smart Home Devices Need a Feminist Reboot
By Rachel Maines on May 23rd, 2023 in Articles, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Book Reviews, Ethics, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Robotics, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
Strengers, an Associate Professor of Digital Technology at Monash University, and Kennedy, a postdoc at RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, argue that if we proceed down the current path of making our digital assistants, fembots, gynoids, and voice-activated devices look, sound, and/or behave like simulacra of women, we risk reinforcing traditional gender stereotypes in ways that could rebound on real women.
BOOK REVIEW: Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age
By Rachelle Linner on May 1st, 2023 in Articles, Book Reviews, Environment, Ethics, Health & Medical, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
Dr. Nolan and his colleagues were responsible for developing standards to protect against radiation exposure in the laboratory and during the Trinity Test in July 1945. The physicians were continually frustrated by their inability to convince the military about the dangers of radiation but “there is considerable evidence to suggest that the doctors were ever mindful of potential legal consequences and careful to take precautions to protect themselves and the military from future litigation.”
IEEE HTB / SSIT DL – 28 March 10am ET – Co-designing Ethical Interventions in Resource Constrained Environments
By Miriam Cunningham on March 27th, 2023 in Articles, Ethics, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
The IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board Ad Hoc Committee on SIGHT Best Practices is cooperating with a number of IEEE OUs… Read More
Toxic Technology
By Jeremy Pitt on March 16th, 2023 in Articles, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Communication Technology, Editorial & Opinion, Ethics, Health & Medical, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
Technology has always been about more than simply a route to increased productivity and economic growth; technology also provides the opportunity to enhance, enrich, and empower—basically, to improve shared qualitative values or people’s quality of life (however that is measured). On the flip side, technology also provides the opportunity to develop and project organizational control, which itself can be weaponized to quantitatively determine human value as an asset to that organization, or to reinforce asymmetric power relationships.
Data Feminism
By Daniene Byrne on February 24th, 2023 in Articles, Book Reviews, Ethics, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
In Data Feminism, authors Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein do not merely deal with data. They pair data with feminism. Here, feminism is deployed as a “shorthand for the diverse and wide-ranging projects that name and challenge sexism and other forces of oppression, as well as those which seek to create more just, equitable, and livable futures.”
Learning From Indigenous Cultures
By Marc Steen on February 10th, 2023 in Articles, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Editorial & Opinion, Ethics, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
We would act wisely if we turn to alternative ways of thinking, other wisdom traditions, and learn from them. Ubuntu philosophy can help to draw attention to social issues, for example, the horrors of colonialism, exclusion, and oppression, and to find ways to promote social justice. Aboriginal wisdom can help to apply diverse ways of knowing, for example, knowledge that is related to place, to kinship, to stories, to patterns—not only knowledge in books. The Indigenous cultures and wisdom of the Americas can teach us how to organize economic and political systems more sustainably and to develop more caring relationships with nature. And Confucian culture and wisdom can help to design and apply technologies in ways that support us as relational and developmental beings.
Humanistic Engineering: Engineering for the People
By Matthew L. Bolton on January 26th, 2023 in Articles, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Commentary, Environment, Ethics, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Robotics, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
While it is true that technology is addressing problems and making elements of some people’s lives easier, there are aggregate measures that suggest a troubling trajectory.
Recent Advances in the Assessment and Certification of AI Ethics
By Miriam Cunningham on January 23rd, 2023 in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Ethics, Videos
This SSIT Guest Lecture was presented by Prof Ali Hessami, Vega Systems, UK at a Chapter Meeting organised by IEEE… Read More
Contributive Justice and Self-Actualizing Systems
By Jeremy Pitt on January 9th, 2023 in Articles, Editorial & Opinion, Ethics, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
How can local (grassroots) contributive justice be used as a driving force for the common good?
PeaceTech
By Paul Heidebrecht on December 11th, 2022 in Articles, Commentary, Environment, Ethics, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
PeaceTech is “the movement to use technology to end violent conflict and extremism.”
IEEE ETHICS-2023 – Call for Papers – Deadline Extended
By Joe Herkert on December 8th, 2022 in Call for Papers, Conferences, Ethics, Human Impacts, Social Implications of Technology, SSIT Announcements
IEEE ETHICS-2023: Ethics in the Global Innovation Helix – Call for Papers – DEADLINE EXTENDED: Poster Abstracts and Full Draft Papers (short length and regular length) due January 13, 2023
Making It Strange
By Charles Wallace on December 5th, 2022 in Articles, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Ethics, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
In this time of massive growth in the scale and scope of technological innovations, it is more important than ever to look critically at the nature of these innovations and to challenge a naïve, techno-utopian attitude that innovation is synonymous with progress.
Anticipating Urban Robotics
By Miriam Cunningham on December 2nd, 2022 in Ethics, Robotics, Videos
This SSIT Guest Lecture was presented by Prof Clinton Andrews, Rutgers University / President of IEEE SSIT (2021 – 2022)… Read More
The Everyday Ethics of Corporate Social Responsibility
By Jessica Smith on November 21st, 2022 in Articles, Commentary, Ethics, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Societal Impact
People around the world are increasingly holding corporations accountable for their practices and seeking ways to rectify their unequal distribution of the risks and benefits among differently positioned populations.