Mobile technology isn’t just in your pocket 24/7. It’s everywhere around us today, with its continual byproduct — data — trailing us everywhere we go. The great nexus of this 21st-century trend isn’t really your smartphone — it’s the city where you live, work, and play.
Category: Human Impacts
One at a Time, and All at Once
By Jeremy Pitt on March 21st, 2018 in Editorial & Opinion, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Societal Impact
It is necessary to start somehow, even if you’ve got no map, no knowledge of the destination, and no milometer to measure the distance that has been covered. This can sometimes be the essence of collective action for addressing wicked problems. Sometimes human behavior defies top-down direction and even nudge, and begins instead with a single initiating event and snowballs from there.
SSIT and Sustainable Development
By Paul Cunningham on March 9th, 2018 in Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, President's Message, Societal Impact
As an IEEE technical Society whose focus on all aspects of societal implications of technology complements the technical activities of all other IEEE Societies, SSIT members have a proud history of contributions to sustainable development and humanitarian technology. We have long focused on addressing ethical implications, interdependencies, context, and socio-cultural norms that are essential to avoid unintended and unanticipated consequences. One of our core strengths as a community has been our collaborative, partnership-based approach.
AI Tipping Point
By Jim Isaak on March 9th, 2018 in Articles, Ethics, Human Impacts, Social Implications of Technology
Prior to 2016 there was little press with occasional hype about artificial intelligence. Somewhere in the last two years we… Read More
RoI of Space Travel
By Jim Isaak on March 2nd, 2018 in Articles, Human Impacts
What year will we return to the Moon? When will we have our first colony there? What are the corresponding dates for Mars?
Book Review: Computer Accessibility Rights
By S. Henry-Buckmire on February 27th, 2018 in Book Reviews, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
Petrick provides historic perspectives of how computer technology was developed in the United States allowing persons with disabilities full participation in their own lives and in the society.
Go “Get Chipped”
By Katina Michael on February 9th, 2018 in Editorial & Opinion, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Societal Impact
The big issue is the mass scale big data collection strategies using social media intelligence, CCTV, behavioral biometrics using facial recognition and visual analytics to monitor human activities, the keystroke-level tracking of end-users by third parties on Internet websites, the use of in-bound technology devices that conduct ICT surveillance and home monitoring, and even fitness trackers we carry alongside our mobile phone that are set to control our health insurance premiums.
When is AI really I?
By Jim Isaak on February 9th, 2018 in Articles, Human Impacts, Robotics, Social Implications of Technology
I have an expectation that machine consciousness will emerge unexpected, unsought, and perhaps undetected.
A Character Manifesto
By Jim Isaak on February 2nd, 2018 in Articles, Ethics, Human Impacts, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
In “Finding the Wonder Woman Within,” values like courage, wonder, equality, grace, and power are addressed, often in very powerful ways.
Social Media and Disasters: Highlighting Some Wicked Problems
By Asslam Umar Alie and Robert Ogie on January 29th, 2018 in Communication Technology, Human Impacts, Leading Edge, Magazine Articles
Information generated on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and Instagram are fast becoming powerful and ubiquitous new sources of time-critical data needed to aid decision making during extreme weather events and emergency situations.
Raising Teens to Live with Technology Responsibly
By Josh Shipp on January 15th, 2018 in Editorial & Opinion, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
Today, over 90% of U.S. teenagers are online. When it comes to social media, 50% of all teenagers log on at least once a day, with 22% logging on more than 10 times a day. We, like our parents and their parents before them, are worried about the effect that technology is having on the development of our kids. The author discussed the five rules for teaching teens to live with technology responsibly.
Pervasive Technology: Aboriginal Communities and Oppression
By Alexander Hayes on December 31st, 2017 in Editorial & Opinion, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Privacy & Security
Australian Aboriginal sovereignty is no longer just about Aboriginal communities retaining rights to their own land. The most brutal types of dispossession are the latest forms of data retention, decreased privacy, and unwarranted use of this personal data as a result of activities being collected, analyzed, and intelligently manipulated by geographically remote entities, all thanks to the Internet.
Planning for the Future
By Paul Cunningham on December 17th, 2017 in Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, President's Message, Societal Impact
While societal change often takes place over extended periods of time, at key times in the history of human society, innovation can be accelerated by a combination of necessity and serendipity. We are currently experiencing such an accelerated transition.
Advanced Frugal Innovations
By Balkrishna Rao on December 16th, 2017 in Human Impacts, Leading Edge, Magazine Articles, Societal Impact
Frugal innovations are all the rage. Their appeal stems from lower costs to society at large.
Community Awareness
By Jim Isaak on December 15th, 2017 in Articles, Human Impacts
It is delightful when high profile leaders of high tech companies present the case for positive social benefit
Privacy and Gun Control
By Jim Isaak on October 20th, 2017 in Articles, Human Impacts, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
Periodically, often after a unconscionable massacre such as Las Vegas or Orlando, the United States reviews the balance between the… Read More
Tech Evolution for Village Communities
By Jim Isaak on October 16th, 2017 in Articles, Human Impacts, Social Implications of Technology, Societal Impact
Consider the fairly typical residence in this picture from Mfuwe, Zambia. This site has external sanitation facilities, a wood cook… Read More
Retreat to Move Forward : Alleviating Allostatic Load for the Brave
By Christine Perakslis on October 9th, 2017 in Human Impacts, Last Word, Magazine Articles, Societal Impact
We need our brains to adapt advantageously for ingenious design and development, especially as the time between stimulus and response becomes precariously pressurized.
The Next Generation of Socio-Technical Systems
By Steghofer on September 29th, 2017 in Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Societal Impact
The next generation of socio-technical system can be seen as a kind of “focal point” for the convergence of a number of current trends in computing, information systems, and information technology. These trends include the technology-driven instrumentation of infrastructure by ubiquitous computing and/or “intelligent” devices, with the prefix “smart” now taking precedence over the prefix “e-,” i.e. SmartGrids, SmartCities, SmartMotorways, etc., rather than the e-commerce. e-health, e-learning initiatives commonplace at the turn of millennium.
Go “Get Chipped”
By Katina Michael on September 18th, 2017 in Editorial & Opinion, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles
In 1997 Eduardo Kac became the first human to implant himself with a non-medical device in the performance art work titled “Time Capsule”