Category: Human Impacts

Modem Futura is your guide to the bold frontiers of tomorrow.

Aging provides us the ability to look back and compare different time periods in our lifetime while using technology as a “point of reference.”

Food security and agriculture are complex systems that interconnect with many other issues, including poverty and environmental sustainability. These urgent issues inspire proposals for technological solutions. Emerging technologies are often proposed as ways to increase food supply to end hunger. Other proposals target agricultural practice, grounded in the knowledge that agriculture has a large carbon footprint, and the fear that the negative climate impacts of agriculture would worsen as the population increases.

Call for Papers — IEEE ETHICS-2025: Emerging Technologies, Ethics, and Social Justice — 6-8 June 2025, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (Chicago Area), USA

ISTAS25 will be held at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA, September 10-12, 2025, and themed AI Evolution and Revolution.

ISTAS 2024 continued on Thursday September 19 in Puebla, Mexico, with a second day of outstanding programming addressing the social implications of artificial intelligence, as well as sustainability and climate change, ethics and human values, and technology policy and law.

CS president Jyotika Athavale called the conference’s topic a reminder to IEEE members and the technical community that “everything we do has a lasting impact… that extends far beyond the insularity of the scientific community” to encompass the “broader implications” of technology, and in particular artificial intelligence.

Text Neck is a classic ergonomic issue that has come about as a direct result of technological innovation, as people have begun to increasingly use digital media of all types to text, talk, browse the internet, listen to music, watch videos, or play online games.

ISTAS 2024 in Puebla, Mexico, has officially opened!
Tom Coughlin 2024 IEEE President gave the opening address this morning September 18, 2024, via recorded feed.
Virtual registration is still available for attendees outside of Mexico.

There is a clear parallel between conceptualizations of comedy clubs and AI labs as masculine spaces, and jokes and technology as for men. As Sutko writes, [AI] technology often gets equated with “men’s power,” while women and girls are portrayed as less technologically skilled and less interested than their male counterparts. Such stereotypes can contribute to the gender gap in women’s participation in related fields.

Welcome to the second installment of “Meet the Editorial Board.” We are delighted to introduce you to some more members of the IEEE Technology and Society Magazine’s editorial board.

While AI-generated responses can initially seem impressive, LLM and AI generated texts suffer from multiple risks, including hallucination and inaccuracy. 

Spain’s Comunitat Valenciana (Valencian Community) (Figure 1) has a rich agricultural history, with long traditions of resilience and innovation. This tradition,…  Read More

Social media platforms present a perplexing duality, acting at once as sites to build community and a sense of belonging, while also giving rise to misinformation, facilitating and intensifying disinformation campaigns and perpetuating existing patterns of discrimination from the physical world.

The LLES Project promotes the transformation of the conventional construction paradigm, incorporating bioclimatic architecture strategies like passive measures to minimize heat gain and maximize cooling.

Dr. Monica Huerta (Ecuador Section) was awarded the IEEE Region 9 Eminent Engineer Award for 2024 for R9.

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine is a rare place where social and technological concerns come together in a way that respects both the technological details as well as the critical, social areas that influence technological invention and adoption.

Dr. Kiani is a wonderful example of practicing what she preaches. First, she believes in talking with very young/K12 girls to get involved in STEM and she is very active in the IEEE-USA efforts. The implementation of the Nepal project is an example of “walk the talk.”

The term “explainability” is a multifaceted concept within the realm of computer science. In essence, it encompasses various aspects and capacities of a system to effectively convey its internal processes, decision-making, capabilities, and constraints to its users. Providing explanations can notably enhance initial trust, especially when trust is measured as a multidimensional concept that includes aspects such as competence, benevolence, integrity, intention to return, and perceived transparency.

We identified five key issues to prioritize when addressing gender equality: Reaching critical mass; Improving lived and living experience (maintaining critical mass); Selection and resource-allocation criteria; The misconception of merit in academia; Beyond gender equality.