Category: Social Implications of Technology

The IEEE SSIT Technology and Society (T&S) Magazine has been published for decades. The SSIT Board of Governors is very…  Read More

“From today, painting is dead!” is said to have been proclaimed by the French painter Paul Delaroche in 1839 after seeing his first daguerreotype. His was an early name on the list of people who have made fools of themselves when prognosticating a future resulting from a new medium or invention. Motivated by either techno-euphoria or pessimism they have become famously wrong.

As populations increase, the volume of man and materials increases [1]. Demand can exceed capacity.

Does access to science communication inevitably lead to greater public understanding of science, its discoveries, and their impact? Does access to online data sets inevitably lead to full comprehension of available information by scientists?

Katina Michael, Director of the Center for Engineering, Policy and Society at Arizona State University speaks at TEDxASU 2019 about…  Read More

SSIT’s new IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society will launch in March 2020. Information for Authors and General Call for Papers are here.

I am hopeful that our younger readership will learn a bit about less known American history from the brief analogy I utilized, and therefore will join us in honoring all such men as George Washington Carver and their marvelous contributions to society! Thank you to Mr. Gadeken for his comments.

“Nudging” is the term used in the IEEE standards work on Ethics for AI Design. An AI system that applies deep learning to manipulating human decisions, with detailed analysis of the targeted individual, is a disturbing potential that must affect our trust in both the systems and those that direct their applications.

Sjöström argues that NFC chips are a solution in search of a problem, have limited utility, are less efficient than alternatives, and pose significant health risks.

Why would anyone own, or even need to own, a driverless car, if they do not get to drive it? Which in turn begs the question, if the central tenet of the personal car ownership model (i.e., ownership) no longer holds, then what is the replacement business model?

On that day, at 2:26 p.m., Eastern time, from Cape Kennedy,  Lunar Orbiter 1, the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon, was launched. Four days later, at 8:43 a.m., Eastern time, the spaceship successfully entered an orbit around the Moon, becoming the first human-made object to orbit a heavenly body other than Earth.

It is essential not only to estimate the sales potential of driverless cars, but also to debate how they will affect the society and cities’ livability.

Meeting traveler’s expectations, and properly exploiting available transport resources, is becoming a more and more complex task.

The role of driverless cars in future transport systems remains debatable, in terms of their potential to replace other transport modes or have a novel, unique, and complementary functionality.

In the age of driverless cars, rail — as a means of transportation that takes many people from one central station to another central station — has lost justification for its existence.

Katina Michael of the Australian Privacy Foundation speaks with Gemma Veness of ABC24hour (June 2, 2019), about the implications of…  Read More

I am Alba Victoria
A biopsychologist highly interested in conservation
Dedicated to engaging science communication
Who is simply trying to find more sustainable ways
To support our current and future generations

Discrimination is “embedded in computer code and, increasingly, in artificial intelligence technologies that we are reliant on, by choice or not.”

While “Ubering” was acquiring cachet as a verb and as a routine rite of passage for millennials (the heaviest users of the service), the company was besieged by problems. Some came squarely on the back of a general lack of ethics, or care for consequences.

Transition phases are often arduous and chaotic. When we read about positive outcomes, we can fail to recognize the formidable gap between the initial disruption, and eventual transformation.