Category: Social Implications of Technology

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.

Smart Cities demand new strategies and forms of control. The traditional model of public regulation is challenged by a renewed relationship between technology, government, and society. We highlight the difficulties and possible solutions for regulation in the context of a Smart City, provided by the largest city in Brazil: São Paulo.

The key question for the future is that with all the investment in new technologies, by both governments and business organizations, can regulation keep up with developments?

What sense of worth and dignity can a person have when their daily activities are confined within systemic contraptions where personal input, originality, and initiative are either undesirable, or quantified as targets to be maximized?

U.K. democracy is out of date. It isn’t built to deal with digital tools that have unprecedented potential to manipulate the public.

Gerald (Jerry) Engel, a past President of IEEE-SSIT, has died.

Andrew Maynard and Heather Ross chat with Gillian Hadfield at the 2018 Governance of Emerging Technologies and Science conference. Gillian…  Read More

The word “regulation” has been demonized by those who back an unfettered world of sink-or-swim markets. Yet the need for order – not to mention the defense of the defenseless – is essential to a free and functioning society.

Innovative Information and Communication Technologies play an important role in e-governance and digital democracy. There is unprecedented opportunity for community collective choice, whereby citizens who are affected by a set of governing rules can help to select policy options and rank spending priorities.

As new SSIT President, I congratulate the three people who were elected to the Member-at-Large positions on the SSIT Board of Governors for three-year terms beginning in 2019.

Politics required dialogue, deliberation, negotiation, and compromise. But now there is a dispute over the facts themselves.

Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925) is now considered a maverick of electrical science, but he could also be considered the founder of that subject.

Call for Papers – Special Issue of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine – Human Computer Interaction: Regulation and Ethics of Digital Technology

Becoming Like a Child for Technological Advancement. Wound Man affords us a vivid reminder of our physical finitude; we are mortal creatures who are susceptible to wounds, injuries, and contagions. And yet, #WoundPerson challenges us to better attune ourselves to our non-physical vulnerabilities and weaknesses.