Category: Societal Impact

Perhaps in the future every human individual will be considered disabled. Few might think this will happen, but if you…  Read More

Rick Sare is an American long-haul freight truck driver. When he is not at work, driving, he lives in Orlando,…  Read More

September 27, 2015 Dear Prof. Turkle, I agree with the premise in your Sept. 26, 2015 New York Times Opinion…  Read More

Figure 1. Concept map of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine article headings (March 2010–July 2015) generated using Leximancer.    …  Read More

I recently watched The Martian, a great advertisement for engineering. Back in the real world, I read an October 7,…  Read More

In the wake of crisis situations that can bring tragedy through the loss of human life, or the devastating destruction…  Read More

Surfing in the ocean. S. PILEGGI   This evening I sat down to reflect on some significant happenings in the…  Read More

At the 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS’15), SSIT was greatly honored with an opening address to…  Read More

Throughout history, technological advances have had significant effects on military command, control, and logistics. In turn, military establishments — and…  Read More

Slavery is the coercive and controlled use of another human. Contrary to the belief that the practice ended in the…  Read More

How much stuff do you carry on your keyring? Besides keys, I mean. Some minimalists like my wife carry car…  Read More

From a feminist perspective, author Donna Haraway makes inference to a type of teleology within technology itself that displaces the…  Read More

In his new book, The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower Mind, theoretical physicist…  Read More

Having recently relocated to a country where I know very few people, I tried looking for a local branch of…  Read More

Minsky (left) was keynote speaker at ISTAS 2013 held at the University of Toronto, Canada. (Right: Steve Mann, ISTAS ’13…  Read More

I have long pondered the issue of dehumanization through automation. I think the old adage: “no one is irreplaceable” now…  Read More

Every day as engineers and technologists we go to work teaching, developing, building, implementing, maintaining technology. Do we care about…  Read More

Autonomous weapons systems (AWS) are already here. Although some of the colloquial names for AWS may suggest science fiction (killer…  Read More

In the early 1940s, why would ten American female basketball players in the heat of competition abruptly halt a match…  Read More

Can we trust for-profit corporations to protect our privacy? Are these compatible concepts and institutions? These are difficult questions to…  Read More