Past Issues

March 2019

Technology for Governance, Politics, and Democracy

December 2018

Wound Person Takes Pascal's Wager

In the 15th century there was Wound Man, bleeding from his injuries. Today we have Wound Person leaking data from…  Read More

September 2018

Special Issue on ISTAS 2017 - From Good Ideas to Practical Solutions

How do we develop “good” technological concepts that solve a particular problem or fulfill a defined need? How can these designs be translated into…  Read More

June 2018

Special Section: Social Media in the Middle East

March 2018

Social Implications of Robotics and AI

“it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that Artificial Intelligence (AI) [or robotics] will be one of two things: our destroyer…  Read More

December 2017

ISTAS 2016 - Disruptive Technologies, Ethics, and Global Development

ISTAS 2016 was an important milestone for the SSIT community in India. It introduced topics such as ethics, society, and…  Read More

September 2017

Next Generation Socio-Technical Systems

The next generation of socio-technical system will be underpinned by the most advanced and potentially most “intelligent” technology so far…  Read More

June 2017

Special Issue: Thinking Machines in the Physical World - IEEE 2016 Conference on Norbert Wiener in the 21st Century

Norbert Wiener knew that smart machines and robots would contribute to improvements in human lives. He was also keenly aware…  Read More

March 2017

Special Issue on Military Use of Implantable Technologies

Advanced technologies that were once the stuff of science fiction have catapulted into the the military marketplace. We now have…  Read More

December 2016

Unintended Consequences of Technology

How will the increasing penetration of artificial intelligence technologies into affect our lives? Unintended and/or unanticipated consequences of these technologies…  Read More

September 2016

Technology, Culture, and Ethics

Pervasive technologies have an intentionality, and they have inherent qualities that can be used positively or negatively. When we investigate…  Read More

June 2016

Rise of the Robots: Technology and Social Disruption

Where are we headed? What trajectory are we on? Terra incognita: “Here be dragons.” In the final iconic scene in…  Read More

March 2016

Hidden Conditions

Personal data is a commodity, and there is great incentive for those profiting from that commodity to conceal the ways…  Read More

December 2015

Blockchains

Blockchains are a new form of information technology that may have important future applications. Blockchain thinking formulates thinking as a…  Read More

September 2015

Special Issue on 2014 Norbert Wiener in the 21st Century

In this issue of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine we acknowledge one of the quintessential multi-disciplinarians of our time, Dr. Norbert Wiener (1894–1964), the Father of Cybernetics….  Read More

June 2015

Special Issue on Ethics / ISTAS 2015

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a therapy used to relieve the symptoms of movement disorders, specifically dystonia, essential tremor, and…  Read More

March 2015

Social and Economic Sustainability.

As we strive to mainstream alternate energy sources and make them accessible in resource poor communities [4], how do we think beyond the…  Read More

December 2014

Are We Becoming Enslaved by Technology?

Surely some good can come from it! The clock is ticking but that “thing” is pinging A voicemail Another email…  Read More

September 2014

Technology for Collective Action

Developing socio-technical (eco) systems raises engineering challenges, but offers important new opportunities for successful collective action. One challenge lies in…  Read More

Summer 2014

Beyond Human

Is more than human better? Evolving in ways that could improve our lives can only be a good thing. But…  Read More