Artwork by Katina Michael.

December 2016

Unintended Consequences of Technology

Vol. 35, No. 4

How will the increasing penetration of artificial intelligence technologies affect our lives? Unintended and/or unanticipated consequences of these technologies and can have positive, negative, or even perverse impacts.

COVER: Random strangers encountered on the Sapphire Coast of Australia were asked: “What are the unintended consequences of technology?” Some of their responses appear here.

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Free Online Content

• Updating a Declaration by John Havens Posted in: Editorial & Opinion, Ethics, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles - It appears that humanity's great challenge for this century is to extend cooperative human values and institutions to autonomous technology… ...  Read More
• Crossing the Evolutionary Gap by Joe Carvalko Posted in: Ethics, Fiction, Magazine Articles, Societal Impact - The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance - the idea that anything is possible. — Ray… ...  Read More
• Home Is Where the AI Heart Is by Isabel Pedersen Posted in: Editorial & Opinion, Ethics, Magazine Articles, Robotics - The desire to create a sentient Artificial Intelligence (Al) as complex as a human intelligence, or one that even surpasses… ...  Read More
• Mediating the Body: Wearable Tech and Disembodied Reality by Rebecca Ricks Posted in: Editorial & Opinion, Ethics, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles - Where does wearable technology exist? The question is more complex than it might first appear, when one considers the thin… ...  Read More
• Unintended Consequences of Living with AI by Ramona Pringle Posted in: Editorial & Opinion, Magazine Articles, Societal Impact - The Paradox of Technological Potential - Part II In November 2015, as editors, we started sorting through submissions for a… ...  Read More
• Help for Cybersex Addicts and Their Loved Ones by Kimberly Young Posted in: Editorial & Opinion, Health & Medical, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles - When Fantasy Turns into Obsession Craig is a banker from Iowa who became addicted to adult chat rooms. He explained,… ...  Read More
• Gone Fishing: Breaking with the Biometric Rhythm of Tech-Centricism by Katina Michael Posted in: Editorial & Opinion, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles - On the 9th of December in 2015, I set out for a camping trip with my three young children to… ...  Read More
• Love, Philosophy, and Processors: Interview with a Robot by Ramona Pringle Posted in: Interview, Magazine Articles, Robotics, Societal Impact - The robot Bina48 is funny, and melancholy, and at times, uncannily profound. Like a human, she is complicated and contradictory,… ...  Read More
• Reclaiming Conversation by ieeessit Posted in: Book Reviews, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles - The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. By Sherry Turkle, Pengiun, 2015. Writing in 1930, the German cultural critic… ...  Read More

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