Albino doll sculpture with a human-like robot face. Credit: WIKIMEDIA/epSos.de.

June 2016

Rise of the Robots: Technology and Social Disruption

Vol. 35, No. 2, Summer 2016

Where are we headed? What trajectory are we on? Terra incognita: “Here be dragons.”

In the final iconic scene in Planet of the Apes, we see Taylor the protagonist, fall to his knees and bury his head in his hands at being confronted with a half-sunken Statue of Liberty washed by the waves. He thinks out aloud how this might have all happened at the hands of humans, and he says, “you blew it all up…” The “you” may well end up being the machines.

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• Militarized Zones: The Thinking Machine, the Occupying Machine, the Intensive Machine by ieeessit Posted in: Editorial & Opinion, Magazine Articles, Societal Impact - Throughout history, technological advances have had significant effects on military command, control, and logistics. In turn, military establishments — and… ...  Read More
• Sex Robot Matters: Slavery, the Prostituted, and the Rights of Machines by ieeessit Posted in: Ethics, Human Impacts, Societal Impact - Slavery is the coercive and controlled use of another human. Contrary to the belief that the practice ended in the… ...  Read More
• Uber Is Built on Trust by ieeessit Posted in: Ethics, Magazine Articles - Uber isn't in the taxi business. It's not really in the dispatch business, or even in the tech business. It's… ...  Read More
• Toyota: Not So Fast, Guys by ieeessit Posted in: Case Studies, Editorial & Opinion, Ethics, Magazine Articles - The automotive industry has furnished the field of engineering ethics with more than one “paradigm” case that generations of budding… ...  Read More
• GM Ignition Switch Recall: Too Little Too Late? by ieeessit Posted in: Ethics, Magazine Articles, Societal Impact - How much stuff do you carry on your keyring? Besides keys, I mean. Some minimalists like my wife carry car… ...  Read More
• RFID Implant Developments: Where Are We Headed and Why? by Sharon Rose Bradley-Munn Posted in: Editorial & Opinion, Human Impacts, Magazine Articles, Societal Impact - From a feminist perspective, author Donna Haraway makes inference to a type of teleology within technology itself that displaces the… ...  Read More
• When Smart Is Not: Technology and Michio Kaku’s The Future of the Mind by ieeessit Posted in: Leading Edge, Magazine Articles, Robotics, Societal Impact - In his new book, The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower Mind, theoretical physicist… ...  Read More
• Social Network Neutrality, Anyone? by Guest Author Posted in: Editorial & Opinion, Magazine Articles, Societal Impact - Having recently relocated to a country where I know very few people, I tried looking for a local branch of… ...  Read More
• Marvin Minsky: 1927-2016 by Guest Author Posted in: Magazine Articles, Societal Impact - Minsky (left) was keynote speaker at ISTAS 2013 held at the University of Toronto, Canada. (Right: Steve Mann, ISTAS '13… ...  Read More
• When Uber Cars Become Driverless: “They Won’t Need No Driver” by Katina Michael Posted in: Editorial & Opinion, Magazine Articles, Robotics, Societal Impact - I have long pondered the issue of dehumanization through automation. I think the old adage: “no one is irreplaceable” now… ...  Read More

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