Trapped in the Technosphere (original) (raw)

The Impact of New Technologies on Society: A Blueprint for the Future

We already see the impact of emerging technologies on our lives and the economy in many different ways, particularly when it comes to the way we live our lives and the way we work. Due to this, there is fierce competition among companies across the globe in order to ensure that they are able to benefit from the new technological developments. Globally, the United States and Asia are emerging as the two global leaders in this area. Over the years, there has been a significant change in the landscape of emerging technologies since Alan Turing first asked in the 1950s if machines could think like humans. Emerging technologies will enhance economic growth and efficiency in the future. It is possible to greatly improve decision-making when large amounts of data are analyzed by improving efficiency. It is likely that new products and services, new markets, and new industries will be created as a result, which will in turn boost consumer demand and generate new revenue streams. On the othe...

Reconnecting technological development with human welfare

Futures, 2014

Many observers see advances in technology as the key means for ensuring continued economic growth, and with it human progress as well. In particular, three modern technologies-biotechnology, information technology (sometimes including robotics and cognitive technologies) and nanotechnology-are seen by some researchers as converging and thus bringing about unprecedented benefits for humanity in the coming decades. The aim of this paper is to answer the question: can the on-going rapid advances in these new technologies lead to a better future for all? By examining three important sectors-transport, health/medicine, and agriculture/food-we show that application of these technologies are either largely irrelevant, too expensive, or too risky to meet the future needs of all humans in these sectors.

Global information technology infrastructure in addressing the borderless problem of overpopulation

2016

The world has been beset with fears of future global overpopulation overwhelming the earth’s ecological system and producing shortages of energy, resources, water and food. The sustainability has been a major long-term concern, climate change is thought to be causing a warming of the planet, an increased incidence of extreme weather events, a reduction in agricultural yields, melting the ice caps, and rising sea levels which will eventually cause flooding of low lying islands and coastal districts. As a result, there is dire need for population checks in the world. The causes of overpopulation are attributed to cultural beliefs, lack of sex and population education, religious beliefs etc. The effects of overpopulation include mass poverty, increased death rate, unemployment, etc. It becomes eminent that some measures should be put in place to address this global issue. Some past measures included equipping and funding public and special libraries to disseminate population control in...

The Future of Technological Civilization

2013

This is a radical, visionary draft textbook that breaks new ground in democratic theory and in science and technology policy. I use it in an introductory course in Science, Technology, and Society; but some chapters could be used as stand-alone readings for courses in futures studies, science and technology policy, political economy, or democratic theory. 260 pages, no footnotes, glossary of concepts, written in readily comprehensible language. Section I: Four primary challenges in steering civilization less unwisely, less unfairly. Section II: Political and Economic Innovations for Improved Technological Steering. Section III: Technical Professionals' Public Responsibilities. Section IV. Envisioning a Commendable Future.

Technology and sustainability

2011

This essay reviews the debate between Ehrlich and Commoner in the early seventies on the role of population growth versus technology. Without underestimating the necessity of stabilizing our world population it emphasizes the role of clean and green technology. Commoner rightly pointed in that direction. The question In 1798 T.R. Malthus published his famous An essay on the Principle of Population, in which he discussed the relationship between population figures, population growth and the use of natural resources. Malthus predicted great problems-vice and misery-because the population was growing at a faster rate than food production. He was not the first to broach this subject, it was addressed by the Greek historian Herodotus (484-c. 425 BCE), but Malthus was the first to put it in a global perspective. His work is still referred to today. In the second half of the last century The Club of Rome took up the theme in their famous Report (Meadows et al. 1972) and the biologist Paul Ehrlich showed himself to be an unadulterated neo-Malthusian. His books, The Population Bomb (1968), followed by The Population Explosion (1990), which he wrote with his wife, were both bestsellers. He focused not so much on the amount of food available but on mankind's total impact on the natural environment. Ehrlich believed that this impact was more than the earth could sustain and he, too, predicted disaster. The world would face hundreds of millions of starving people due to food shortages. But little heed was given to his warning. It seemed to have been set aside or overshadowed by other problems. Were Malthus and Ehrlich too sombre? Or are we indeed headed for disaster? Has the population issue been taken off the environmental agenda unjustly, or is it right to have been overshadowed by problems such as the threat of climate change and the loss of biodiversity?

Contrasting Futures for Humanity: Technotopian or Human-Centred

Paradigm Explorer: The Journal of the Scientific and Medical Network , 2017

We are at a critical point today in research into human futures. Two divergent streams show up in the human futures conversations. Which direction we choose will also decide the fate of earth futures in the sense of Earth's dual role as home for humans, and habitat for life. I choose to deliberately oversimplify here to make a vital point.