Technology and the Future PDF Download

Author: Albert H. Teich
Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing Company
ISBN: 9780534604264
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Examining how technology shapes society while itself being shaped by social trends, this text presents a balanced view, including critics of technology as well as technological enthusiasts.

Author: Tom Standage
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9781861979711
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
From the industrial revolution to the railway age, through the era of electrification, the advent of mass production, and finally to the information age, the same pattern keeps repeating itself. An exciting, vibrant phase of innovation and financial speculation is followed by a crash, after which begins a longer, more stately period during which the technology is actually deployed properly. This collection of surveys and articles from The Economist examines how far technology has come and where it is heading. Part one looks at topics such as the “greying” (maturing) of IT, the growing importance of security, the rise of outsourcing, and the challenge of complexity, all of which have more to do with implementation than innovation. Part two looks at the shift from corporate computing towards consumer technology, whereby new technologies now appear first in consumer gadgets such as mobile phones. Topics covered will include the emergence of the mobile phone as the “digital Swiss Army knife”; the rise of digital cameras, which now outsell film-based ones; the growing size and importance of the games industry and its ever-closer links with other more traditional parts of the entertainment industry; and the social impact of technologies such as text messaging, Wi-Fi, and camera phones. Part three considers which technology will lead the next great phase of technological disruption and focuses on biotechnology, energy technology, and nanotechnology.

Author: Andrew Maynard
Publisher: Mango Media Inc.
ISBN: 1633539067
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
“Deftly shows how a seemingly frivolous film genre can guide us in shaping tomorrow’s world.” —Seth Shostak, senior astronomer, SETI Institute Artificial intelligence, gene manipulation, cloning, and interplanetary travel are all ideas that seemed like fairy tales but a few years ago. And now their possibilities are very much here. But are we ready to handle these advances? This book, by a physicist and expert on responsible technology development, reveals how science fiction movies can help us think about and prepare for the social consequences of technologies we don’t yet have, but that are coming faster than we imagine. Films from the Future looks at twelve movies that take us on a journey through the worlds of biological and genetic manipulation, human enhancement, cyber technologies, and nanotechnology. Readers will gain a broader understanding of the complex relationship between science and society. The movies mix old and new, and the familiar and unfamiliar, to provide a unique, entertaining, and ultimately transformative take on the power of emerging technologies, and the responsibilities they come with.

Author: Bent Greve
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1786434296
Category : Employees
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Changes in the labour market demand new solutions to mitigate the potentially dramatic wiping away of jobs, and this important book offers both analysis and suggestions for change. Bent Greve provides a systematic and vigorous assessment of the impact of new technology on the labour market and welfare states, including comprehensive analysis of the sharing and platform economies, new types of inequality and trends of changes in the labour market.

Author: Deborah G. Johnson
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262303388
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 853

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Book Description
An anthology of writings by thinkers ranging from Freeman Dyson to Bruno Latour that focuses on the interconnections of technology, society, and values and how these may affect the future. Technological change does not happen in a vacuum; decisions about which technologies to develop, fund, market, and use engage ideas about values as well as calculations of costs and benefits. This anthology focuses on the interconnections of technology, society, and values. It offers writings by authorities as varied as Freeman Dyson, Laurence Lessig, Bruno Latour, and Judy Wajcman that will introduce readers to recent thinking about technology and provide them with conceptual tools, a theoretical framework, and knowledge to help understand how technology shapes society and how society shapes technology. It offers readers a new perspective on such current issues as globalization, the balance between security and privacy, environmental justice, and poverty in the developing world. The careful ordering of the selections and the editors' introductions give Technology and Society a coherence and flow that is unusual in anthologies. The book is suitable for use in undergraduate courses in STS and other disciplines. The selections begin with predictions of the future that range from forecasts of technological utopia to cautionary tales. These are followed by writings that explore the complexity of sociotechnical systems, presenting a picture of how technology and society work in step, shaping and being shaped by one another. Finally, the book goes back to considerations of the future, discussing twenty-first-century challenges that include nanotechnology, the role of citizens in technological decisions, and the technologies of human enhancement.

Author: Robert U. Ayres
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030713938
Category : Technology
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Eminent physicist and economist, Robert Ayres, examines the history of technology as a change agent in society, focusing on societal roots rather than technology as an autonomous, self-perpetuating phenomenon. With rare exceptions, technology is developed in response to societal needs that have evolutionary roots and causes. In our genus Homo, language evolved in response to a need for our ancestors to communicate, both in the moment, and to posterity. A band of hunters had no chance in competition with predators that were larger and faster without this type of organization, which eventually gave birth to writing and music. The steam engine did not leap fully formed from the brain of James Watt. It evolved from a need to pump water out of coal mines, driven by a need to burn coal instead of firewood, in turn due to deforestation. Later, the steam engine made machines and mechanization possible. Even quite simple machines increased human productivity by a factor of hundreds, if not thousands. That was the Industrial Revolution. If we count electricity and the automobile as a second industrial revolution, and the digital computer as the beginning of a third, the world is now on the cusp of a fourth revolution led by microbiology. These industrial revolutions have benefited many in the short term, but devastated the Earths ecosystems. Can technology save the human race from the catastrophic consequences of its past success? That is the question this book will try to answer.

Author: Alfred A. Marcus
Publisher: FT Press
ISBN: 0133996220
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. ANTICIPATE AND SHAPE TECHNOLOGICAL DISRUPTION...INSTEAD OF BEING VICTIMIZED BY IT Gain powerful insights for crafting strategy in technology-rich industries, from IT to finance, and healthcare to energy Understand the massive social impacts of technology, and how today’s societal divisions shape your opportunities to innovate For everyone who must manage new technologies and respond to technological disruption From biotech to nanotech to big data, the pace of technological disruption continues to accelerate. Now, leading business strategy expert Alfred Marcus offers powerful tools for anticipating technological change, and managing the threats and opportunities it poses. Marcus illuminates the ongoing interplay between technological change and wider societal trends, helping you recognize new opportunities created by these interactions, and maximize the upside–both for your company and the broader society. Whether you’re an executive or strategist, technical professional or MBA student, this guide will sharpen your focus on the future so you can navigate radical technological-driven change–wherever it leads. Emerging technologies offer immense promise for generating growth, profitability, and prosperity. But they face major obstacles to commercialization, and have environmental and social costs that must be carefully managed to maximize the benefit and mitigate the harm. This book is about the foresight and strategic actions required for these new technologies to play a positive rather than negative role. Alfred Marcus illuminates their potential, reviews the risky decisions needed to transform potential into reality, and discusses how technologies might be used to ameliorate social problems rather than exacerbate them. Whether you’re an executive, manager, or student, you’ll gain powerful insights into innovation, strategy, execution, technology management, and the fastchanging business environment in which technological change takes place.

Author: Elina Hiltunen
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443884472
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Technology constantly evolves, usually slowly and insidiously – but always just as surely. Things that are currently being developed in laboratories will be in the public domain as different products and applications perhaps as soon as in a few years’ time, and as more refined versions in around ten years’ time. This book deals with the future of technology, and explores the influence new technologies may have on life within the next twenty years. It is divided into three parts, the first of which discusses technological development and the forces and counter-forces related to it. This section also reviews how advances in technology are forecasted, and what kinds of parties make these predictions, and provides examples of forecasts for the next couple of decades. The second part of the book investigates the various areas of technology and their related trends. This section discusses current technological studies which may have concrete impacts in everyday life in a few decades, such as those in the fields of energy, transportation, biotechnology, materials, ICT, robotics, medical technology and space technology. The third part of the book introduces the authors’ visions of how technology may develop by 2035, and presents three different scenarios, or future worlds. These will demonstrate the possible directions in which technological development can take us. The scenarios are introduced through two main characters, Romeo and Juliet (adapted from Shakespeare’s play) in the year 2035. Even though technology is constantly changing, the writers believe that, even years into the future, the significance of human relations will remain the greatest influence on human life.

Author: Evan S. Michelson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429814100
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
An increasingly important and often overlooked issue in science and technology policy is recognizing the role that philanthropies play in setting the direction of research. In an era where public and private resources for science are strained, the practices that foundations adopt to advance basic and applied research needs to be better understood. This first-of-its-kind study provides a detailed assessment of the current state of science philanthropy. This examination is particularly timely, given that science philanthropies will have an increasingly important and outsized role to play in advancing responsible innovation and in shaping how research is conducted. Philanthropy and the Future of Science and Technology surveys the landscape of contemporary philanthropic involvement in science and technology by combining theoretical insights drawn from the responsible research and innovation (RRI) framework with empirical analysis investigating an array of detailed examples and case studies. Insights from interviews conducted with foundation representatives, scholars, and practitioners from a variety of sectors add real-world perspective. A wide range of philanthropic interventions are explored, focusing on support for individuals, institutions, and networks, with attention paid to the role that science philanthropies play in helping to establish and coordinate multi-sectoral funding partnerships. Novel approaches to science philanthropy are also considered, including the emergence of crowdfunding and the development of new institutional mechanisms to advance scientific research. The discussion concludes with an imaginative look into the future, outlining a series of lessons learned that can guide how new and established science philanthropies operate and envisioning alternative scenarios for the future that can inform how science philanthropy progresses over the coming decades. This book offers a major contribution to the advancement of philanthropic investment in science and technology. Thus, it will be of considerable interest to researchers and students in public policy, public administration, political science, science and technology studies, sociology of science, and related disciplines.

Author: Ray Brescia
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501748130
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
In The Future of Change, Ray Brescia identifies a series of "social innovation moments" in American history. Through these moments—during which social movements have embraced advances in communications technologies—he illuminates the complicated, dangerous, innovative, and exciting relationship between these technologies, social movements, and social change. Brescia shows that, almost without fail, developments in how we communicate shape social movements, just as those movements change the very technologies themselves. From the printing press to the television, social movements have leveraged communications technologies to advance change. In this moment of rapidly evolving communications, it's imperative to assess the role that the Internet, mobile devices, and social media can play in promoting social justice. But first we must look to the past, to examples of movements throughout American history that successfully harnessed communications technology, thus facilitating positive social change. Such movements embraced new communications technologies to help organize their communities; to form grassroots networks in order to facilitate face-to-face interactions; and to promote positive, inclusive messaging that stressed their participants' shared dignity and humanity. Using the past as prologue, The Future of Change provides effective lessons in the use of communications technology so that we can have the best communicative tools at our disposal—both now and in the future.