Kategoria BISAC: Technology & Engineering >> Social Aspects

Introduces contemporary American philosophy of technology through six of its leading figures. The six American philosophers of technology whose work is profiled in this clear and concise introduction to the field Albert Borgmann, Hubert Dreyfus, Andrew Feenberg, Donna Haraway, Don Ihde, and Langdon Winner represent a new, empirical direction in the philosophical study of technology that has developed mainly in North America. In place of the grand philosophical schemes of the classical generation of European philosophers of technology (including Martin Heidgger, Jacques Ellul, and Hans...

When Warren Kendall Lewis left Spring Garden Farm in Delaware in 1901 to enter MIT, he had no idea that he was becoming part of a profession that would bring untold good to his country but would also contribute to the death of his family's farm. In this book written a century later, Professor Lewis's granddaughter, a cultural historian who has served in the administration of MIT, uses her grandfather's and her own experience to make sense of the rapidly changing role of technology in contemporary life.

Rosalind Williams served as Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education at MIT...

Drawing on the new physics as the scientific foundation of transformational politics, Becker and Slaton write compellingly about teledemocracy, social energy, and democratic quanta. They outline their quantum political theory in rich detail, demonstrating how we have entered a phase of highly charged, erratic, and sometimes self-contradictory packets of social political energy that appears to occur with a rough regularity but with differing levels of velocity and force.

Becker and Slaton explore the current state and future of televoting, electronic town meetings, and other...

Drawing on the new physics as the scientific foundation of transformational politics, Becker and Slaton write compellingly about teledemocracy, social energy, and democratic quanta. They outline their quantum political theory in rich detail, demonstrating how we have entered a phase of highly charged, erratic, and sometimes self-contradictory packets of social political energy that appears to occur with a rough regularity but with differing levels of velocity and force.

Becker and Slaton explore the current state and future of televoting, electronic town meetings, and other initiatives...

For the developing countries to take advantage of the accumulated and growing body of scientific and technological information, they must develop competence in choosing technology through an institutionalized technology policy. Third World experiences in developing and implementing technology policies are documented and analyzed in this volume. Issues such as the values shaping technology, selection of appropriate technology, technology transfer, technological self-reliance, planning, and development control are discussed in detail. Ideas for future policy development are evaluated.

This series of essays explores the impact of information on the quality of life in modern society. Addressing the significance of boredom as an indicator of overloads of information, Klapp argues that the information society has become boring in spite of itself. He contends that constant inundation with information has led to nothing less than the attrition of meaning. Redundancy and noise, Klapp asserts, have replaced resonance and variety in the modern world. The information society has become entropic rather than progressive and a deficit in the quality of life has resulted. The author...

Rodney A. Brooks, director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory believes we are. In this lucid and accessible book, Brooks vividly depicts the history of robots and explores the ever-changing relationships between humans and their technological brethren, speculating on the growing role that robots will play in our existence. Knowing the moral battle likely...

Dr. Bova guides readers through worldwide research into the biochemical processes that cause aging and death, and shows what scientists are discovering about stopping, perhaps even reversing them....

Privacy and Technologies of Identity: A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation provides an overview of ways in which technological changes raise privacy concerns. It then addresses four major areas of technology: RFID and location tracking technology; biometric technology, data mining; and issues with anonymity and authentication of identity. Many of the chapters are written with the non-specialist in mind, seeking to educate a diverse audience on the "basics" of the technology and the law and to point out the promise and perils of each technology for privacy. The material in this book provides...