Emerging Technologies

Considerable scholarly discussion has been given to the idea that we are moving toward a state of “posthumanism.” This essay examines some possible implications of a posthuman existence, specifically as it relates to that most basic of human needs—sexuality. I explore the spiritual aspects of sexuality to see what is lost and what is gained in technologically mediated forms of sexuality. To that end, I consider the interplay between sexual behavior and our conceptions of the sacred, how technologies are changing our views of—and realities concerning—our bodies, and the potential for a sacred posthuman sexuality.

This paper presents results from a pilot study of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) based on a web-scraping and content analysis of current and archived nanotechnology enterprise web sites. We use this approach to explore nanotechnology SMEs transitions from discovery to commercialization and understand how transitions vary by SME characteristics, technology and market sectors. Our findings suggest that although the idealized linear innovation model is present, important instances of divergence exist. Cluster analysis uncovered sectoral differences but even more distinctions based on the age, funding source, and research intensity.

Context aware, the latest construct in emerging technologies, is a leap towards a fully integrated human-digital experience. The vision of a completely programmable world with images, characters, temperatures, colors and scents based on our preferences is imminent. Most of the published research focuses on the architectural or development point of view, but little is known about the attitudes, perceptions and obstacles of technologies being released in the immediate future that push the boundaries on concepts like: filter bubbles, serendipity, intrusiveness, remembering and forgetting and privacy. This study aims to discover a potential scale that identifies attitudes based on the social obstacles in context aware technologies.

How can we think about the implications of radical technological change for employment and skills? Given the long lead-times required to train professionals, this is an important question, and standard approaches to modeling employment and occupational trends only provide limited parts of the answer. Innovation studies provide us with some further tools for tackling the question, such as diffusion and industry life-cycle analysis, and ideas about different sorts of technological change (including technical paradigms, regimes, and trajectories of change), which are very relevant to emerging technologies like nanotechnology. There are many claims and much argument about the scope and speed of the evolution of nanotechnology. It poses particular challenges to conventional forecasting approaches precisely because it is difficult to resolve such debates in the infancy of a technology, and in this case knowledge is fragmented because of the intersection of numerous lines of development at the nano-scale. Current skill and employment projections for nanoindustries are problematic, so it is important to consider new ways to improve understanding and provide more policy-relevant intelligence.

The debate about the ethics of uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) is failing to keep pace with the rise of the technology. Therefore, all the key players, including ethicists, lawyers, and roboticists, are keen to offer their views on the use of these drone aircraft. Some are opposed to their use, citing a range of ethical, legal and operational issues, while others argue for their ethically mandated use. B.J. Strawser fits into this latter category. He develops a principle of ‘unnecessary risk’, from which he argues that we have an ethical obligation to employ UAVs if we can do so without incurring a loss of capability. Strawser defends his argument against a number of potential objections, most questionably, the argument that the use of distance weaponry such as drones, against another state without distance weaponry, crosses some moral threshold that makes the combat immoral. Utilising Jeff McMahan's work on the inequality of combatants, Strawser essentially argues that there are no grounds for a ‘fair fight’. However, this paper will argue that it is not so easy to overturn the doctrine of the moral equality of combatants, nor dismiss the problem with asymmetry. It will demonstrate that if the asymmetry reaches a certain level, the justification for resorting to war may be removed and some sort of policing action may remain the only option.

"Des Cours d’eau, deuxième recueil français du poète, chercheur et enseignant franco-argentin, Carlos Alvarado-Larroucau. Dans sa quête esthétique, il s’engage pour l’avenir de l’eau, ressource vitale.
Les études sur l’imaginaire poétique de Bachelard révèlent que l’eau peut devenir une réalité complète, un être total, ayant un corps, une âme et une voix. Chez Alvarado-Larroucau, cet élément est inspiration, matériau et métaphore.
Au fil de l’eau, le poète nous entraîne dans son univers, sa rêverie : de l’Amérique précolombienne à l’Égypte ancienne ; du Río de la Plata à la Seine ; des gaves d’Oloron à l’Atlantique ; entre les cygnes de Saint-Saëns et de Mallarmé ; les orages, la neige et la lumière liquide… "

Ethical issues of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are important because they can have significant effects on human liberty, happiness, and people’s ability to lead a good life. They are also of functional interest because they can determine whether technologies are used and whether their positive potential can unfold. For these reasons, policy makers are interested in finding out what these issues are and how they can be addressed. The best way of creating ICT policy that is sensitive to ethical issues pertain to being proactive in addressing such issues at an early stage of the technology life cycle. The present paper uses this position as a starting point and discusses how knowledge of ethical aspects of emerging ICTs can be gained. It develops a methodology that goes beyond established futures methodologies to cater for the difficult nature of ethical issues. The authors outline how the description of emerging ICTs can be used for an ethical analysis.

"i. Why ethics? Why PNFP?
If it is not already apparent why a chapter on ethics would be important to the discussion of developments in polymer nanomaterials for food packaging (PNFP), then this chapter will show how and why it ought to be. To do this will involve discussion of both specific and general ethical issues arising from the development of PNFP, and engage with pertinent environmental, health and safety (EHS) issues by way of example and analysis. There will also be discussion regarding the role of communication and stakeholder dialogue for ensuring that the testing, production and marketing of PNFP follow models such as the precautionary principle. The primary aim of the chapter is to introduce ‘ethical design’ as a concept that should play a key role in the development of PNFP. Ethical design will be offered as a paradigm for putting key ethical principles, such as the precautionary principle, into practice and includes issues about accountability and regulation... "

In this paper, the author argues that technology use in education has focused on combating instructional problems and inefficiencies. While technology use for such purposes is viable and important, the author proposes that practitioners and researchers in field utilize emerging technologies as a means to provide opportunities for personally relevant and meaningful transformation. The author discusses strategies for providing such opportunities and presents examples of potentially transformative learning activities and environments. The paper concludes with caveats regarding the pursuit of transformation in technology-enhanced learning environments.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: to emphasize the importance of financial aid literacy, discuss how low-income students presently learn about financial aid, and consider the role of emerging technologies in becoming financial aid literate. An assessment of the recent literature on financial aid access issues relative to emerging technologies considers a synthesis of these two bodies of research in bridging the information and guidance gap for low-income students and families. I will argue that students from low-income backgrounds, who are in the most need of financial aid literacy skills, could be better served through emerging technology initiatives than current traditional guidance methods, which are inequitably distributed and currently failing to serve today’s low-income students.