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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

Technology has always shaped human life and our understanding of what it means to be human. But does it actually encourage human flourishing? By exploring the doctrine of the incarnation and what it means for our embodiment, Craig Gay raises concerns about the theological implications of modern technologies and movements such as transhumanism, offering an alternative vision to the path of modern technology.