Our lives are dominated by technology. We live with and through the achievements of technology. What is true of the rest of life is of course true of medicine. Many of us owe our existence and our continued vigour to some achievement of medical technology. And what is true in a major way of general medicine is to a significant degree true of psychiatry. Prozac has long since arrived, and in its wake an ever-growing armamentarium of new psychotropics; beyond (...) that, neuroscience promises ever more technological advances for the field. -/- However, the effect of technology on the field of psychiatry remains highly ambiguous. On the one hand there are the achievements, both in the science and practice of psychiatry; on the other hand technology's influence on the field threatens its identity as a humanistic practice. In this ambiguity psychiatry is not unique - major thinkers have for a long time been highly ambivalent and concerned about the technological order that now defines modern society. For the future, the danger is that the psychiatrically real becomes that which can be seen, the symptom, and especially that which can be measured. Disorders and treatments might become reduced to what can be defined by diagnostic criteria and what can be mapped out on a scale. -/- This book exams how technology has come to influence and drive psychiatry forward, and considers at just what cost these developments have been made. It includes a range of stimulating and thought-provoking chapters from a range of psychiatrists and philosophers. (shrink)

The study of the neuroscience and genomics of mental illness are increasingly intertwined. This is mostly due to the translation of medical technologies into psychiatry and to technological convergence. This article focuses on psychosis. I argue that the convergence of neuroscience and genomics in the context of psychosis is morally problematic, and that ethics scholarship should go beyond the identification of a number of ethical, legal, and social issues. My argument is composed of two strands. First, I argue (...) that we should respond to technological convergence by developing an integrated, patient-centred approach focused on the assessment of individual vulnerabilities. Responding to technological convergence requires that we integrate insights from several areas of ethics, translate bioethical principles into the mental health context, and proactively try to anticipate future ethical concerns. Second, I argue that a nuanced understanding of the concept of vulnerability might help us to accomplish this task. I borrow Florencia Luna’s notion of ‘layers of vulnerability’ to show how potential harms or wrongs to individuals who experience psychosis can be conceptualised as stemming from different sources, or layers, of vulnerability. I argue that a layered notion of vulnerability might serve as a common ground to achieve the ethical integration needed to ensure that biomedical innovation can truly benefit, and not harm, individuals who suffer from psychosis. (shrink)

Despite technological innovations, clinical expertise remains the cornerstone of psychiatry. A clinical expert does not only have general textbook knowledge, but is sensitive to what is demanded for the individual patient in a particular situation. A method that can do justice to the subjective and situation-specific nature of clinical expertise is ethnography. Effective deep brain stimulation (DBS) for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) involves an interpretive, evaluative process of optimizing stimulation parameters, which makes it an interesting case to study clinical (...) expertise. The aim of this study is to explore the role of clinical expertise through an ethnography of the particular case of DBS optimization in OCD. In line with the topic of the special issue this article is a part of, we will also use our findings to reflect on ethnography as a method to study complex phenomena like clinical expertise. This ethnography of DBS optimization is based on 18 months of participant observation and nine in-depth interviews with a team of expert clinicians who have been treating over 80 OCD patients since 2005. By repeatedly observing particular situations for an extended period of time, we found that there are recurrent patterns in the ways clinicians interact with patients. These patterns of clinical practice shape the possibilities clinicians have for making sense of DBS-induced changes in patients’ lived experience and behavior. Collective established patterns of clinical practice are dynamic and change under the influence of individual learning experiences in particular situations, opening up new possibilities and challenges. We conclude that patterns of clinical practice and particular situations are mutually constitutive. Ethnography is ideally suited to bring this relation into view thanks to its broad temporal scope and focus on the life-world. Based on our findings, we argue that clinical expertise not only implies skillful engagement with a concrete situation but also with the patterns of clinical practice that shape what is possible in this specific situation. Given this constraining and enabling role of practices, it is important to investigate them in order to find ways to improve diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities. (shrink)

Technological innovation has an important impact on environmental pollution. In this paper, first, we analyze the influence mechanism of technological innovation on environmental pollution and then design the index system of technological innovation. Then, we use the entropy method to calculate the technological innovation level of different regions in China based on provincial panel data from 2004 to 2016. Finally, the panel vector autoregression model is adopted, and taking the discharge of sewage, solid waste, and exhaust (...) gas as the research objects, the impact of technological innovation on them is empirically analyzed. The results show that China’s technological innovation level is steadily improving, but there are significant differences in the impact of technological innovation on wastewater, waste gas, and solid waste. Specifically, technological innovation can contribute to an increase in wastewater and solid waste emissions. However, the impact of this technological innovation on them is not equal. Secondly, the impact of technological innovation on exhaust emissions is to inhibit exhaust emissions in the short term and promote exhaust emissions in the long term. Finally, there are clear differences between them in terms of the specific impact of changes in wastewater, solid waste, and exhaust emissions. Changes in wastewater discharges and solid waste generation are largely derived from their own effects, while the role of technological innovation is supportive and insignificant. The change in exhaust emissions is initially influenced by itself, but in the long run, the influence of technological innovation gradually increases and eventually exceeds its own influence. Based on these research results, this paper puts forward corresponding policy suggestions to speed up environmental pollution control. (shrink)

Compared with traditional technological innovation modes, green technology innovation is more targeted for low carbon development and critical support for countries worldwide to combat climate change. The impact of green technology innovation on carbon emissions is considered in terms of fixed effect and mediating effect models through industrial structure upgrading. For this purpose, the sample dataset of 30 provincial administrative areas in China from 2008 to 2020 is employed. The results demonstrate that green technology innovation exerts significantly inhibitory effects (...) on carbon emissions, whose conclusion still holds after removing municipalities and replacing the dependent variable. Industrial structure upgrading is vital for green technology innovation to diminish carbon emissions. There is significant regional heterogeneity in the effects of green technology innovation on carbon emissions, i.e., the direct and indirect impact of green technology innovation on carbon emission reduction is significant in the eastern-central area, but its effect is insignificant in the western region. Therefore, it is essential to realize carbon emission reduction by further bolstering green technology innovation and accelerating industrial structure upgrading to fulfill the synergy of technology and structure. (shrink)

This article describes and analyzes the process of institutionalizing studies on science, technology, and society in Cuba, and the social and academic circumstances in which these studies are implemented there. The authors give a brief account of how science and technology have evolved in Cuba over the last four decades. The authors argue that the promotion of science and technological innovation in Cuba has purposely taken the form of social innovation. The authors offer our view of how the changes (...) and demands on science, technology, and education can take advantage of the approaches and proposals of STS studies. The authors consider the traditions of thought that have influenced Cuban culture and construct a specific conceptual framework through which contemporary developments in STS are assimilated. Finally, on the basis of the above analysis, the authors describe experiences of the institutionalization of STS and their underlying objectives. (shrink)

“We raised the power of reason, the power of manipulating words, above all other faculties. The written word became our god. We forgot that before words there were actions … that there have always been things beyond words. We forgot that spoken words preceded the written one. We forgot that written form of our letters came from ideographic pictures … that standing behind every letter is an image like an ancient ghost. The image stands for natural movements of the body (...) and other living things.” Frank Herbert. (shrink)

Ethics and Technology is a step-by-step, hands-on process that companies, civic organizations, and watchdog groups can use to assess the benefits - and costs - of technology. Featuring vignettes drawn from actual business cases, as well as sharply focused study questions, this resource offers tools for asking effective questions and making ethical decisions. John Hart's book will enable corporations, governments, communities, and individuals to get beyond competing ideologies to work cooperatively on a progressive reshaping of society.

Este trabajo está dirigido a fundamentar cómo a través de un proceso de innovación tecnológica se establecieron relaciones entre la universidad, la sociedad y el sector empresarial. La introducción de los productos biológicos en los laboratorios de diagnóstico médico y su impacto en los servicios fue el elemento fundamental que identificó la relación universidad-sociedad, mientras que la transferencia tecnológica de la obtención de biológicos a la unidad productora y comercializadora articuló a la academia con el mundo empresarial. Los modelos seguidos (...) para la gestión de la actividad de innovación le otorgaron al proceso un carácter específico y aseguraron su pertinencia, por lo que constituyó un logro científico-tecnológico. Se demostró un caso peculiar y concreto de fortalecimiento de las capacidades de interacción de las universidades con entidades productivas y de servicios, de modo que se enriqueció la función extensionista del centro de altos estudios. This article is based on a process of technical innovation that allowed establishing a relationship in which the university, society and the managerial sector were involved. The introduction of the biological products in medical diagnosis labs and its impact on services were the main elements that distinguished the university-society relationship, while the technological transfer to the unit of the biologicals obtained, articulated the university and the managerial field. Models put into practice for innovation management granted the process a specific character and ensured its relevance, that´s why it is considered a scientific-technological achievement. The process demonstrated a peculiar case of interaction between the university and production entities. (shrink)

Technological innovation is almost always investigated from an economic perspective; with few exceptions, the specific technological and social nature of innovation is often ignored. We argue that a novel way to characterise and make sense of different types of technological innovation is to start considering uncertainty. This seems plausible since technological development and innovation almost always occur under conditions of uncertainty. We rely on the distinction between, on the one hand, uncertainty that can be quantified (e.g. (...) probabilistic risk) and, on the other, deep forms of uncertainty that may resist the possibility of being quantified (e.g. severe or fundamental uncertainties). On the basis of these different ingredients of uncertainty in technological innovation, we propose a new taxonomy that reveals the technological nature of innovation. Unlike previous taxonomies employed to handle different types of technological innovations, our taxonomy does not consider the economic value of innovation alone; it is much more oriented towards societal preferences and forms of technological uncertainty. Finally, we investigate the coherence of our proposal with the dual nature of technological artefacts, showing that innovation can be grounded on structural and functional factors and not just on economic ones. (shrink)

I discuss three tiers of technological innovation: mild innovation, or the acceleration by technology of a human activity aimed at a good; moderate innovation, or the obviation by technology of an activity aimed at a good; and radical innovation, or the altering by technology of the human condition so as to change what counts as a good. I argue that it is impossible to morally assess proposed innovations within any of these three tiers unless we rehabilitate a natural-law ethical (...) framework. And I offer some moral starting points within such a framework, in connection with innovations of each of the three types. (shrink)

To be able to achieve success in their life, gifted intelligent students do not only need to optimize their cognitive function, but also to manage their self esteem. There have been many cases where students with high intellectual capacity failed in their life and work. This study aims to integrate technological innovation with the exploration of 5.0 educational based self esteem model or Exploration of Self Esteem Model (Exseed) in order to strengthen the character of gifted intelligent students. 5.0 (...) education emphasizes the use of technology as an instrument to enrich learning experience. 5.0 educational approach enables the integration of technology such as Artificial Intelligent (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR) into the learning process. In this study, technology is used as a tool to create an immersive learning experience in order to help gifted intelligent students to understand abstract concepts as well as they understand concrete concepts. Research method used in this study was the waterfall method. Waterfall method has five stages, namely, analyzing requirements, designing, applying, testing, and maintaining. The result of this study is a technological product for the Exploration of 5.0 Educational Based Self Esteem Model which is called Exseed to strengthen the characters of gifted intelligent students. Practical implication of this study includes the development of Exseed learning platform which can be adjusted with the individual need of gifted intelligent students as well as the improvement of learning involvement through the use of technology. Technology Integration in 5.0 educational based Exseed to explore self esteem of gifted intelligent students can be a progressive step to strengthen characters in the context of inclusive learning centered on them. (shrink)

Les modèles de l’imaginaire issus de l’école française bachelardienne et durandienne ont permis de mieux appréhender l’étude des mythes, des religions et des arts. Non seulement les imaginaires obéissent à une logique symbolique, mais celle-ci s’enracine dans des soubassements corporels, comportementaux et même neurobiologiques, qui sont au cœur des neurosciences. Dans quelle mesure peut‑on transférer ces résultats de manière plus systématique aux milieux des artefacts techniques, et même aux nouvelles innovations technologiques aujourd’hui? L’article tente de dégager quelques orientations programmatiques qui (...) devraient permettre de comprendre combien la liberté d’innovation se conjugue avec des contraintes neuromotrices et symboliques. Models of Bachelard’s and Durand’s persuasion for the imagination faculty offered a more comprehensive approach for the study of myths, religions and arts. Imaginaries do not only obey a symbolic logic, since such a logic is deeply grounded in physical, behavioral and even neural roots, which are now key issues at stake in neuroscience. To what extent can we transfer these results in a more systematic way to technical environments for artifacts and to the more advanced technological innovations of today? This contribution attempts to devise a set of programmatic guidelines which could bring about a better understanding of how the synergy strengthens between freedom in technological innovation and constraints imposed by neuromotor control and symbolic logic. (shrink)

A growing body of research has focused on the relationship between board diversity and firm performance. A series of empirical literatures have also examined a significant positive correlation between the two. But these results only demonstrate the relationship between the input of ‘diversity’ and the output of ‘firm performance’. Such research is more of a black box because board diversity must act on certain strategies or decisions to affect firm performance. Some scholars try theoretical analysis with the purpose of opening (...) the black box. In order to verify the relevant theoretical analysis results, this study uses the mediating effect analysis model in the field of psychology, through multiple regression, impulse analysis, variance decomposition and other methods, to thus empirically test the mediating effect of technological innovation in the process of board diversification promoting corporate performance. We found that board diversity can improve firm performance by enhancing the level of technological innovation. Among them, technological innovation has played a complete mediating role in the diversity of board members’ functional and occupational background, and played a partial mediating role in the diversification of directors’ part-time jobs. Technological innovation is a key indicator bridging board diversity and firm performance. This study can explore and explain the inner workings of the significant relationship between board diversity and firm performance, and link research findings on similar phenomena. The research results may make the existing board governance theories more systematic, expand the extension of theoretical research, and provide some empirical research references for academics and practitioners. (shrink)

Theories on categorization have led to numerous technical innovations. Starting with artificial intelligence and neural models, scientists have leveraged psychological theories to drive forward innovative technology. More recently, software companies and Internet firms have implemented high technology software developed from cognitive theory. One class of systems rooted in the philosophical tradition stresses the importance of explanation and function. Another focuses on feature similarity and rule-based reasoning. Both approaches have had modest success and solve fundamental problems, but neither has achieved the (...) higher-levels of categorization found in humans. The current paper critically analyzes the various theories of categorization and their collective impact on recent technology innovations. (shrink)

Technology innovation has changed the patterns with its advanced features for travel and tourism industry during the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, which massively hit tourism and travel worldwide. The profound adverse effects of the coronavirus disease resulted in a steep decline in the demand for travel and tourism activities worldwide. This study focused on the literature based on travel and tourism in the wake global crisis due to infectious virus. The study aims to review the emerging literature critically to help (...) researchers better understand the situation. It valorizes transformational affordance, tourism, and travel industries impacts posed by the virus COVID-19. The study proposed a research model on reviving the international tourism activities post COVID-19 pandemic to gain sustainable development and recovery. The scholars have debated seeking the best possible ways to predict a sustainable recovery of travel, tourism, and leisure sectors from the devastating consequences of coronavirus COVID-19. In the first phase, the study describes how the current pandemic can become transformational opportunities. It debates the situation and questions related to the emergence of the COVID-19 outbreak. The present research focuses on identifying fundamental values, organizations, and pre-assumptions related to travel and tourism revival and help academia and researchers to a breakthrough in initiating the frontiers based on research and practice. This study aims at exploring the role of technological innovation in the crisis management of COVID-19 tourism impacts, tourists’ behavior, and experiences. The travel and tourism industry’s main stakeholders include tourism demand and organizations that manage tourists’ destinations and policymakers. They have already experienced the stages of responses, recovery, and resetting tourism recovery strategies. The study provides valuable insight into the coronavirus consequences on travel and tourism and practical implications for global tourism and academic research revitalization. (shrink)

The economist Armen Alchian said once that ever since the fiasco in the Garden of Eden, we have been living in a world in which what we want exceeds what is available. The desire for more satisfaction is a predictable behavioral implication of the fact of scarcity. In fact, it might have helped mankind to survive against competition from other forms of life. Man's desire for more utility gives rise to two interdependent issues that each and every society has to (...) face: how to increase the value of the community's wealth, and how to allocate the increment in wealth. We generalize those issues as the demand for economic development. (shrink)

Multimodal communication research focuses on how different means of signalling coordinate to communicate effectively. This line of research is traditionally influenced by fields such as cognitive and neuroscience, human-computer interaction, and linguistics. With new technologies becoming available in fields such as natural language processing and computer vision, the field can increasingly avail itself of new ways of analyzing and understanding multimodal communication. As a result, there is a general hope that multimodal research may be at the “precipice of greatness” due (...) to technological advances in computer science and resulting extended empirical coverage. However, for this to come about there must be sufficient guidance on key (theoretical) needs of innovation in the field of multimodal communication. Absent such guidance, the research focus of computer scientists might increasingly diverge from crucial issues in multimodal communication. With this paper, we want to further promote interaction between these fields, which may enormously benefit both communities. The multimodal research community (represented here by a consortium of researchers from the Visual Communication [ViCom] Priority Programme) can engage in the innovation by clearly stating which technological tools are needed to make progress in the field of multimodal communication. In this article, we try to facilitate the establishment of a much needed common ground on feasible expectations (e.g., in terms of terminology and measures to be able to train machine learning algorithms) and to critically reflect possibly idle hopes for technical advances, informed by recent successes and challenges in computer science, social signal processing, and related domains. (shrink)

The productivity gains generated by innovation are the root cause of long-term economic growth. In this paper, two empirical hypotheses are proposed to clarify our view: the trade turnover of technology market and intellectual property protection are important factors to stimulate innovation; The main channel of communication is through the increase of research staff and R&D funds. The empirical research result show that: The greater the technology trade volume, the greater the incentive to regional innovation activities, the greater the number (...) of regional patents; About the intellectual property protection, The higher the protection intensity is, the greater the incentive is to regional innovation activities and the greater the number of regional patents. Different from relevant researches, this paper discusses the decisive role of market activity and legal environment on regional innovation behavior from the perspective of technology trade and patent protection, and emphasizes the theoretical significance of market and legal system from a more general perspective. (shrink)

Industrial investment funds are a new financing innovation mode that can build an effective financing channel for enterprises.Based on the panel data of Chinese Listed Companies in 2008–2017, this manuscript constructed a static panel model between industrial investment funds, government R&D subsidies, and technological innovation to empirically analyze the effects of industrial investment fund involvement and government R&D subsidies on companies’ technological innovation. The research shows that industrial investment fund involvement can increase the company’s R&D investment by providing (...) financial funds for the company, which can effectively solve the company’s lack of funds in the process of technological innovation and guarantee the smooth running of the company’s innovation activities. Secondly, government R&D subsidies can alleviate the pressure of R&D investment to a certain extent, which is conducive to promote a higher level of technological innovation in the company. Thirdly, for companies with industrial investment fund involvement, government R&D subsidies are conducive to promote technological innovation. In contrast, for companies without industrial investment fund involvement, government R&D subsidies have no significant impact on technological innovation to a certain extent or even have a “crowding out effect.”. (shrink)

The incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into contemporary linguistics exhibits a significant and transformational change in the discipline. AI technologies, which include natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and computational linguistics, have significantly transformed the methods employed by linguists for studying, analyzing, and applying linguistic principles. However, as the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) within modern linguistics has presented novel opportunities, facilitating scholars in their investigation of language at an unprecedented scale and level of intricacy, it is pertinent to understand (...) how language educators; especially, the university lecturers perceive these positive innovations. Nevertheless, the current research is focused on examining the responses of senior lecturers on the integration of AI in modern linguistics. The research objective further centered on gender variation in the responses of these lecturers in regard to technological innovations brought in by the integration of AI in modern linguistics. Using a quantitative research method, a good number of participants who are mainly senior lectures were engaged in an online interview. These participants consisting of forty-six (46) females and thirty-seven (37) males shared their opinions with regard to the focus of the study. Moreover, two important hypotheses were developed for this research and a t-test was conducted to validate these hypotheses. The findings generated from the data analyzed indicated that although there are no significant differences in the perceptions of both male and female lecturers on the integration of AI in modern linguistics, there are some aspects specific to modern linguistics with observable gender variations in responses of the participants. Such aspect includes easy adaption of new AI tools, level of benefits and ethical challenges. Also, while female lecturers address the AI integration in modern linguistics from ethical and beneficial point of view, the male counterparts focused more on accessibility and inclusivity. (shrink)

Improving the coordination between technological innovation in high-tech industries and regional economic development is an important measure for all provinces to implement the innovation-driven development strategy. Based on the analysis of the mechanism of high-tech industrial technological innovation and regional economic development, this paper constructs the measurement index system of high-tech industrial technological innovation and regional economic development, and the chain network DEA model, entropy weight method, coupling coordination model, and exploratory spatial data analysis technology are comprehensively (...) used to empirically analyze the technological innovation efficiency of high-tech industries, regional economic development level, and the coupling coordination relationship between them and the spatiotemporal evolution trend in 24 provinces of China from 2009 to 2018. The results show that there are significant differences in the average level of technological innovation efficiency of high-tech industry in each stage, which is the most prominent in the technology research and development stage, followed by the industrialization stage, and finally in the technology transformation stage. The degree of coupling and coordination between high-tech industrial technological innovation and regional economic development is increasing year by year, which is in the adaptation stage of high-tech industrial technological innovation and regional economic development. From the perspective of spatial pattern, there is a positive spatial autocorrelation between the coupling coordination degree of high-tech industrial technological innovation and regional economic development. The number of provinces with low coupling coordination degree is much larger than that with high coupling coordination degree, showing a serious imbalance of regional heterogeneity and forming two spatial aggregation areas of “high-high” diffusion effect and “low-low” low-speed growth. (shrink)

This article argues that businesses are morally responsible for compensating the people harmed by their activities even if they were not negligent, i.e., the businesses took reasonable precautions. Critics of this position maintain that responsibility requires choice, and by taking precautions, businesses choose not to harm others. This article accepts their argument’s first premise but rejects the second premise. It contends that businesses often seek risky or innovative activities to increase profits, and the essence of innovative activities is that precautions (...) cannot sufficiently reduce their foreseeable harmful consequences. The correct understanding of businesses’ decision-making enables us to appreciate that businesses choose to undertake risky activities while knowing that they can harm others despite preventive measures. It follows that preventive measures should not serve as an excuse against liability for harm. (shrink)

An incrementalist view of the R&Dprocess is developed, according to which R&D consists of informed trial and error. One way of avoiding expensive mistakes is to avoid choices within the R&D program that are highly sensitive to a particular scientific claim, because a great deal of time and money may have been spent to no avail should the claim turn out to befalse. The incremental view of R&D therefore entails that no choice within any R&D program is sensitive to any (...) scientific claim made at the time. Two tests are presented, antiseptic surgery and the first atomic pile, both of which confirm the incrementalist thesis. (shrink)

The present paper attempts to highlight the strategy of regional specialisation for technological innovation in R&D laboratories. The paper makes a proposition that regional specialisation should be recognised as a strategic initiative for technology development in R&D laboratories. The rationale for this strategic initiative has been substantiated with the help of illustrations from the cases of technology development efforts taken up in different laboratories in the country under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India. In this direction, (...) CSIR and other centres of excellence have played a pioneering role in the development of various industrial clusters and artisan concentrations in different parts of the country. The implications of adoption or otherwise of this strategy initiative for technological innovation in R&D laboratories have been discussed. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, EarlyView.

Under the innovation-driven development strategy, the improvement of the core competitiveness of enterprises demonstrates increasing dependence on the ability of technological innovation. In this article, data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2008 to 2018 were selected as research samples for the analysis of the influencing factors and mechanism of enterprise technological innovation from the dual perspectives of the external economic environment and internal management system based on the use of the fixed-effect model. (...) The results show that government intervention significantly hinders enterprises' investment in resources for technological innovation, and less government intervention can improve the innovation investment of enterprises. The intervention of internal control fails to bring institutional advantages; rather, it aggravates the negative effect of government intervention on enterprise technological innovation. The research enriches the existing academic research results on government intervention, internal control quality, and enterprise technological innovation. The findings provide experience for accelerating the marketization process in China, enterprise governance, and improving the level of enterprise technological innovation. (shrink)

Innovations permeate healthcare settings on an ever-increasing scale. Health technology innovations impact our perceptions and experiences of health, care, disease, etc. Because of the fast pace these HTIs are being introduced in different healthcare settings, there is a growing societal consensus that these HTIs need to be governed by ethical reflection. This paper reports a systematic review of argument-based literature which focused on articles reporting on ethical frameworks to screen or evaluate HTIs. To do this a four step methodology was (...) followed: Literature search conducted in five electronic literature databases; Identification of relevant articles; Development of data-extraction tool to analyze the included articles; Analysis, synthesis of data and reporting of results. Fifty-seven articles were included, each reporting on a specific ethical framework. These ethical frameworks existed out of characteristics which were grouped into five common ones: Motivations for development and use of frameworks; Objectives of using frameworks; Specific characteristics of frameworks ; Ethical approaches and concepts used in the frameworks; Methods to use the frameworks. Although this multiplicity of ethical frameworks shows an increasing importance of ethically analyzing HTIs, it remains unclear what the specific role is of these analyses. An ethics of caution, on which ethical frameworks rely, guides HTIs in their design, development, implementation, without questioning their technological paradigm. An ethics of desirability questions this paradigm, without guiding HTIs. In the end, a place needs to be found in-between, to critically assess HTIs. (shrink)

Modern science, whose methodologies give special privilege to using decontextualizing strategies and downplay the role of context-sensitive strategies, have been extraordinarily successful in producing knowledge whose applications have transformed the shape of the lifeworld. Nevertheless, I argue that how the mainstream of the modern scientific tradition interprets the nature and objectives of science is incoherent; and that today there are two competing interpretations of scientific activities that are coherent and that maintain continuity with the success of the tradition: "commercially-oriented technoscience" (...) and "multi-strategy research" . The greater part of this article is devoted to discussing what is involved in MS, by pointing to its positive research program in three areas , and its critical stance towards the innovations of CT, especially insofar as it makes use of the Precautionary Principle. In this way important dimensions of the agenda of science and technology for social justice, democratic participation and sustainability become clear. (shrink)

This paper focuses on how “Japanese technology” was formed in the Japanese machine tool industry, and presents how Japanese machine tool builders competed in R&D and the innovation process in the domestic and international markets. During the competition for the innovation of computerised numerically-controlled (CNC) tools, drastic changes occurred in the ranking of individual firms. Prior to the transformation, the traditional “Big 5” companies occupied the largest market share. After the innovation, however, the “Big 3” firms which had not been (...) big in size at their origins increased their market share. This paper explains how this change stemmed from different attitudes towards R&D and innovation. (shrink)

Transhumanism introduces from its very beginning a paradigm shift about concepts like human nature, progress and human future. An overview of its ideology reveals a strong belief in the idea of human enhancement through technologically means. The theory of technological singularity, which is more or less a radicalisation of the transhumanist discourse, foresees a radical evolutionary change through artificial intelligence. The boundaries between intelligent machines and human beings will be blurred. The consequence is the upcoming of a post-biological and (...) posthuman future when intelligent technology becomes autonomous and constantly self-improving. Considering these predictions, I will investigate here the way in which the idea of human enhancement modifies our understanding of technological innovation. I will argue that such change goes in at least two directions. On the one hand, innovation is seen as something that will inevitably lead towards intelligent machines and human enhancement. On the other hand, there is a direction such as “Singularity University,” where innovation is called to pragmatically solving human challenges. Yet there is a unifying spirit which holds together the two directions and I think it is the same transhumanist idea. (shrink)

While a growing body of literature has examined the link between green activities and firm innovation, little attention has been paid to the underlying mechanisms through which green activities take effect. This paper leverages the context of ISO 14001 certification among Chinese listed firms to investigate how the certification of environmental management system to ISO 14001 shapes corporate technological innovation. Drawing from the resource-based view and the resource management perspective, we argue that EMS certification to ISO 14001 facilitates corporate (...) technological innovation through the mediating effects of firms’ internal resource management practices, namely resource utilization, resource accumulation, and resource allocation. A difference-in-differences research design, together with the propensity score matching approach and the instrumental variable technique, provides corroborating evidence for our predictions. The current research not only makes substantial contributions to the literature, but also provides important ethical implications for both policymakers and firm managers. (shrink)

How can technological development, economic development, and the claims from society be reconciled? How should responsible innovation be promoted? The “responsible social uses” approach proposed here was devised with these considerations in view. In this article, a support procedure for promoting responsible social uses is set out and presented. First, the context in which this procedure emerged, which incorporates features of both the user-experience approach and that of ethical acceptability in technological development, is specified. Next, the characteristic features (...) of the procedure are presented, that is, its purpose, fundamental orientation, and component parts as experimented by partners. Third, the RSU approach is compared with other support approaches and considered in term of how each approach assumes responsible innovation. Briefly, the RSU procedure is a way of addressing the issue of responsible innovation through an effective integration of social concerns. (shrink)

Portrayals of humanoid robots in television series draw heavily from the historical and cultural mythology of robots. This mythology is expressed in two contemporary television series, Almost Human and Humans, in which robots are depicted as closely resembling humans in physical appearance and behavior and as fulfilling social roles usually occupied by humans. The robots are imagined with characteristics associated with human consciousness, such as emotions, individuality, and free will. An analysis of the robots in these series, using Jean Paul (...) Sartre’s theories of consciousness and the Other, demonstrates that when the robots are depicted as conscious, the relationship between a human and robot is portrayed as one of human-to-human (or human-to-Other), not human-to-technology. Sartre’s philosophy helps describe the human characters’ fascination and fear of the robots as resulting from their perceptions of the Other’s shifting status of object and subject and the unpredictability associated with the Other’s freedom. Thus, it is not the machine aspects of the robot that are desired and feared, but the humanness within the machine. Viewed in this way, the humanoid robot as depicted these television series represents a continuing effort to define and describe the essence of humanity in a society where the boundaries between machines and humans are becomingly increasingly blurred. (shrink)

Through a literature analysis, this study proposes that the difference between scientific innovation and technological innovation has been ignored in the current research on the level of scientific and technological innovation and its influencing factors. Combined with multidimensional proximity and knowledge type of current research, a theoretical induction has been carried on their corresponding relation with scientific innovation and technological innovation, research hypotheses were proposed the multidimensional proximity effect on the mode and degree of scientific innovation and (...) technological innovation, five theoretical factors, which are the economic development level, regional economic structure, the level of opening to the outside world, science and technology input and education input, are proposed to affect the level of scientific innovation and technological innovation. In this study, the Yangtze River Delta region of China from 2001 to 2018 is selected as the research sample, and the two hypotheses proposed are tested through a mixed method of exploratory spatial data analysis and spatial panel econometric model. The main conclusions are as follows: i) As an exogenous variable, geographical proximity has a small impact on the level of scientific innovation, but a large impact on the level of technological innovation; ii) As endogenous variables, theoretical influencing factors may not play a significant role in the actual environment due to the complex influence of multidimensional proximity; iii) Based on the idea of improving multidimensional proximity and the actual situation of the region and the city, we can formulate policies conducive to improving the regional and urban innovation environment. (shrink)

Abstract:I argue for taking John Dewey's pluralistic ethics as a starting point, or embedded practice, from and in which technological innovations are conceptualized, critiqued, designed, tested, and eventually implemented. Dewey reconstructs human reason into operational intelligence where all behavior becomes gradually imaginative. I take Dewey's view of moral deliberation as a basis for a responsible process-based methodology combining creative technological design with the training of imaginative prospection. I further use Dewey's conception of technology that holds that implements, but (...) also ideas and concepts are tools, forms of technology. I end by looking at the educational impact for the creative industries. (shrink)