Designing a Good Life: A Matrix for the Technological Mediation of Morality

Technologies fulfill a social role in the sense that they influence the moral actions of people, often in unintended and unforeseen ways. Scientists and engineers are already accepting much responsibility for the technological, economical and environmental aspects of their work. This article asks them to take an extra step, and now also consider the social role of their products. The aim is to enable engineers to take a prospective responsibility for the future social roles of their technologies by providing them with a matrix that helps to explore in advance how emerging technologies might plausibly affect the reasons behind people’s (moral) actions. On the horizontal axis of the matrix, we distinguished the three basic types of reasons that play a role in practical judgment: what is the case, what can be done and what should be done. On the vertical axis we distinguished the morally relevant classes of issues: stakeholders, consequences and the good life. To illustrate how this matrix may work in practice, the final section applies the matrix to the case of the Google PowerMeter

Why simulation can be efficient: on the preconditions of efficient learning in complex technology based practices

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It is important to demonstrate learning outcomes of simulation in technology based practices, such as in advanced health care. Although many studies show skills improvement and self-reported change to practice, there are few studies demonstrating patient outcome and societal efficiency.</p> <p>The objective of the study is to investigate if and why simulation can be effective and efficient in a hi-tech health care setting. This is important in order to decide whether and how to design simulation scenarios and outcome studies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Core theoretical insights in Science and Technology Studies (STS) are applied to analyze the field of simulation in hi-tech health care education. In particular, a process-oriented framework where technology is characterized by its devices, methods and its organizational setting is applied.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The analysis shows how advanced simulation can address core characteristics of technology beyond the knowledge of technology's functions. Simulation's ability to address skilful device handling as well as purposive aspects of technology provides a potential for effective and efficient learning. However, as technology is also constituted by organizational aspects, such as technology status, disease status, and resource constraints, the success of simulation depends on whether these aspects can be integrated in the simulation setting as well. This represents a challenge for future development of simulation and for demonstrating its effectiveness and efficiency.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Assessing the outcome of simulation in education in hi-tech health care settings is worthwhile if core characteristics of medical technology are addressed. This challenges the traditional technical versus non-technical divide in simulation, as organizational aspects appear to be part of technology's core characteristics.</p

Interviewing objects: Including educational technologies as qualitative research participants

This article argues the importance of including significant technologies-in-use askey qualitative research participants when studying today&rsquo;s digitally enhancedlearning environments. We gather a set of eight heuristics to assist qualitativeresearchers in &lsquo;interviewing&rsquo; technologies-in-use (or other relevant objects),drawing on concrete examples from our own qualitative research projects. Ourdiscussion is informed by Actor-Network Theory and hermeneuticphenomenology, as well as by the literatures of techno-science, media ecology,and the philosophy of technology

Technological literacy reconsidered: a model for enactment

The final publication is available at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10798-009-9108-6.This paper presents a model to describe technological literacy as enacted by individuals in the course of shaping their lives and the world around them. The model has two interrelated facets – the potential for and enactment of technological literacy – where enactment and potential mutually constitute each other. This potential is made up of knowledge of a particular situation, personal engagement with a situation, and social engagement in the world. Enactment requires a particular set of competencies in action, which together helps shape the situation: recognizing needs; articulating problems; contributing towards the technological process; and analysing consequences. The implications of this model for technological literacy in the context of the individual and society, and the role of technology education in developing technological literacy, are discussed

Relating industrial symbiosis and circular economy to the sustainable development debate

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) is a business-focused collaborative approach oriented towards resource efficiency that has been theorised and studied mainly over the last twenty-five years. Recently, IS seems to have found a renewed impetus in the framework of the Circular Economy (CE), a novel approach to sustainability and Sustainable Development (SD) that has been rapidly gaining momentum world-wide. This opening chapter of the book provides an introduction to the concepts of IS, CE and SD, and summarizes their complex evolutionary paths, recalling the rel-evant developments and implementation challenges. In addition, the authors point out the divergences and interrelations of these concepts, both among themselves and with other related concepts and research fields, such as industrial ecology, eco-logical modernization and the green economy. Furthermore, the potential contribu-tion of IS and the CE to SD is briefly discussed, also highlighting critical issues and trade-offs, as well as gaps in research and application, especially relating to the so-cial component of sustainability. Particular attention is given to the potential role of IS in the achievement of targets connected to the Sustainable Development Goals set in the UN Agenda 2030. The recent advances in the IS and CE discussion in the context of the SD research community are further explored, with particular empha-sis on the contribution of the International Sustainable Development Research So-ciety (ISDRS) and its 24th annual conference organised in Messina, Italy, in 2018. The programme of that conference, indeed, included specific tracks on the above-mentioned themes, the contents of which are briefly commented on here, after an overview on the whole conference and the main cross-cutting concepts emerged. In the last part of the chapter, a brief description of the chapters collected in the book is presented. These contributions describe and discuss theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches and/or experiences and case studies where IS and the principles of CE are applied in different geographical context and at different scales to ultimately improve the sustainability of the current production patterns

Prisoners of the Capitalist Machine: Captivity and the Corporate Engineer

This chapter will focus on how engineering practice is conditioned by an economic system which promotes production for profit and economic growth as an end in itself. As such it will focus on the notion of the captivity of engineering which emanates from features of the economic system. By drawing on Critical Realism and a Marxist literature, and by focusing on the issues of safety and sustainability (in particular the issue of climate change), it will examine the extent to which disasters and workplace accidents result from the economic imperative for profitable production and how efforts by engineers to address climate change are undermined by an on-going commitment to growth. It will conclude by arguing that the structural constraints on engineering practice require new approaches to teaching engineers about ethics and social responsibility. It will argue that Critical Realism offers a framework for the teaching of engineering ethics which would pay proper attention to the structural context of engineers work without eliminating the possibility of engineers working for radical change

Biological/Biomedical Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Targets. 2. Physical, Morphological, and Structural Characteristics

The number of biological/biomedical applications that require AMS to achieve their goals is increasing, and so is the need for a better understanding of the physical, morphological, and structural traits of high quality of AMS targets. The metrics of quality included color, hardness/texture, and appearance (photo and SEM), along with FT-IR, Raman, and powder X-ray diffraction spectra that correlate positively with reliable and intense ion currents and accuracy, precision, and sensitivity of fraction modern (Fm). Our previous method produced AMS targets of gray-colored iron−carbon materials (ICM) 20% of the time and of graphite-coated iron (GCI) 80% of the time. The ICM was hard, its FT-IR spectra lacked the sp2 bond, its Raman spectra had no detectable G′ band at 2700 cm−1, and it had more iron carbide (Fe3C) crystal than nanocrystalline graphite or graphitizable carbon (g-C). ICM produced low and variable ion current whereas the opposite was true for the graphitic GCI. Our optimized method produced AMS targets of graphite-coated iron powder (GCIP) 100% of the time. The GCIP shared some of the same properties as GCI in that both were black in color, both produced robust ion current consistently, their FT-IR spectra had the sp2 bond, their Raman spectra had matching D, G, G′, D+G, and D′′ bands, and their XRD spectra showed matching crystal size. GCIP was a powder that was easy to tamp into AMS target holders that also facilitated high throughput. We concluded that AMS targets of GCIP were a mix of graphitizable carbon and Fe3C crystal, because none of their spectra, FT-IR, Raman, or XRD, matched exactly those of the graphite standard. Nevertheless, AMS targets of GCIP consistently produced the strong, reliable, and reproducible ion currents for high-throughput AMS analysis (270 targets per skilled analyst/day) along with accurate and precise Fm values

Project management between will and representation

This article challenges some deep-rooted assumptions of project management. Inspired by the work of the German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, it calls for looking at projects through two complementary lenses: one that accounts for cognitive and representational aspects and one that accounts for material and volitional aspects. Understanding the many ways in which these aspects transpire and interact in projects sheds new light on project organizations, as imperfect and fragile representations that chase a shifting nexus of intractable human, social, technical, and material processes. This, in turn, can bring about a new grasp of notions such as value,\ud knowledge, complexity, and risk

A practical guide to photoacoustic tomography in the life sciences

The life sciences can benefit greatly from imaging technologies that connect microscopic discoveries with macroscopic observations. One technology uniquely positioned to provide such benefits is photoacoustic tomography (PAT), a sensitive modality for imaging optical absorption contrast over a range of spatial scales at high speed. In PAT, endogenous contrast reveals a tissue's anatomical, functional, metabolic, and histologic properties, and exogenous contrast provides molecular and cellular specificity. The spatial scale of PAT covers organelles, cells, tissues, organs, and small animals. Consequently, PAT is complementary to other imaging modalities in contrast mechanism, penetration, spatial resolution, and temporal resolution. We review the fundamentals of PAT and provide practical guidelines for matching PAT systems with research needs. We also summarize the most promising biomedical applications of PAT, discuss related challenges, and envision PAT's potential to lead to further breakthroughs