Technology innovation in the 21st century

Innovation in the dock

by Guest December 18, 2009

By Tim Jackson, University of Surrey, UK A guest blog in the Alternative Perspectives on Technology Innovation series Are we a clever species or a stupid one?  It’s not a trivial question. Put our society in the dock with a jury of our future peers and the verdict would be far from clear cut. Exhibit [...]

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Reversing the Technological Dilemma

by Guest December 17, 2009

By George Kimbrell, International Center for Technology Assessment, and the Center for Food Safety A guest blog in the Alternative Perspectives on Technology Innovation series Andrew asked us to write about “how technological innovation should contribute to life in the 21st century.”  Technological innovation is often blindly referred to as “progress.”  The question is — [...]

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Ecology and Nanotechnology

by Guest December 17, 2009

By Richard Worthington, Loka Institute A guest blog in the Alternative Perspectives on Technology Innovation series My first scholarly engagement with environmental politics was an honor’s thesis written while I was an undergraduate at Berkeley in the early 1970s.  Back then, the term “environmentalist” was frequently deployed to profile someone held to be a naïve, [...]

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A new era of responsible innovation

by Guest December 16, 2009

By Richard Owen, University of Westminster, UK A guest blog in the Alternative Perspectives on Technology Innovation series This article was first published in Planet Earth, an award-winning magazine funded and published by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).  It is reproduced here with permission from Planet Earth and Richard Owen. In 1956 one [...]

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Stop and Think: A Luddite Perspective

by Guest December 16, 2009

By Jennifer Sass Ph.D. Senior Scientist, Natural Resources Defense Council A guest blog in the Alternative Perspectives on Technology Innovation series We need make sure that harmful or untested nano-scale chemicals are not manufactured or commercialized in ways that may lead to human exposures or environmental releases. I know, I know, I sound like a [...]

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Innovation for a well-fed world – what role for technology?

by Guest December 15, 2009

By Geoff Tansey A guest blog in the Alternative Perspectives on Technology Innovation series Andrew posed the question, “How should technology innovation contribute to life in the 21st century?” For me, working on creating a well-fed world, the short answer is: in a way that supports a diverse, fair and sustainable food system in which [...]

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Beyond safety: some bigger questions about new technologies

by Guest December 15, 2009

By Georgia Miller, Friends of the Earth Australia A guest blog in the Alternative Perspectives on Technology Innovation series The promise that a given new technology will deliver environmentally benign electricity too cheap to meter, end hunger and poverty, or cure disease is very seductive. That is why the claims are made with many emerging [...]

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Innovation for whom? Innovation for what? The Impact of Ableism

by Guest December 14, 2009

By Gregor Wolbring A guest blog in the Alternative Perspectives on Technology Innovation series First let me thank Andrew for inviting me to write a piece for his blog. Andrew states that his blog is about “how technology innovation should contribute to living in the 21st century” and about “providing a clear perspective on developing [...]

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Biopolitics for the 21st Century

by Guest December 14, 2009

By Marcy Darnovsky, PhD, Associate Executive Director of the Center for Genetics and Society A guest blog in the Alternative Perspectives on Technology Innovation series Much appreciation is due to Andrew for his courage in soliciting “alternative perspectives” on technology innovation and life in the 21st century.  I can’t help but observe that his nervousness [...]

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Hooked on tech – ten alternative perspectives on technology innovation

by Andrew Maynard December 10, 2009

2020 Science is something of a labor of love – it’s a website where I explore my thoughts and ideas surrounding the interface between science, technology and society beyond the constraints of my “day job” (currently Chief Science Advisor to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson Center).  I like to think I [...]

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Completing the circle: Coupling science & technology outputs to inputs

by Andrew Maynard December 7, 2009

Part 9 of a series on rethinking science and technology for the 21st century Writing about completing the circle of science and technology policy at the start of the Copenhagen climate summit seems particularly fitting.  Although the climate change context was far from my mind when I started this series, it stands as a stark [...]

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