The big debates about technologically enhanced food usually surround the use of genetic modification, but most of us aren’t as familiar with the concept of nanofood. Which is unfortunate and needs to be quickly rectified, because within the next few years we are about to see a huge boom in its commercial availability on store shelves.
Category Archives: Lifestyle & Society
Social media: how those we know can shape us
What is it that makes us who we are? The outcomes of this long running debate continue to change and refine as newer technologies not only reveal complex genetic contributions but actively expand and alter our social environment.
Sinking of Pirate Bay and the future of file sharing
So anybody who has much of an internet presence has heard by now that The Pirate Bay has been shut-down for good by their ISP following further legal action and judgments in Swedish court. This whole episode brings to the forefront the need for further discussion about the ethics of file-sharing and even creative intellectual rights as a whole.
Cute robots, social learning and Georgia Tech
Simon Robot is intended to be a robot focused on social learning and development through demonstration, but what I want to focus on here is the interesting development of human empathy relationships with robots. In particular, the fact that Simon Robot has been created to seemingly specifically cause us to want to pinch its cheeks and fawn all over how cute it looks.
Autonomous systems and the ethical issues of sentient technology
The Royal Academy of Engineering has released a report that considers some of the possible issues that might arise from an ever increasing presence of autonomous systems within our society. Entitled Autonomous Systems: Social, Legal and Ethical Issues the short paper marks a call for public discussion surrounding emerging technologies.
What do we want to be? Futurists, ethics, and the social conscience
I wanted to take the opportunity today to briefly discuss once more the intent behind Future Conscience and the purpose of the site – to examine the changes in society that we feel are progressive and question the consequences of our path into the future.