Quantity and Quality Concerns about Technology Impacts

F. Gregory Hayden

Journal of Economic Issues, 2019, vol. 53, issue 2, 370-377

Abstract: Paleoanthropologists have taught us that, in the earliest Homo-human history, technology, human cognition, and social institutions influenced each other and evolved together. They remain integrated in our complex social institutions today. Robert Owen and Clarence Ayres emphasized the importance of the human-technology relationship. This article moves a step beyond Owen and Ayres by recognizing that humans are technology. Without the recognition of human technology, it is not possible to compare it with and evaluate how it should fit with other technologies. It is also not possible to adequately analyze and judge technological innovations, in general, without the use of social belief criteria. Furthermore, any technological comparisons and evaluations should recognize that decreases in production are needed in order to deal with climate change. Technological assessment has become more important given the vast and profound societal penetration of modern technology such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and genetic editing.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1080/00213624.2019.1594514

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