Prolog to the Section on Social Implications of Technology

As far as we know, engineering is a uniquely human enterprise. No other species passes on detailed knowledge of the physical world from generation to generation, amassing a growing foundation of techniques to bend the world to its will. And also as far as we know, no other species feels a sense of responsibility about the changes its ingenuity has wrought, and reflects on them with the purpose of responding to the promptings of conscience. Most of the papers in this Centennial Special Issue focus on technique: the technical aspects of electrotechnology. In this section, the focus is shifted from technique to society, and how technologies of many kinds (not just electrotechnology) have shaped the species that has given them birth. The IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) has been considering these kinds of questions since its founding in 1982, in its conferences and its peer-reviewed publication, the IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. The following article provides a whirlwind tour of the past, the present, and the future according to SSIT. It first reviews the major topics of concern that SSIT has addressed since its founding. These tend to fall into four major categories: war, military, and security technologies; energy and environmental concerns; information and communications technologies (ICT); and the effects of technology on underprivileged groups such as ethnic or racial minorities, women, the young, and the ill. It considers several present technologies such as mobile, wearable, and pervasive computing that promise to have major impacts on society in the near future. The paper considers the implications for society of human–machine interface technologies which are currently at very early stages, but which if fully implemented would lead to individuals that are not Bnatural[ humans, or machines, but something in between. For example, if direct network-to-brain interfaces are perfected that bypass the fingers on the keyboard and the eyes on the screen, what will the effects be on conscious experience? Will we become brains in vats a la The Matrix? Or will hooking up to the Internet be as routine and ho-hum as making a telephone call was in 1930? No one knows the answers to these questions, but simply raising them is the first step in deciding what to do about them. Finally, the prospect of Btranshumanism[ is considered: a line of thought that claims human evolution will accelerate exponentially in the near future and allow us to leave ordinary biological bodies behind as we upload our minds into unimaginably powerful computer networks of the future, and take over the universe. These matters are not the ordinary stuff of engineering as it is practiced today. But if any or all of them come about, it will be because engineers helped make them happen, whether or not they should happen. Most members of IEEE spend most of their time doing engineering or something related to engineering, electrotechnology, or allied fields, and do not have much time to consider the wider contexts of their work. The following section examines those contexts in detail. While no single person is Bin charge[ of the future of technology, it is the small privileged class of engineers who are the ones that will bring it about. With privileges comes responsibility. Considering the social implications of technology can help us to shoulder that responsibility in a way that later generations will thank us for. h Considering the social implicationsof technology can help engineers understand and fulfill their responsibilities in a way that later generations will appreciate as technology continues to evolve into the future.