Community energy based on a mix of distributed technologies offers a serious alternative to the current energy system. The nature of community energy and the role that such initiatives might play in the general fabric of civic life is not, however, well understood. Community energy initiatives might involve only those citizens who prefer to be actively and continuously involved in intense, democratic debate. A more robust conceptualization of community energy might, on the other hand, be guided by Benjamin Barber’s notion (...) of “strong democracy,” in which community energy initiatives would draw upon a much broader citizen base, involving people from many walks of life and from quarters not generally presumed to be part of a sustained democratic process. The history of community energy is explored and a number of case studies are presented to illustrate the problems, prospects, and limitations of a socially and technologically decentralized energy system. (shrink)

Since its inception, modern anthropology has stood at the confluence of two mutually constitutive modes of knowledge production: participant-observation and theoretical analysis. This unique combination of practice and theory has been the subject of recurrent intellectual and methodological debate, raising questions that strike at the very heart of the discipline. How Do We Know? is a timely contribution to emerging debates that seek to understand this relationship through the theme of evidence. Incorporating a diverse selection of case studies ranging from (...) the Tibetan emotion of shame to films of Caribbean musicians, it critically addresses such questions as: What constitutes viable anthropological evidence? How does evidence generated through small-scale, intensive periods of participant-observation challenge or engender abstract theoretical models? Are certain types of evidence inherently better than others? How have recent interdisciplinary collaborations and technological innovations altered the shape of anthropological evidence? Extending a long-standing tradition of reflexivity within the discipline, the contributions to this volume are ethnographically-grounded and analytically ambitious meditations on the theme of evidence. Cumulatively, they challenge the boundaries of what anthropologists recognise and construct as evidence, while pointing to its thematic and conceptual potential in future anthropologies. (shrink)

High technology and nursing: ethical dilemmas nurses and physicians face on high‐technology units in Norway Results from two studies of ethical dilemmas nurses and doctors experience on two high‐technology units are compared and discussed. The qualitative comparative methodology of grounded theory was used to generate theoretical frameworks grounded in the empirical realities of the units. The ethical dilemmas they faced were related to: treating the one vs. the common good; end of life questions; and (...) resource allocations with inadequate staffing. Similarities were related to intensity and urgency of nursing care and patient treatment, clear nursing ideologies based on treating humans within a framework of hope, embracing technology and scarce resources. Differences between the two study units were patient diagnosis, hierarchical structure on one unit while one had a vertical structure and decision‐making processes, and finally how nursing knowledge and autonomy were used. The two studies demonstrated that clinical, ethical and administrative interactions and decisions are highly compounded, stressful and intertwined. (shrink)

Research into strategic alliances has traditionally focused on motivation and performance. More recently, network dynamics and alliances as complex and evolving arrangements are emerging areas for investigation. Thus far, little research has been undertaken that integrates these emerging themes in the context of the impact of deteriorating exogenous environments on network alliances. -/- The ICT industry provides such a context, with the rapid deterioration of fortunes in the industry as a result of equity market moves since early 2000. This research (...) looks at the Bluetooth consortium, a loosely framed network of firms involved in the development and commercialization of wireless technical applications for information technology based products. It finds that matters related to intellectual property ownership and inter-firm coordination in complex product development have been problematic, with the deterioration of environmental munificence driving a slowing of network investment and product development success. (shrink)

"--David Dickson, New York Times Book Review "The Whale and the Reactor is the philosopher's equivalent of superb public history.

The issues involved in decision making about the aggressiveness of future medical care for older persons are explored. They are related to population trends, the heterogeneity of older persons and a variety of factors involved in individual preferences. Case studies are presented to illustrate these points, as well as a review of pertinent literature. The argument is offered that, considering these many factors, a system of flexible, individualized care by informed patient preference, is more rational than the rationing of technological (...) services by age. (shrink)

This article discusses high-technology development in Indonesia. Focusing on the Indonesian Aircraft Industry (IPTN), it critically examines how nationalism becomes an impetus for technological development and addresses the implications of nationalism in the pursuit of high technology. Situated in the NewOrder regime, influential elements of the regime’s economic and political systems that accommodate the idea of technological leapfrog are traced. It is argued that the failure of the leapfrog idea is because of overreliance on a technological (...) determinist view and the practice of strong technocracy. Furthermore, it is posited that technological nationalism is a rhetorical strategy used by technological elites to legitimate the high-technology policy and to absorb ample economic and political resources that unexpectedly produce farreaching implications in society. (shrink)

At least five sets of ethical standards influence business people's decisions: general cultural, company, personal, situational, and industry standards. Each has an official or espoused form encoded in written documents such as policy statements and codes of ethics and an unofficial form that develops as people use the espoused standards. (We call these unofficial standards values in action.) To determine whether the high-technology industry deserves its reputation for moral laxness, a pilot questionnaire was designed. It asked employees to (...) rate the acceptability in the workplace of ethical behaviors relating to safety, third parties, and cheating the company. The findings show that employees in high-and low-technology industries uphold espoused values of safety. Relations with third parties are influenced by the existence of company codes of ethics, especially in small companies. Actions involving cheating the company need to be investigated further. (shrink)

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the transformation of the reflection of computer technologies and network resources in the Terminator cinematic and literary universe created by the American director J. Cameron in the mid 1980s and early 2020s. In this study the authors substantiate the relevance and scientific component of the problem under study. The paper considers the degree of importance of high technologies and social networks in modern public life. The article provides a justification for (...) the fallacy of the judgment, according to which works of fiction of a fantastic orientation perform purely entertaining function and do not carry a significant semantic load. This article also provides an argument for choosing the Terminator fantastic universe as an example for research, wit an analysis of the reasons for its great popularity and high degree of significance for contemporary art. The authors of the work subject the key components of the topic under consideration to reflection, taking into account the changes that have taken place in the public consciousness over three and a half decades, takin inti account the differences in historical and political realities – from the last quarter of the 20-th century to the present, until the beginning of the third decade of the XXI century. This article provides a comparative analysis of the reasons for significant differences in the display of high technology and online resources in cinema and fiction. The work draws parallels and analogies with historical events, analyzes the use of the religious meanings used in the Terminator universe. The authors of the article analyze the moral issues that are raised by the creators of the fantastic universe of Terminator in the context of the positive and negative consequences of the intense growth of the role of high technologies and communicative Internet sites in the life of human society. (shrink)

... We will turn our attention to the current state of pain relief technology and the ethical questions surrounding the use of advanced technology, otherwise referred to as "high-tech," pain relief. It is obvious that pain may decrease the quality of life for cancer patients. The availability of long-acting narcotics, such as MS Contin or methadone, affords cancer patients long-duration pain relief at minimal cost. The use of adjuvant medications may also be important. Clinical examples of the (...) effective use of adjuvant medications include the addition of a nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory agent to help patients cope with bone pain and the use of a serotonin blocking agent to reduce the transmission of pain impulses in the spinal cord. Only a small percentage of patients are good candidates for high-tech delivery systems for narcotic administration. In our pain management clinic, all patients are initially placed on oral medications. When the side effects of oral medications become excessive, or the patient becomes unable to take oral medications, high-tech modalities are considered for use. (shrink)

Advances in technology are accelerating the momentum for change in all sectors of society. There is at present a lag time between the actual development and implementation of new technology and the public consciousness of the issues involved. The rapid rate of social change, however, emphasizes the critical role of the educational system and the need to continually estimate and evaluate direction to best serve the common good. Forty-five influential Minnesota leaders in education, business/industry and government were interviewed (...) on issues related to education and the changing economy. (shrink)

Internet Alley is much more a book about regional history than about politics, economics, or history of technology, yet it draws extensively on all of these fields. The book is stronger for its interdisciplinarity, but as a result does not sit comfortably within any traditional historical discourse. Historians of science or technology not dealing with northern Virginia in the twentieth century will find little of help in this book.

By the very nature of information technology (IT), change and dynamism have always been significant drivers on its path to further development—and it has traditionally been the Western countries leading these. Now the picture is changing. The new high growth economies of the world (also known as BRIC countries) are increasingly pressing forward as active IT development drivers. Internal IT organizations of international companies are experiencing these global shifts firsthand and are facing changes in their traditional roles. This (...) exploratory research is aimed at clarifying the context of the impact of high growth economies on such IT departments of Western-rooted enterprises. Forty-six interviews were conducted with IT managers, HR managers and expatriates emphasizing the importance of intercultural interaction, maturing IT economies, change in IT landscape and entrepreneurship. (shrink)

Sources of evolutionary risk for stable strategy of adaptive Homo sapiens are an imbalance of: (1) the intra-genomic co-evolution (intragenomic conflicts); (2) the gene-cultural co-evolution; (3) inter-cultural co-evolution; (4) techno-humanitarian balance; (5) inter-technological conflicts (technological traps). At least phenomenologically the components of the evolutionary risk are reversible, but in the aggregate they are in potentio irreversible destructive ones for biosocial, and cultural self-identity of Homo sapiens. When the actual evolution is the subject of a rationalist control and/or manipulation, the magnitude (...) of the 4th and 5th components of the evolutionary risk reaches a level of existential significance. (shrink)

Stable adaptive strategy of Homo sapiens (SASH) is a result of the integration in the three-module fractal adaptations based on three independent processes of generation, replication, and the implementation of adaptations — genetic, socio-cultural and symbolic ones. The evolutionary landscape SASH is a topos of several evolutionary multi-dimensional vectors: 1) extraversional projective-activity behavioral intention (adaptive inversion 1), 2) mimesis (socio-cultural inheritance), 3) social (Machiavellian) intelligence, 4) the extension of inter-individual communication beyond their own social groups and their own species in (...) the rest of the world, 5) the symbolic system of communication (symbolic inheritance), 6) spiritualistic trans- formation of emotionally-shaped components of mentality, 7) the dominance of the rationalist thought mentality (enhancer of adaptive inverse 1), 8) a recursive distribution of projective-activity intentions on the man himself his genome, psyche and culture (Adaptive Inversion 2), 9) introversional reorientation of the vector of cognitive activity (adaptive inversion 3). (shrink)

The co-evolutionary concept of three-modal stable evolutionary strategy of Homo sapiens is developed. The concept based on the principle of evolutionary complementarity of anthropogenesis: value of evolutionary risk and evolutionary path of human evolution are defined by descriptive (evolutionary efficiency) and creative-teleological (evolutionary correctness) parameters simultaneously, that cannot be instrumental reduced to other ones. Resulting volume of both parameters define the vectors of biological, social, cultural and techno-rationalistic human evolution by two gear mechanism — genetic and cultural co-evolution and techno-humanitarian (...) balance. Explanatory model and methodology of evaluation of creatively teleological evolutionary risk component of NBIC technological complex is proposed. Integral part of the model is evolutionary semantics (time-varying semantic code, the compliance of the biological, socio-cultural and techno-rationalist adaptive modules of human stable evolutionary strategy). (shrink)

This article introduces a satellite technology, High Resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT), for a science activity. HRPT is a digital data stream transmitted from environmental satellites. The HRPT imagery is capable of providing real-time studies of regional geology, glacial processes, atmospheric processes, ocean circulation, coastal processes, hydrology, and so on. Obtaining and manipulating HRPT data creates a variety of exciting experiences in science classrooms. A Science and Technology for Individuals, Societies, and the Environment (STISE) teaching model was developed (...) to use satellite technologies for science activities. STISE is a conceptual model for addressing key cognitive and affective parameters when designing science lessons. STISE is designed to encourage students to understand science and technology from their levels of cognition, then relate their understanding to the environment, levels of societies, and their lives. Relationships among science, technology, and society become both obvious and interesting to students as they process and interpret the HRPT imagery. (shrink)