IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2018 - 92

Last Word
Christine Perakslis

ive hundred years
ago, Luther nailed
ninety-five theses to
the door of Castle
Church in Wittenberg.
His scholarly objection to certain practices of the church incited profound
and persisting societal change. In the
16th century, church doors were a
mode of publication where academics posted propositions in Latin, thus
inviting debate. Eventually, postings
were no longer written in Latin, but
rather in the vernacular of people to
better reach society [1], [2].
Similar to this custom of long ago,
our authors nail rich scholarship to
our portal, thus inviting healthy disputation. In this issue, we considered
the value of a mesh of connective
vehicles used to overcome the digital divide [3], yet also recognize the
dangers of subscribing to technological fix as a social cure-all. We
recognized the benefits of UAVs and
military robotics, yet also wrestled
with tensions between autonomous
weapon systems and jus in bello,
thereby questioning war practices
when weighed upon the scales of just
and fair conduct.
Our authors presented methodologies to reform established practices. We applaud our colleagues
as robots are designed to better
simulate the biological and cognitive processes of humans [4]. We are
inspired as robots better infer the

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2018.2795122
Date of publication: 2 March 2018

500 Years Later:
Doors and
Disputations
psychological disposition of a child
with autism, resulting in richer interactions that improve lives [5].
Doors are not only physical portals,
but also symbols of transitions. Our
community experiences transition
as the torch of editorship is passed.
We are so grateful for the commendable work of our past "keeper of the
threshold." She gave voice to diverse
stakeholders. She steered us across
the thresholds of a plethora of industries to mine out intended and unintended consequences of current and
emerging technologies. She guided
our foci as we trekked through time
to learn from the past, and to conjecture the future. Our publication has
also become more applicable and
accessible to a general audience.
These rich efforts resulted in meaningful debate and deeper understanding of the complex interactions
between technology and society
across the globe.
As the torch is passed, our new
"keeper of the threshold" leads us
onward. Under his gifted leadership,
we will continue to post rich scholIEEE Technology and Society Magazine

arly propositions, and derive great
benefit from healthy disputation.

Author Information
Christine Perakslis is Associate Professor in the MBA Program, College
of Management, Johnson & Wales
University, Providence, RI. Email:
christine.perakslis@jwu.edu.

References

[1] E. Metaxas, Martin Luther: The Man
Who Rediscovered God and Changed the
World. New York, NY: Penguin, 2017.
[2] D. Jütte, The Strait Gate: Thresholds
and Power in Western History. New Haven,
CT: Yale Univ. Press, 2015.
[3] "A mobile network to ease your commute: Portugal's roving hotspots, Jul.12,
2017; https://www.wired.com/brandlab
/2017/07/rovinghotspots/.
[4] A. Sciutti et al., "Measuring human-robot
interaction through motor resonance," Int. J.
Social Robotics, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 223-234, 2012.
[5] P. Esteban et al., "How to build a supervised autonomous system for robotenhanced therapy for children with autism
spectrum disorder," J. Behavioral Robotics, Apr. 9, 2017; http://www.dream2020
.eu/wpcontent/uploads/2017/05/PaladynJournal-of-Behavioral-Robotics-How-toBuild-a-SupervisedAutonomous-System-forRobot-Enhanced-Therapy-for-Children-withAutism-Spectrum-Disorder.pdf.

∕

march 2018

https://www.wired.com/brandlab/2017/07/rovinghotspots/ https://www.wired.com/brandlab/2017/07/rovinghotspots/ http://www.dream2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Paladyn-Journal-of-Behavioral-Robotics-How-to-Build-a-Supervised-Autonomous-System-for-Robot-Enhanced-Therapy-for-Children-with-Autism-Spectrum-Disorder.pdf http://www.dream2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Paladyn-Journal-of-Behavioral-Robotics-How-to-Build-a-Supervised-Autonomous-System-for-Robot-Enhanced-Therapy-for-Children-with-Autism-Spectrum-Disorder.pdf http://www.dream2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Paladyn-Journal-of-Behavioral-Robotics-How-to-Build-a-Supervised-Autonomous-System-for-Robot-Enhanced-Therapy-for-Children-with-Autism-Spectrum-Disorder.pdf http://www.dream2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Paladyn-Journal-of-Behavioral-Robotics-How-to-Build-a-Supervised-Autonomous-System-for-Robot-Enhanced-Therapy-for-Children-with-Autism-Spectrum-Disorder.pdf http://www.dream2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Paladyn-Journal-of-Behavioral-Robotics-How-to-Build-a-Supervised-Autonomous-System-for-Robot-Enhanced-Therapy-for-Children-with-Autism-Spectrum-Disorder.pdf http://www.dream2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Paladyn-Journal-of-Behavioral-Robotics-How-to-Build-a-Supervised-Autonomous-System-for-Robot-Enhanced-Therapy-for-Children-with-Autism-Spectrum-Disorder.pdf

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2018