IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019 - 22

themselves - both in the creation
and adoption of technological innovation: where does it come from
and does it fulfil a social need or
satisfy a human value? In solving a
problem does it create a new and
possibly worse problem? How can
technological offerings be regulated such that pragmatic technological solutions are not only
beneficial to individuals and society but that they constructively
engage those individuals and the
society? And to keep asking the
same question over and over again
[2]: "Are there any additional and
perhaps previously unaccounted
for considerations, pa r ticula rly
when reflecting on technological

However, one of the critical issues
here, linking back to the Robbins
article, is the notion of responsibility [11]-[12]. It could be argued that
persisting with an economic system
that elevates the maximization of
shareholder returns over other values, such as social responsibility, is
not going to alter corporate behavior
with respect to issues, such as sustainability, that can be deferred.

intended to do much the same (addiction by design, cf., [3, 4]). The author
invokes the second law of thermodynamics as the main theoretical
justification for why the development
of AI must result in the decline of the
cognitive capacities of humanity and
exacerbate an asymmetric distribution of power. In particular, Robbins
stresses that thinking is negentropic. It creates mental order, or
"exergy." Its elimination constitutes
mental entropy as the extinguishing of order that would have, or at
least could have, been created via
thought. The elimination of critical
thinking is partly due to the ultra high
organization in attention-seeking
technology, and in those corporations deploying it, all the
while, apparently, donning
the cape of righteous and
benevolent activism [5]. The
ethical question here is the
The balance and interplay between
nature and symmetry of the
exchange: s y m bio si s or
technological innovation, policy
pa ra sit ism. Even converegulation, and ethical implications
nience comes at a cost.
The article "Human Value
needs deep and continuous
as the Basis for Sustainable Information Systems
consideration.
Design," by Till Winkler,
contributes to a growing
developments in fields such as Artibody of knowledge on system
ficial Intelligence (AI)?"
and software design that elevates
The four articles selected for this
human values to first-class requireSpecial Issue reflect on these quesments [6]-[9], but concentrates on
tions in some depth, and can be conthe issue of sustainability, a critical
sidered under two headings insofar
concern as awareness of the pressas they dealt with the themes of the
ing need to address the climate
emergency increases. Of particular
conference: technology and ethics,
significance is the exhaustive invenand technology and policy.
tory and categorization of values,
Technology and Ethics
which may serve as either a checkWe start with the article "If Techlist or a wayfinding tool for Information Systems developers who
nology is a Parasite Masquerading
are determined to address sustainas a Symbiont, Are We the Host?" by
ability issues by acknowledging
Jeff Robbins, which considers the
the power of their artefacts to
similarity between a parasite that
"carry values," enacting that in the
exploits its victim by injecting it
design process so that end users
with a massive dopamine hit straight
themselves can leverage that power.
to the brain, and technology that is

22

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

Technology and Policy
The third article in this ISTAS 2018
Special Issue is by Efraín O'NeillCarrillo, Emmanuel Mercado, Oscar
Luhring, Isaac Jordán, and Agustín
Irizarry-Rivera, and is entitled "Community Energy Projects for SocioEconomic Development and Energy
Transitions in the Caribbean." It is
a strongly interdisciplinary study of
decentralized energy resources, in
particular addressing the issue of
transforming users from passive
consumers into active participants.
It requires addressing the exchange
of control for convenience by leveraging such values as a sense of community [12], conceptual resources
based on shared values, and norms
embedded in the social structure
of a community that facilitate the
coordination of actions among the
members of that community for
the achievement of shared and
common goals [13] (one definition of social capital), and empowerment, which requires using the
(so-called) Smart Meter as a means
of fostering inter-connection, status
visualisation and collective action
[14], rather than a means of monitoring and/or revenue maximization. In making a transition to a
decentralized power generation
system, promoting and increasing par ticipation in governance
through devolution, subsidiarity, and
grassroots institutions can facilitate
consensus-formation and decisionmaking regarding energy policy, and
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SEPTEMBER 2019
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019

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