Technology has developed to the point where a clear distinction between nature and culture seems to be dissolving. Against this background, a broad aspect of social research has emerged that considers an interdependence between the social and the material. So far, the contemporary innovative process is realistic and pragmatic by definition. Throughout history, the human body and mind have inspired artists, engineers, and scientists. The field of humanoid robotics focuses on the creation of robots that are directly inspired by human capabilities. These robots usually share similar kinematics to humans, as well as similar sensing and behavior. The motivations that…

Global growth and progress in human development give us good reasons to believe that we can achieve the goal of eradicating poverty for good. However, the reality of what billions of people in the poorest socio-economic groups have experienced, and what they can expect if current trends continue, is less encouraging. The gap between rich and poor is reaching new extremes. Rising economic inequality also compounds existing inequalities. Countries with higher income inequality also tend to have larger gaps between women and men in terms of health, education, labor market participation, and representation in institutions like parliaments. One of the…

We live amid a global wave of anthropogenically driven biodiversity loss: species and population extirpations and, critically, declines in local species abundance. Particularly, human impacts on animal biodiversity are an under-recognized form of global environmental change. Call of Life is to investigate the threat to Earth’s life support systems from this unprecedented loss of biodiversity. Through interviews with leading biologists, ecologists, social scientists, indigenous leaders, and others, the causes, the scope, and the potential effects of the mass extinction have been explored. The research also looks beyond the immediate causes of the crisis to consider how our cultural and economic…

Rapid technological advances, shifting political movements, changing economic dynamics and accelerating societal change are seldom far from the news headlines and many of us struggle to understand their implications on day-to-day life. Such are the challenges that it seems clear that the major issues facing our planet are of such a magnitude that no single institution or organization can truly understand their impact alone. As change accelerates in an increasingly connected world, we must get a better understanding of emerging opportunities and challenges.

The general trend during the more than 3.5 billion years that life has been evolving on Earth, has been toward ever greater complexity and diversity, with more new species evolving into existence than there were species going extinct.  Extinction is common, but normally it is balanced by speciation. The balance wavers such that at several times in life’s history extinction rates appear somewhat elevated, but only five times qualify for ‘mass extinction’ status. Different causes are thought to have precipitated these extinctions and they all stand out in having extinction rates spiking higher than in any other geological interval. These…

We tend to think of technology as objects, usually tools or instruments. People believe the neutrality claim about technology because objects themselves don’t act. The neutrality claim is a truism that comes from thinking of technology as objects that are used by humans; hence, only humans are morally responsible for what happens. The objects cannot be blamed; hence, technology cannot be blamed. As the philosopher Martin Heidegger (“The Question Concerning Technology”) suggests, this line of thinking leaves us only with the question of when (and how) we will bring technology under moral control. It is important to note, technology is…

Volatile markets and global and inter-industrial networks are creating a radically more dynamic market environment which calls for considerably greater on-demand flexibility in resource deployment. Today’s businesses have to respond to evolving trends. As well as increasing flexibility, this also means taking action in two further areas, namely increasing transformability and responding to demographic change. Furthermore the global change towards a fully networked society is in progress, more or less all over the world. The domain of industrial systems is increasingly changing from both, structural but also functional point of view, as it adopts emerging internet based concepts, technologies, engineering-tools…

We have reached unimaginable heights in our scientific and technological knowledge. But that knowledge is mostly confined to our own immediate welfare. We have a very powerful instinct to explore, we know a great deal about astrophysics, but when we look at the biological world—what the resources are and how are we going to manage our future with or without a certain number of species living with us—it’s pretty much a blank slate. In the meantime we generate multitudinous anthropogenic effects including disrupting biophysical boundaries, destruction, fragmentation and disruption of natural ecosystems , loss of genetic variability, extinction, homogenization of…

In the years and decades ahead, scientific and technological advances have created radical new ways and means of designing, producing and distributing the fabric of our cities. For example, breakthroughs in nanotechnology have enabled material scientists to replicate manifold biological mechanisms. We can anticipate lifelike materials becoming a common feature of our day-to-day surroundings. Self-repairing materials will extend the life of wide-ranging items. Passive thermoregulation in buildings reduces the need for air conditioning and heating. Amongst other things, superhydrophobicity more or less mitigates the need for cleaning some surfaces.

The Anthropocene hypothesis regards humanity as a geological force, its activities effectively altering the earth system’s metabolic structures: sediments, currents, and rays are redistributed towards unknown configurations. Thinking of the Anthropocene engages with earthly conditions and human imagination in a discursive, trans-historical experiment. Departing from a corpus of documents, scholars, theorists, scientists, I try to understand the constantly shifting qualities, energetic new positions on the textures and forms that knowledge takes on within the Anthropocene. Focusing on their respective views on the human and on the relation between the human and technology and in particular against the backdrop of the current…