Technology and society

Channel | updated March 04, 2013

What is the impact of technology on our everyday lives? Many research units at MIT are studying that, but in particular the Program in Science, Technology and Society, which conducts research at that meeting point, from the history of science and technology to anthropology, sociology, and literature. Scholars in STS ask “How do changes in science and technology affect what it means to be human?” and, conversely, “How do science and technology express human values?”

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less ...

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

Professor Sherry Turkle, founder and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, believes that the time is ripe for widespread rethinking of the way we interact through technology. An expert on mobile devices, social networking, and sociable robotics, she ...

The Emergence of a Digital Money Ecosystem - Irving ...

The Emergence of a Digital Money Ecosystem - Irving Wladawsky-Berger, PhD ...

About the Presentation We are in the early stages of a very important transformation—the transition to a digital money ecosystem. This transformation is likely to be among the most exciting, important, and challenging initiatives the world will undertake in the ...

A Creation Myth for the Computer Age

Historian of technology George Dyson discusses the remarkable story that inspired his latest book, Turing's Cathedral.Read more at: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/39669/

Consumer-Driven Disruptions

A look at some of the small-scale innovations that went on to upend entire industries.(Licensed under the Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia images from: Infrogmation, Priwo, Grm wnr, Atreyu, Rajkumar1220, Ericd, Crazy Louco. Other images courtesy

Meet 2011 TR35 Winner Jernej Barbic

Innovation,
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Meet 2011 TR35 Winner Jernej Barbic

Barbic presents his work at EmTech 2011: Speeding up simulations of complex objects University of Southern California Read more: http://techre.vu/yfxuh8

TR35: Judd Antin

Meet 2011 TR35 Winner Judd Antin

Antin presents his work at EmTech 2011. "When you look at YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, or similar services, there's so much collaborative work going on. But we don't really understand why," says Judd Antin, a research scientist in the Internet Experiences Group at Yahoo Research. Indeed, many ...

Meet 2011 TR35 Winner Pieter Abbeel

Robotics,
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Meet 2011 TR35 Winner Pieter Abbeel

Abbeel present his work at EmTech 2011: Robots that learn from people. University of California, Berkeley

Meet 2011 TR35 Winner Aishwarya Ratan

Innovation,
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Meet 2011 TR35 Winner Aishwarya Ratan

Ratan describes his work at EmTech 2011: Converting paper records to digital in real time Yale University Beginning in 2009, while working with Microsoft Research India, Aishwarya Ratan spent 15 months figuring out how to help local microcredit co-ops, which often struggle with handwritten ...

The Second Arab Awakening: Challenges and Promise

Speaker Dr. Marwan Muasher, Vice President for Studies Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Marwan Muasher is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment, where he oversees the Endowment's research in Washington and Beirut on the Middle East. Muasher ...

Wilczek and Chaconne

Video by: Lan Li This exercise on direct cinema counterpoints two styles of performance: Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek lecturing on quantum physics and his student, second year graduate student in theoretical physics, Timothy Hsieh playing Bach's Chaconne. The juxtaposition of physics and ...