Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS)

About: Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Life-cycle assessment & Sustainability. The organization has 167 authors who have published 318 publications receiving 6738 citations.

Designing technology in the age of digitalization: needs for technology assessment and ethics

Abstract: Abstract Technology research, design, and development is confronted with rapidly advancing digitalization in two respects: (1) digitally supported or enabled technologies need to be designed and developed, and (2) the respective R&D processes themselves will happen in a much more digitalized environment. Technology design generally must take into account the values involved and possible consequences of the development and use of the resulting products, services, and systems. In a digitalizing environment, the issue of values gains even more significance because more and more close and intimate interfaces between humans and technology have to be shaped. Designing human-machine interfaces is not only a functional issue but touches upon ethical questions such as the distribution of responsibility, but also upon anthropological issues related to the human self-image and ideas about future society as well. In the respective research, design, and development processes, value-laden issues such as control, privacy, empathy, responsibility, and accountability must be taken into account beyond technical issues of efficiency and reliability. The need for designing and shaping digital future technologies involving ethics and technology assessment will be demonstrated by three examples: future industrial production and the fields of self-driving cars and care robots. Value sensitive design and responsible research and innovation will be introduced as approaches to deal with these challenges.

International power supply policy and the globalisation of research: the example of fusion research

Abstract: At the present state of our information, we can affirm that fusion research, as far as the necessary financial expenditures and their political justification are concerned, is a matter of politically controversial debate. In the political arenas, projects like controlled nuclear fusion are discussed primarily with regard to the controllability of complex technical systems and the sustainability of our future supply of electric power. The attempt to discuss this problem will have to consider: (i) on the one hand, already established concepts of sustainability; (ii) and on the other, the—according to the present state of our knowledge—foreseeable characteristics of a system of power generation and supply based on fusion reactors. Not only do the goals of global technology projects have to be embedded in patterns of universally accepted legitimisation (sustainability), but the organisation of research and development is also changing into networks acting globally. In this sense, globalisation means not only the worldwide linking of financial markets and the permanent availability of information and communication networks, but above all the creation of global organisations of research and innovation processes. The globalisation of research and development of technology has several dimensions: (i) the recognition and treatment of global problems; (ii) the transformation and evolution of new forms of organisation and cooperation in a global community of researchers; (iii) the constitution of Global Change Research. Fusion is playing a ‘pathfinder role’ for these processes and is at the same time itself an expression of the globalisation of the production of technology.

Technology assessment for a changing world

Abstract: Julia Hahn, Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Schliemannstrasse 46, 10437 Berlin (julia.hahn@kit.edu)  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2864-7351 Christoph Schneider, ITAS/KIT, (christoph.schneider@kit.edu)  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1516-158X Martina Baumann, ITAS/KIT (martina.baumann@kit.edu)  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0487-9975 Christopher Coenen, ITAS/KIT (christopher.coenen@kit.edu)  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9572-636X André Gazsó, Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA), Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) (agazso@oeaw.ac.at) Tanja Sinozic, ITA/ÖAW (tanja.sinozic@oeaw.ac.at)  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1070-1340 Mahshid Sotoudeh, ITA/ÖAW (msotoud@oeaw.ac.at)  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5818-2204 Nora Weinberger, ITAS/KIT (nora.weinberger@kit.edu)  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1148-7470 Silvia Woll, ITAS/KIT (silvia.woll@kit.edu)  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0485-2246

AI models and the future of genomic research and medicine: True sons of knowledge?: Artificial intelligence needs to be integrated with causal conceptions in biomedicine to harness its societal benefits for the field.

Abstract: The increasing availability of large-scale, complex data has made research into how human genomes determine physiology in health and disease, as well as its application to drug development and medicine, an attractive field for artificial intelligence (AI) approaches. Looking at recent developments, we explore how such approaches interconnect and may conflict with needs for and notions of causal knowledge in molecular genetics and genomic medicine. We provide reasons to suggest that-while capable of generating predictive knowledge at unprecedented pace and scale-if and how these approaches will be integrated with prevailing causal concepts will not only determine the future of scientific understanding and self-conceptions in these fields. But these questions will also be key to develop differentiated policies, such as for education and regulation, in order to harness societal benefits of AI for genomic research and medicine.

Eco-efficiency of system alternatives of the urban water-energy-waste nexus

Abstract: Wastewater systems in developed cities contribute significantly to public health. The related systems are energy and resource intensive and do not recover nutrients in an efficient and effective way. Separating wastewater to greywater and blackwater at the source and exploiting organic municipal solid waste as an additional feed to an adjunct biogas plant could support efforts to make use of the potentials to reduce the environmental impacts, to increase the energy efficiency of winning nutrients, and to implement an additional, locally available energy source. However, the implementation of such systems is seen as expensive. The overarching aim of the paper is to analyze the eco-efficiency of transforming the current separately organized wastewater-energy-waste systems to an integrated one. The study differs between three system alternatives. The least invasive system change assumes a separation of wastewater at the source without a complete overhaul of the current system; the most elaborated one takes the current wastewater system fully out of operation. The reference for the current system is the existing system of a German medium-sized urban neighborhood. The analysis considers the eco-efficiency of two resource-related (fossil and metal depletion) and three emissions-related (climate change, photochemical oxidant formation and terrestrial acidification) impacts. Under the conditions of the settlement investigated, a transformation to the system alternatives will generate in all cases a weak eco-efficiency, i.e. the higher costs of implementing a new system counteracts with the noteworthy environmental improvement. Of the three options, the most elaborated one sees the best performance.