RI Columns Chapter 7

Whenever a ‘sensitive’ innovation comes about, for example genetic modification or sending humans one a one-way trip to Mars, people freak out. This negative attitude towards radical changes can have truly damaging effects, for example the hydrogen cell powered car being an innovation failure due to the bad public reception. Therefore, one must consider the societal mindset before setting off to…

S ince January till August 2015, 17115 people in the Netherlands apply for asylum. 6096 Syrians and 5090 Eritreans. In July there has been a sharp grow in refugees from Syria, see figure 1. Worldwide there are 19,5  billion refugees, including 3,9 billion Syrians (VluchtelingenWerk, 2015). We are dealing with a difficult ethical situation. We’re all human, we all have feelings and a need for…

In an ever changing world we treat innovation as if it is the mythical Fountain of Youth that can rejuvenate and save our companies. The problem is that in that same changing world, we are starting to run out of things to create, resulting in a whole lot of junk that is claimed to be the next best thing. Greed is the inordinate desire to possess wealth, goods, or objects to keep it for one's self…

We as the Dutch population belong to the top 10 percent wealthiest of the world population. We educate our youth to become citizens of this society by schooling them as good as possible and teaching them to come up with innovative ideas and products. We have a lot of knowledge in all different kind of fields because we always try to push the limits in our designs and often this leads to very good…

The large-scale introduction of onshore and offshore wind turbines remains a societal challenge, despite its potential for providing sustainable energy. In the Netherlands and elsewhere issues of social acceptance have meant that offshore wind energy is increasingly being considered as an option, despite greater technical and economic difficulties as compared to onshore wind. The application of…

An example that is often used in the discussion if design represents values is that of Robert Moses’ low hanging overpasses . Robert Moses, “master builder” of New York from the 1920s to the 1970s and responsible for many of the roads, bridges and parks built in that period, designed the overpasses on parkways in Long Island extraordinarily low. It is said that he did this on purpose, to…

Genetically modified food The question that I raised above is actually a trick question. It is not really for you to decide whether you would eat genetically modified food or not, because you already have. The fact that you probably thought negatively about GM (genetically modified) food there provides us with the basis of the continuing debate about whether they are safe or not.   GM foods are…

When travelling with the Dutch public transportation train company NS there is one thing that you will probably notice. There is a lot of room for improvement. Lucy has to go to work 5 days in the week and in the weekend she often goes to a museum in another city. Lucy will tell you her opinion of the design and the the possible improvements.  Does the NS have a value sensitive design? A value…

In recent years research on brain computer interfacing has strongly  developed. For the future a logical next step is the interface between two brains or brain-to-brain communication. Sounds a bit scary! So which values have to be taken into consideration before it can be accepted by the market? What kind of development approach is needed? Brain to brain interfacing is a combination of brain…

In case somebody who might not know about P2P, let me explain it briefly. P2P stands for peer to peer which is an interface where you can share media or information with other people who are willing to share. Even in social media such as Facebook, you share your posts, links and pictures, in Twitter you share hashtag. Although the way both P2P and social media work seem to be similar, there is an…

“Fuck the system” and “Fuck capitalism” are common slogans of radical leftist. These statements are quite extreme and criticize the predominant capitalistic economic system as well as the political system. Contribution in the system is no option for them. They want a radical change of order. Officially they communicate their message via demonstrations, information media and by word of mouth.