The overarching question imparting urgency to this exploration is: Can U.S.-Russian contention in cyberspace cause the two nuclear superpowers to stumble into war? In considering this question we were constantly reminded of recent comments by a prominent U.S. arms control expert: At least as dangerous as the risk of an actual cyberattack, he observed, is cyber operations’ “blurring of the line between peace and war.” Or, as Nye wrote, “in the cyber realm, the difference between a weapon and a non-weapon may come down to a single line of code, or simply the intent of a computer program’s user.”
Second Conference on Emerging Technologies and Global Development
Economic transformation, meeting human needs, and protecting the environment have emerged as global grand challenges. One way to address these challenges is to harness the world’s abundant scientific, technological, and engineering knowledge to meet specific human needs. While some of the technologies offer solutions to global challenges, they also threaten to disrupt incumbent industries and social organization. Technological anxiety and outright opposition to disruptive technologies, however, may undermine such efforts.
The aim of this conference is to map emerging technologies that could address global grand challenges, review their disruptive characteristics, identify potential sources of social concern, and outline business models and public policies on how to address the social concerns. The conference builds on the findings of the newly published book, Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies (Oxford University Press, 2016).
The conference will address emerging technologies in fields such agriculture, head, manufacturing and infrastructure. It will incorporate demonstrations from entrepreneurs who are using innovative technologies to address these challenges.
The keynote speaker is Professor Mark Zachary Taylor at the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy of the Georgia Institute of Technology. He speaks on his highly-acclaimed book, The Politics of Innovation, which explores why some nations are better than others in harnessing emerging technologies for development.
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First Conference on Emerging Technologies and Global Development