The social implications of emerging technologies

摘要

HCI draws much of its strength from being an interdisciplinary subject. This strength is showcased in the papers presented in this special issue, which examines the social implications of emerging technologies from a variety of standpoints. The discipline of Human-Computer Interaction has potentially much to contribute in moving us closer to the vision of widespread, if not universal, access to technology and computer resources. HCI may contribute from informing the design of relatively trivial interface features to ensuring that the wider social implications of such systems inform their design and development. Unfortunately, theoretical development has not kept pace with technical development, a problem of very long standing in HCI (Barnard, 1991). We hope that the work presented in this special issue provides a step towards understanding and designing technology in society. Nevertheless, the technology is evolving much more quickly than society. For successful emerging technologies, we need to work now to have a better understanding of the social and design issues before the technology arrives to turn them into social and design opportunities or problems.