In honor of Super Bowl Sunday, graduate research assistant Rider Foley discusses the threat of severe brain injury brought upon through impact sports.
When I ask my students
whether it is okay for them or others to overstate the possible outcomes of
their research in order to get funding, a large number of them say they are
comfortable with it. They are taught by
their mentors that this is a necessary, if sometimes unfortunate, marketing
technique.
What should be the role of science fiction (SF) in informing how we
develop and govern science and technology? Some SF is just for fun, some SF explores what it means to be human under different
circumstances, and other SF imagines strange new worlds, including new kinds
of humans, new kinds of machines and new kinds of worlds. SF is also
cited by many scientists and engineers as an impetus for their career
choice. But are there other ways that SF should do more to try to guide society?
We've all read, and many of us have agreed with, the impassioned pleas for moratoria on, or at least caution towards, emerging technologies such as nanotechnology. But it turns out you can only read so many calls for moratoria before they start sounding alike. This Soapbox, using a Mad-lib format, will allow you to create your own news release calling for an emerging technology moratorium.
