Our world has never seemed so unstable and uncertain. If we are to survive and flourish as a species, it is becoming clear that we are entering a stage in human history in which we must engage with the complex systems of life itself. The challenges that now lay before us are extremely complex and exist on a global scale. We must dramatically rethink many of the core assumptions we have taken for granted. We are fast discovering just how interconnected the universe is, and just how interdependent living and nonliving systems and sub-systems are upon each other. Systems engineers close to these problems recognise the need for a radical new approach. For example, in the wake the Japanese environmental disaster of recent years, the systems engineering community represented by the International Federation of Automation and Control (IFAC) in Japan are recommending ‘‘glocal’’ thinking which delivers local science and engineering solutions with global vision. Humanity urgently needs integral, holistic, cross-disciplinary intellectual conversations and actions to create solutions that address the multi-dimensionality of the systems with which we must now engage. It is perhaps surprising that, in the face of this growing awareness, modern science and engineering and the agencies which fund them remain entrenched in their traditional silos of activity. In the West, most of these activities are organised so as to resolve short-term, commercial concerns within the narrow agenda, that is, neo-liberalism. Our myopia will be judged harshly by our children’s children’s children. According to any reasonable moral framework, this will no longer do. Technology proliferation contributes significantly to the systemic and structural effects we are now experiencing. The application of global systems of information, finance, energy and other resources has both negative and positive consequences. The recent financial crisis in the West is a testament to the fragility of our global systems and how little we really understand them. On the other hand, the global connectedness and the pluri-cultural context it has created present wonderful opportunities for our species to discover each other and learn how to care for this living system we call home. The challenge for this special issue on technology, culture and international stability was to draw together strands of thought from across a range of disciplines which share a common concern with the role of science and engineering in systems of international stability. The current international stability intellectual discourse focuses upon climate change. We have chosen not to include contributions from climate change research and praxis (although you will find indirect contributions referring to environmental concerns). This is not because environmental systems are not important, but because we think they are well represented elsewhere. In composing this issue, a range of contributions were sought which convey key dimensions of the problems we face but which have not received so much attention in the academic literature or popular press. Visionary contributions from the commercial sector, practical applicationsoriented research as well as deep theoretical reflections are included. This special issue also needed to draw from different cultures and academic subject domains. The hope is to inspire new conversations about the challenges we face, conversations which reach across the silos of science L. Stapleton (&) INSYTE Centre for Information Systems and Technoculture, Waterford Institute of Technology, Cork Road, Waterford, Ireland e-mail: lstapleton@wit.ie
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Jul 27, 2015
Yun Yang + 2
Open Access