An Anticipatory Approach to Ethico-Legal Implications of Future Neurotechnology.

This paper provides a justificatory rationale for recommending the inclusion of imagined future use cases in neurotechnology development processes, specifically for legal and policy ends. Including detailed imaginative engagement with future applications of neurotechnology can serve to connect ethical, legal, and policy issues potentially arising from the translation of brain stimulation research to the public consumer domain. Futurist scholars have for some time recommended approaches that merge creative arts with scientific development in order to theorise possible futures toward which current trends in technology development might be steered. Taking a creative, imaginative approach like this in the neurotechnology context can help move development processes beyond considerations of device functioning, safety, and compliance with existing regulation, and into an active engagement with potential future dynamics brought about by the emergence of the neurotechnology itself. Imagined scenarios can engage with potential consumer uses of devices that might come to challenge legal or policy contexts. An anticipatory, creative approach can imagine what such uses might consist in, and what they might imply. Justifying this approach also prompts a co-responsibility perspective for policymaking in technology contexts. Overall, this furnishes a mode of neurotechnology's emergence that can avoid crises of confidence in terms of ethico-legal issues, and promote policy responses balanced between knowledge, values, protected innovation potential, and regulatory safeguards.

Designing a circular carbon and plastics economy for a sustainable future.

The linear production and consumption of plastics today is unsustainable. It creates large amounts of unnecessary and mismanaged waste, pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, undermining global climate targets and the Sustainable Development Goals. This Perspective provides an integrated technological, economic and legal view on how to deliver a circular carbon and plastics economy that minimizes carbon dioxide emissions. Different pathways that maximize recirculation of carbon (dioxide) between plastics waste and feedstocks are outlined, including mechanical, chemical and biological recycling, and those involving the use of biomass and carbon dioxide. Four future scenarios are described, only one of which achieves sufficient greenhouse gas savings in line with global climate targets. Such a bold system change requires 50% reduction in future plastic demand, complete phase-out of fossil-derived plastics, 95% recycling rates of retrievable plastics and use of renewable energy. It is hard to overstate the challenge of achieving this goal. We therefore present a roadmap outlining the scale and timing of the economic and legal interventions that could possibly support this. Assessing the service lifespan and recoverability of plastic products, along with considerations of sufficiency and smart design, can moreover provide design principles to guide future manufacturing, use and disposal of plastics.

The Scope and Legal Implications of Tracking Technologies on Hospital Websites.

This Viewpoint analyzes the scope and legal implications of tracking on hospital websites, including potential HIPAA and state privacy law violations, and suggests that hospitals limit such tracking.

Model for successful development and implementation of Cyber Security Operations Centre (SOC).

Cyberattacks have changed dramatically and have become highly advanced. This latest phenomenon has a massive negative impact on organizations, such as financial losses and shutting-down of operations. Therefore, developing and implementing the Cyber Security Operations Centre (SOC) is imperative and timely. Based on previous research, there are no international guidelines and standards used by organizations that can contribute to the successful implementation and development of SOC. In this regard, this study focuses on highlighting the significant factors that will impact and contribute to the success of SOC. Simultaneously, it will further design a model for the successful development and implementation of SOC for the organization. The study was conducted quantitatively and involved 63 respondents from 25 ministries and agencies in Malaysia. The results of this study will enable the retrieval of ten success factors for SOC, and it specifically focuses on humans, processes, and technology. The descriptive analysis shows that the top management support factor is the most influential factor in the success of the development and implementation of SOC. The study also contributes to the empirical finding that technology and process factors are more significant in the success of SOCs. Based on the regression test, the technology factor has major impact on determining the success of SOC, followed by the process and human factors. Relevant organizations or agencies can use the proposed model to develop and implement SOCs, formulate policies and guidelines, strengthen human models, and enhance cyber security.

Newborn screening system: Safety, technology, advocacy.

Newborn screening (NBS) is more than 50 years old and has proven to be a powerful and successful public health system. NBS must be regarded as a system and not simply as a test. We need to work as a community to improve the culture of safety for the NBS system and thereby to reduce the risk of babies being missed by the NBS system. Adding new technologies will not prevent system failures; that will require adherence to the culture of safety. Some have argued that every newborn should have their genome sequenced at birth and this sequencing could be part of NBS. However, NBS has depended on biomarker phenotypes throughout its history and our understanding of the relationships between genotype and phenotype is imperfect. Therefore, we should avoid being seduced by genomic sequencing technology and continue to focus on phenotypic biomarkers in NBS.

Impact of Environmental Regulation on Scientific and Technological Competitiveness of Resource-Based Cities in China-Based on Panel Data of 33 Resource-Based Cities.

After the economy enters a "new normal" era in China, resource-based cities are under pressure in terms of transformation, upgrading and sustainable development. This paper uses the panel data of 33 resource-based cities from 2008 to 2018 to empirically analyze the impact of environmental regulation and innovation compensation on scientific and technological competitiveness. The results show that there is a positive U-shaped relation between environmental regulation and scientific and technological competitiveness. This means that when environmental regulations exceed a certain level, continuing to increase regulations will significantly enhance technological competitiveness, but most samples are still on the left side of the turning point. At the same time, the labor productivity and fiscal capacity of non-agricultural industries in the region may have a strong regulatory effect. In a region with higher labor productivity in non-agricultural industries or stronger local fiscal capacity, environmental regulation is more likely to reflect the attribute of "innovation compensation" and advance scientific and technological competitiveness. At this stage, we should optimize the trans-regional compensation mechanism for resource-rich regions, increase investment in pollution management and ecological protection and impose stricter admission standards on industrial projects. Besides, skilled laborers should be cultivated and innovation and entrepreneurship be supported to realize the green and sustainable development of resource-based cities in the new era.

Sentiment Analysis of the News Media on Artificial Intelligence Does Not Support Claims of Negative Bias Against Artificial Intelligence.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic in digital health, as automated systems are being adopted throughout the health care system. Because they are still flexible, emerging technologies can be shaped significantly by media representations as well as public engagement with science. In this context, we examine the belief that negative news media coverage of AI-and specifically, the alleged use of imagery from the movie Terminator-is to blame for public concerns about AI. This belief is identified as a potential barrier to meaningful engagement of AI scientists and technology developers with journalists and the broader public. We name this climate of risk perception the "Terminator Syndrome"-not because of its origins in the movie of the same name per se, but because such unchecked beliefs can terminate broad public engagement on AI before they even begin. Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study examined the hypothesis that the news media coverage of AI is negative. We conducted a sentiment analysis of news data spanning over six decades, from 1956 to 2018, using the Google Cloud Natural Language API Sentiment Analysis tool. Contrary to the alleged negative sentiment in news media coverage of AI, we found that the available evidence does not support this claim. We conclude with an innovation policy-relevant discussion on the current state of AI risk perceptions, and what critical social sciences offer for responsible AI innovation in digital health, life sciences, and society.

Emails and death: Legal issues surrounding post-mortem transmission of emails.

The paper is a first thorough examination of what happens to one's emails on death. The paper demonstrates that some content of emails can be protected by copyright and transmitted on death accordingly. The paper then analyzes the contractual provisions of the main email providers, Google and Microsoft, in order to determine how these contracts, regulate the transmission of emails on death. The author finds that these provisions complicate the issues of property and transmission of digital assets and do not offer a meaningful control over the assets for their users. The paper adopts a novel focus introduced in the author's earlier research, the idea of post-mortem privacy that is the right to privacy after death. This concept serves as an argument against the default transmission of emails on death without the deceased's consent, whether through the laws of intestacy or by requiring the service providers to provide access to the deceased's emails. Finally, the paper canvasses a solution which combines law and technology. It is argued that much more control should be placed in the hands of emails users. Post-mortem privacy, a potentially contested phenomenon, only accentuates the need to better account for the interests of the deceased, having in mind the volume of personal data and personal nature of emails. Therefore, an in-service solution is promoted, backed up by policy and legislation.

Perspectives of Australian policy-makers on the potential benefits and risks of technologically enhanced communicable disease surveillance - a modified Delphi survey.

BACKGROUND: Event-based social media monitoring and pathogen whole genome sequencing (WGS) will enhance communicable disease surveillance research and systems. If linked electronically and scanned systematically, the information provided by these technologies could be mined to uncover new epidemiological patterns and associations much faster than traditional public health approaches. The benefits of earlier outbreak detection are significant, but implementation could be opposed in the absence of a social licence or if ethical and legal concerns are not addressed. METHODS: A three-phase mixed-method Delphi survey with Australian policy-makers, health practitioners and lawyers (n = 44) was conducted to explore areas of consensus and disagreement over (1) key policy and practical issues raised by the introduction of novel communicable disease surveillance programmes; and (2) the most significant and likely risks from using social media content and WGS technologies in epidemiological research and outbreak investigations. RESULTS: Panellists agreed that the integration of social media monitoring and WGS technologies into communicable disease surveillance systems raised significant issues, including impacts on personal privacy, medicolegal risks and the potential for unintended consequences. Notably, their concerns focused on how these technologies should be used, rather than how the data was collected. Panellists held that social media users should expect their posts to be monitored in the interests of public health, but using those platforms to contact identified individuals was controversial. The conditions of appropriate use of pathogen WGS in epidemiological research and investigations was also contentious. Key differences amongst participants included the necessity for consent before testing and data-linkage, thresholds for action, and the legal and ethical importance of harms to individuals and commercial entities. The erosion of public trust was seen as the most significant risk from the systematic use of these technologies. CONCLUSIONS: Enhancing communicable disease surveillance with social-media monitoring and pathogen WGS may cause controversy. The challenge is to determine and then codify how these technologies should be used such that the balance between individual risk and community benefit is widely accepted. Participants agreed that clear guidelines for appropriate use that address legal and ethical concerns need to be developed in consultation with relevant experts and the broader Australian public.

Birth of Industry 5.0: Making Sense of Big Data with Artificial Intelligence, "The Internet of Things" and Next-Generation Technology Policy.

Driverless cars with artificial intelligence (AI) and automated supermarkets run by collaborative robots (cobots) working without human supervision have sparked off new debates: what will be the impacts of extreme automation, turbocharged by the Internet of Things (IoT), AI, and the Industry 4.0, on Big Data and omics implementation science? The IoT builds on (1) broadband wireless internet connectivity, (2) miniaturized sensors embedded in animate and inanimate objects ranging from the house cat to the milk carton in your smart fridge, and (3) AI and cobots making sense of Big Data collected by sensors. Industry 4.0 is a high-tech strategy for manufacturing automation that employs the IoT, thus creating the Smart Factory. Extreme automation until "everything is connected to everything else" poses, however, vulnerabilities that have been little considered to date. First, highly integrated systems are vulnerable to systemic risks such as total network collapse in the event of failure of one of its parts, for example, by hacking or Internet viruses that can fully invade integrated systems. Second, extreme connectivity creates new social and political power structures. If left unchecked, they might lead to authoritarian governance by one person in total control of network power, directly or through her/his connected surrogates. We propose Industry 5.0 that can democratize knowledge coproduction from Big Data, building on the new concept of symmetrical innovation. Industry 5.0 utilizes IoT, but differs from predecessor automation systems by having three-dimensional (3D) symmetry in innovation ecosystem design: (1) a built-in safe exit strategy in case of demise of hyperconnected entrenched digital knowledge networks. Importantly, such safe exists are orthogonal-in that they allow "digital detox" by employing pathways unrelated/unaffected by automated networks, for example, electronic patient records versus material/article trails on vital medical information; (2) equal emphasis on both acceleration and deceleration of innovation if diminishing returns become apparent; and (3) next generation social science and humanities (SSH) research for global governance of emerging technologies: "Post-ELSI Technology Evaluation Research" (PETER). Importantly, PETER considers the technology opportunity costs, ethics, ethics-of-ethics, framings (epistemology), independence, and reflexivity of SSH research in technology policymaking. Industry 5.0 is poised to harness extreme automation and Big Data with safety, innovative technology policy, and responsible implementation science, enabled by 3D symmetry in innovation ecosystem design.

The Ethics of Virtual Reality Technology: Social Hazards and Public Policy Recommendations.

This article explores four major areas of moral concern regarding virtual reality (VR) technologies. First, VR poses potential mental health risks, including Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder. Second, VR technology raises serious concerns related to personal neglect of users' own actual bodies and real physical environments. Third, VR technologies may be used to record personal data which could be deployed in ways that threaten personal privacy and present a danger related to manipulation of users' beliefs, emotions, and behaviors. Finally, there are other moral and social risks associated with the way VR blurs the distinction between the real and illusory. These concerns regarding VR naturally raise questions about public policy. The article makes several recommendations for legal regulations of VR that together address each of the above concerns. It is argued that these regulations would not seriously threaten personal liberty but rather would protect and enhance the autonomy of VR consumers.

Search engine imaginary: Visions and values in the co-production of search technology and Europe.

This article discusses the co-production of search technology and a European identity in the context of the EU data protection reform. The negotiations of the EU data protection legislation ran from 2012 until 2015 and resulted in a unified data protection legislation directly binding for all European member states. I employ a discourse analysis to examine EU policy documents and Austrian media materials related to the reform process. Using the concept 'sociotechnical imaginary', I show how a European imaginary of search engines is forming in the EU policy domain, how a European identity is constructed in the envisioned politics of control, and how national specificities contribute to the making and unmaking of a European identity. I discuss the roles that national technopolitical identities play in shaping both search technology and Europe, taking as an example Austria, a small country with a long history in data protection and a tradition of restrained technology politics.

Fuel cells are a commercially viable alternative for the production of "clean" energy.

Fuel cells present a highly efficient and environmentally friendly alternative technology for decentralized energy production. The scope of the present study is to provide an overview of the technological and commercialization readiness level of fuel cells. Specifically, there is a brief description of their general advantages and weaknesses in correlation with various technological actions and political strategies, which are adopted towards their proper positioning in the global market. Some of the most important key performance indicators are also discussed, alongside with a few examples of broad commercialization. It is concluded that the increasing number of companies which utilize and invest on this technology, in combination with the supply chain improvements and the concomitant technological maturity and recognition, reinforce the fuel cell industry so as to become well-aligned for global success.