Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Society

Abstract

The Oxford Research Encyclopedia in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) brings together leading scholars from several disciplines to analyze and explain how and why science and technology are dominant motifs of our world. As science and technology more directly drive our economic realities—from emerging technologies that allow humanity to communicate across space and time, to computationally derived networked systems that undergird global financial markets—STS provides relevant commentary that enables us to envision a more equitable world. Similarly, science and technology influence, shape, and redefine our social interactions, political institutions, and cultural values. The emergence of social media exemplifies this reality. Put briefly, this ORE shows how science, technology, and society—past, present, and future—are co-creational, historically contingent, and impossible to untangle. Its broad themes include computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning; security, surveillance, and observation; ethics, replicability, and reproducibility; and art, design, and creative expression.