Technology assessment

A systematic method for exploring future technology developments, and assessing their potential societal effects. It includes the study and evaluation of new technologies in terms of their characteristics and, importantly, their consequences. The United States Congress established the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) in 1972 and its tenure extended to 1995. The objective of OTA was to perform technology-based studies requested by Members of Congress in order to anticipate the societal consequences of the technologies under study. During its operation, OTA produced 750 reports that are still available; Princeton University maintains a complete set of the agency’s publications and other materials that were produced during its operation. The OTA was closed when Congress withdrew funding, seeing OTA as an unnecessary expense. There have several attempts to revive OTA including, in 2010, a study by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Technology assessment inevitably involves questions of ethics and the innate conflict between what is viewed as progress and the potential for adverse unintended consequences. It is forward-looking and technologically neutral. Generally its task as helping to avoid damage by forecasting the potential evolution of particular technologies and helping to establish policies that avoid or minimize risk. An important task is communication of results of assessment studies to interest groups and key political and corporate decision-makers. Some of the major fields of TA are: information technology nuclear technology molecular nanotechnology pharmacology organ transplants gene technology health technology assessment (HTA)