Just Technology: The Quest for Cultural, Economic, Environmental, and Technical Sustainability(Synthesis Lectures on Sustainable Development)

This book introduces the idea of "just technology" by rephrasing the idea of "just war" in order to include concepts of sustainability in future engineering design. It begins by defining justice and relating these definitions to technology. To address the complexity of today's global challenges requires new ways of thinking. The idea that technology is always the best, maybe only, approach worth taking needs to be reconsidered. Sustainable approaches must also draw from non-technological areas. The book continues by illustrating several notions of sustainability and the awareness that needs to be focused on societal challenges due to the finite resources available in the natural world. Four questions are enumerated to be addressed in order to qualify as a just use of technology: (1) Is the harm being inflicted by the problem on the community, the environment, or humanity, in general lasting, serious, and certain? (2) Have all alternative solutions been investigated first, including non-technology-based solutions? Technology is the last choice, not the first! (3) Do we have confidence in the successful implementation of this technological solution? and (4) Is the potential harm from the technological solution potentially worse than the issue being addressed? Have all unintended consequences been considered that could arise from the technological solution? The book ends with a description for implementing these questions into the traditional engineering design process. Examples are included for reflection and help to understand how the design process proceeds.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction Justice Sustainability Gatekeeping Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 The Engineering Design Process Conclusions References Authors' Biographies

About the Author :
Thomas J. Siller is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, CO. He spent 13 years as the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs for the CSU College of Engineering. He earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from SUNY at Buffalo, a M.S. in Civil Engineering at UMASS Amherst, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Siller has published in geotechnical earthquake engineering, international engineering education, and more recently on the topic of sustainable development. He is the author of a book through the American Society of Civil Engineers on the practice of civil engineering in the 21st century. He teaches introductory courses for first-year civil and environmental engineering students along with a graduate course in foundation engineering. Gearold Johnson is Senior Research Scientist/Scholar, the Emeritus George T. Abell Endowed Chair, and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO. He was Academic Vice-President of the National Technological University. He earned degrees from Purdue University: a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering, a M.S. in Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. He was a NATO Post-doctoral Fellow at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Brussels, Belgium. He was a VisitingProfessor at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, and at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He also taught on four Semester at Sea voyages. Dr. Johnson has published in fluid mechanics; solar energy; atmospheric science; propulsion; optimal control theory; embedded control systems; modeling, simulation and computer assisted engineering; design of programming languages and computer graphics; and curriculum development in engineering education.