How much technology does society need?

摘要

Our society depends in the first place on functioning technology. Just remember the pictures of the power blackout in the USA and Canada. In many cases our fellow citizens are not aware to which extent they depend on technology - until the TV is suddenly out of order at the finals of the soccer world championship. But how much technology does our society actually need? It is a question of values. Values define, what is important in our society. The engineers themselves have to take part in the technology assessment. For this purpose the VDI offered a framework in its guideline VDI 3780. Last year the VDI has manifested the responsibility of the engineers in its "Fundamentals of Engineering Ethics".