Part I — Overall Conclusion
The first four chapters establish the intellectual foundation for the remainder of this book.
Chapter 1 demonstrated that technologies must be understood as elements of wider sociotechnical ecosystems. Emerging technologies differ from established technologies because their future capabilities, applications and consequences may remain uncertain.
Chapter 2 demonstrated that technology assessment has evolved from forecasting and impact assessment toward participatory, constructive, ethical, responsible and real-time approaches.
Chapter 3 demonstrated that technology evaluation is difficult because technological systems are complex, dynamic and uncertain. Evidence gaps, stakeholder conflict, path dependency, technological hype, scale effects and unintended consequences make simplistic evaluation inadequate.
Chapter 4 responded to these challenges by introducing AMTEF.
Together, these chapters establish the central proposition of the book:
Responsible technology evaluation requires systematic examination of technological capability, functional effectiveness, economic value, organizational readiness, human consequences, social effects, ethical responsibility, environmental sustainability, risk and security, and governance.
This proposition provides the foundation for Part II, which moves from the conceptual foundations of evaluation toward detailed examination of individual evaluation dimensions.
Selected institutional sources
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2023). Technology readiness levels. NASA.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2023). NASA systems engineering processes and requirements: Appendix E—Technology readiness levels. NASA.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2023). Technology assessment for emerging technology: Meeting new demands for strategic intelligence. OECD Publishing.