Perspectives sustainability

1. You Want the Future? You Can’t Handle the Future! Perspectives on Sustainability Brad Allenby Founding Director, Center for Earth Systems Engineering and Management Lincoln Professor of Engineering and Ethics Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineerin g USBCSD October 18, 2011

6. Sustainability and Basic Political Values Libertarian: justice is equality of opportunity Communitarianisn: welfare is optimized by individual being absorbed in community Egalitarian: justice is equality of outcome Corporatism: welfare is optimized by free economic activity of individuals Sustainable Development U.S. polity

11. Information Infrastructure Boundary Issues

12. Changing Dimensions of Work Manufacturing Paradigm Flexible, virtual time and space TIME/SPACE Defined, clock time Dedicated, co-located PLACE Non-place based, individual choice Full-time employment EMPLOYMENT Self-employed, full spectrum of relations to firm Fixed, impermeable LIFE BOUNDRIES (e.g., family/work) Porous, constantly shifting MODEL OF FIRM Evolving network within globalization networks Stable, fixed institution Knowledge production, defined by intranets Firm Facility-based, physical production SKILLS Dynamic, complex, individualized, unstable Stable, clearly defined Knowledge Economy Paradigm

13. Policy Response Matrix: Cyborg Insects Policy Response Technology Level Goals and Effects Policy Response Level I: Military effectiveness Reduce collateral damage and increase operational efficiency in counterinsurgency operations Goals and technology align; therefore adopt technology Level II: Security effectiveness Protect civilian populations from terrorists and, through mission creep, criminals Implement technology, but technology alone may not lead to achievement of stated goal Level III: Social and cultural effects Ensure orderly society; likely to reduce privacy and enable “soft” or “hard” totalitarian state; shift of power to technologically rich organizations (e.g., private firms). Optimistic goals likely to be undercut as those in power adopt cybersect technology to their own ends; Level I and Level III implications potentially in fundamental conflict

14. “ He, only, merits freedom and existence Who wins them every day anew.” (Goethe, 1833, Faust , lines 11,575-76)