Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Images of Technology in Sociology: Computer as Butterfly and BatComputers begin, without being aware of it, to effect a major turn in social science technology research: machine technology, having been left for a long time to engineers and environmentalists, arouses the interest of sociologists, too. The paper highlights the conceptual advances of a new sociology of technology, which takes seriously the social constructions of technology of computer scientists and computer users. In the context of an emerging "media ecology", the main argument is about a social scientific mystification of Artificial Intelligence technologies.
-
Strengthening China's Technological CapabilityChina is increasing its outlay on
 research and development and seeking to build an innovation
 system that will deliver quick results not just in absorbing
 technology but also in pushing the technological envelope.
 China's spending on R&D rose from 1.1 percent of
 GDP in 2000 to 1.3 percent of GDP in 2005. On a purchasing
 power parity basis, China's research outlay was among
 the world's highest, far greater than that of Brazil,
 India, or Mexico. Chinese firms are active in the fields of
 biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, alternative energy sources,
 and nanotechnology. This surge in spending has been parallel
 by a sharp increase in patent applications in China, with
 the bulk of the patents registered in the areas of
 electronics, information technology, and telecoms. However,
 of the almost 50,000 patents granted in China, nearly
 two-thirds were to nonresidents. This paper considers two
 questions that are especially important for China. First,
 how might China go about accelerating technology
 development? Second, what measures could most
 cost-effectively deliver the desired outcomes? It concludes
 that although the level of financing for R&D is
 certainly important, technological advance is closely keyed
 to absorptive capacity which is a function of the volume and
 quality of talent and the depth as well as the heterogeneity
 of research experience. It is also a function of how
 companies maximize the commercial benefits of research and
 development, and the coordination of research with
 production and marketing.