The Fourth Civilization, Volume One: Technology, Ethics, and Society
Ebook
Overview
The Fourth Civilization: Technology, Society, and Ethics stimulates its readers to consider the ethical and societal consequences of technologies they already use, and others that will become ubiquitous. Its discussions and provocative questions integrate history, science, technology, and ethical and religious beliefs, examining the past and present and preparing for the future.
Social changes always follow the adoption of new technologies. The plow drove the transition from hunter-gatherer to agrarian society, and the steam engine began the Industrial Revolution. Computing technology now ushers in an Information Age. What does ethical decision-making look like in a time of rapid transition and beyond? What will society be like once things stabilize in a Fourth Civilization, if indeed they will? How will robots, artificial intelligence, factory automation, and self-driving vehicles affect daily life and work?
Discussions about ideas were not common in an era of specialist technicians. They are becoming necessary and routine in a fast-changing and more broadly integrative world, and this book attempts to practice what it preaches. Let it inform, provoke, and become a part of New Renaissance literature, inspiring its readers to become ethically informed New Renaissance people in the Fourth Civilization information age.
There has never been a time when this book was more needed. Before our eyes, technology is rebuilding our society from its foundations. Sutcliffe, never shying away from worldview and spiritual perspectives, provides a comprehensive and critical eye on how we got here, where we are, and where we might go. All students who interact with technology—indeed, all of us—need to wrestle with the wealth of deep and transformative issues that Sutcliffe judiciously places before us.
——Glen Van Brumelen, dean of the faculty of natural and applied sciences, Trinity Western University
New mind-blowing technologies are changing our work, relationships, and even the way we think. None of us will side-step their influence. This highly integrative and readable book faces the foundational societal changes brought by these technologies head on. Drawing from a wide range of disciplines including history, philosophy, ethics, theology, political studies, information technology, and AI studies, this book provides a wealth of information and raises many questions. Readers will be equipped and stimulated to think about how both current and emerging technologies will affect our personal ethics and our society as a whole.
——Paul Chamberlain, professor of ethics and leadership, Trinity Western University
- Title: The Fourth Civilization, Volume One: Technology, Ethics, and Society
- Author: Richard J. Sutcliffe
- Publisher: Resource Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 494
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9798385226832, 9798385226825, 9798385226818
- Resource ID: LLS:9798385226832
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-23T00:23:03Z
Rick Sutcliffe is professor of computing science and mathematics at Trinity Western University. An educator for fifty-four years, he has authored numerous academic papers, talks, columns, and documents for his university, journals, conferences, popular publications, churches, and international standards bodies. Numerous students have used editions of this text since 1978, and he brought its ideas and characters to more general audiences in ten alternate history science fiction novels exploring the same themes.