Technology assessment

Futures studies
Concepts
Accelerating change Cashless society Existential risk Future Earth Mathematics Race Climate Space exploration Universe Historical materialism Kondratiev cycle Kardashev scale Moore's law Peak oil Population cycle Resource depletion Singularity Swanson's law
Techniques
Backcasting Causal layered analysis Chain-linked model Consensus forecast Cross impact analysis Delphi Real-time Delphi Foresight Future-proof Futures wheel Futures workshops Horizon scanning Reference class forecasting Scenario planning Systems analysis Threatcasting Trend analysis
Technology assessment and forecasting
Critical design Design fiction Exploratory engineering FTA Hype cycle Science fiction prototyping Speculative design TRL Technology scouting
v t e

Technology assessment (TA, German: Technikfolgenabschätzung, French: Évaluation des choix scientifiques et technologiques) is a practical process of determining the value of a new or emerging technology in and of itself or against existing technologies.^[1] This is a means of assessing and rating the new technology from the time when it was first developed to the time when it is potentially accepted by the public and authorities for further use. In essence, TA could be defined as "a form of policy research that examines short- and long term consequences (for example, societal, economic, ethical, legal) of the application of technology."^[2]