Technology and Innovation

TechInn - ISSN 2399-8571 - © ISTE Ltd

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This article analyses teleportation in science fiction through the concept of the techno-gestational myth. Although technically impossible at present and requiring a major paradigm shift, this fictional technology plays a crucial role in shaping innovation very early in the research and development process. Through the study of diverse works (such as the saga The Fly, Star Trek, Everywhen and Hyperion), the article demonstrates the profound ambivalence of this imagined phenomenon. On the one hand, teleportation embodies a disruptive and utopian innovation, promising to revolutionize mobility, abolish distances and facilitate humanity’s cosmic expansion. On the other hand, it crystallizes anxieties linked to scientific hubris, illustrating the excesses of a Faustian science through monstrous mutations, tragic disappearances, and dystopian social alienation. In conclusion, science fiction proves to be a powerful tool for foresight. By naming the unthinkable, it generates technological archetypes, or technotypes. These representations structure the collective imagination and effect a kind of in imago fertilization capable, in the long term, of guiding and inspiring scientific research programs.

Terra Ignota is a book series by Ada Palmer in which, at the core of this science-fiction world, we find a global system of high-speed flying cars accessible to all. Allowing people to travel anywhere in the world. Here, this classic trope in science-fiction is used as a commentary of the genre itself and to pinpoint the social aspects of such technology. This article aims to report on the use of flying cars in this literary series and to make the ideas displayed by Ada Palmer on this technology explicit.

Craftspeople have a long history of integrating new tools into their workshops, enhancing their craft. Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is a new technology that fits into this technological continuum, with specific characteristics linked to its digital nature. It offers new perspectives through use cases applied to peripheral tasks or co-creation. However, it also presents numerous challenges related to identity, economics, legal issues, ethics, and the environment. "Keeping control" seems to be the central issue in the relationship between craftspeople and AI, in the technical mastery of the tools and all the associated decisions throughout the creative process, but also in the control of the narrative. AI can, in some cases, be an opportunity for craftspeople, but it is above all the craftspeople who are an opportunity for AI, through their uses and their relevant interaction with the tools!

This study analyses the development of bio-inputs based on beneficial indigenous microorganisms (BIM) in Cuba. The approach utilises the sectoral innovation system analysis framework and participatory workshops in five provinces to map the ecosystem of stakeholders. The results show that the technological sector structured by this innovation is organised around two chains: a state-run industrial chain and a decentralised peasant self-production chain. Three obstacles hinder widespread adoption: a shortage of inputs (molasses, packaging); certification procedures designed for industrial production units rather than self-production units; and labour shortages and commercial dysfunctions (quality, distribution). The findings conclude that widespread adoption based on a self-production trajectory relies on an institutional restructuring of technical and certification standards that recognises the heterogeneity of decentralised production.

Through a forward-looking reinterpretation of a selection of science fiction works—mostly feature films, from Alice Winocour’s Proxima to Morten Tyldum’s Passengers, including Moon, Passenger 4, Artemis, Geostorm, Space Sweepers, Ad Astra, Outland, Mars Express, and The Expanse—the author examines humanity’s expansion within the Solar System from the perspective of transportation methods and the social and territorial policies they reveal or generate. Structured according to the Qualitative Time Scale, the analysis progresses from the Programmed to the Distant. In the Programmed phase, Proxima establishes that the chemical rocket is an image of the breakdown of equality: the Earth’s gravitational well constitutes the first class barrier inscribed in the laws of physics rather than in those of humankind, instituting from the outset a triple exclusion based on energy, body, and gender. In the Accessible realm, Moon, Passenger No. 4, and Artemis depict the early stages of spatial territorialization: the exploitation of a consumable biological workforce, the Malthusian fragility of interplanetary transit systems, and the painful emergence of territorial law within the cycle of unbridled capitalism-laws-collapse-rebirth. In the Probable realm, Geostorm, Space Sweepers, and Ad Astra portray an orbital governance oscillating between conservative scientism, authoritarian corporatocracy, and psychologically devastating expansion. In the Possible realm, Mars Express, Outland, and The Expanse depict a fragmented solar system, where biology itself becomes a national border and where space law remains embryonic. In the Distant realm, Passengers confronts the capitalist interstellar project with its own physical, economic, and political absurdities. This journey will provide the author with an opportunity to formulate a series of open ethical questions about justice as a condition for the sustainability of any space expansion.

This article presents the LOTUS tool, developed by the RASSCAS laboratory at ISEN Méditerranée, for assessing the social and environmental impacts of technological projects. LOTUS is a 3-hour workshop aimed at devising solutions to reduce these impacts. The tool is based on the work of Kate Raworth and the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Trials have shown that LOTUS has exceeded its initial objectives, making projects more acceptable and taking into account planetary limits and social needs. The tool is versatile and adaptable to different types of projects. The results underline the importance of taking social and environmental impacts into account in technology projects. LOTUS represents a significant advance in the responsible and sustainable design of technologies, and opens up future development prospects for more regenerative design.

This article offers an in-depth analysis of the interactions between economic intelligence (EI), artificial intelligence (AI), and territorial dynamics in the era of digital transformation. AI technologies—particularly generative AI—are profoundly reshaping the production, circulation, and valorization of strategic information, both within organizations and across territories. Building on academic work related to knowledge management and information governance, the study shows how territories can become experimental spaces for augmented collective intelligence, where AI contributes to strengthening competitiveness, innovation, and resilience. The article adopts an analytical and critical approach, examining the complementarity between algorithmic power and human judgment, as well as the conditions required for ethical and shared data governance.

The latitude and longitude geographic coordinates provided by Google Earth are affected by errors that suggest uncertainties in distance and route measurements. This study proposes improvement formulas to make geolocation data more accurate. In an approach that presents formulas for evaluating and improving uncertainties in distances produced by Google Earth, our results demonstrate that the uncertainties and errors in distances contained in measurements from Google Earth are tangible depending on the evaluation of short, long, or medium distances. The probability of errors in the coordinates provided by Google Earth is plus or minus (+/-) 2 meters. The distribution of errors as a function of distance shows that an error of +/- 3 m has only a 0.4% chance of being exceeded. This methodology takes into account the structure of the Earth’s globe: meridians, parallels, poles, the equator, hemispheres, and the Earth’s bumpy structure. These corrections help improve accuracy in applications that use geolocation as a means of optimizing services. Correcting errors from geographic coordinates using formulas that reduce errors would have an impact on geolocation in industries such as goods transportation, precision agriculture, and healthcare. While recognizing that geolocation offers significant benefits by transforming many fields, it raises some important questions regarding individual privacy.

Plants in the environment face constant stresses, either biotic or abiotic. These stresses can significantly reduce the productivity of important crops worldwide, with annual crop yield losses ranging from 25% to 50% of the total production. Biotic stress includes herbivores, pests and pathogens. Thus, plants have developed a multilayer defense system to prevent the problem of biotic stress which includes the constitutive (SAR) and induced defense system (ISR). The excessive use of synthetic chemicals has detrimental effects on the environment and human health, which discourages pesticide application in the agriculture sector. As a result, researchers worldwide have shifted their focus towards alternative eco-friendly strategies to prevent plant diseases. A variety of biological control agents are available for use. Currently, researchers are exploring the use of beneficial microorganisms as an eco-friendly strategy to control crop diseases. A range of bacterial genera and fungi have demonstrated great potential as biocontrol agents for various plant diseases. Apart from these, to date, researchers in biotechnology are exploring plant Systemic Acquired Resistance (SAR) and Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR), the role and mode of action against phytopathogens and plant stress. In this paper an effort has been made to describe the new biostimulants and natural elicitors made by biotechnology and nano technology in the last few years, as a new insight to the increase of SAR and ISR in plant defense systems.

Innovation in the medical and surgical fields seeks to optimize the quality of care delivered to patients. This study provides an overview of the new technologies that support this innovation in the field of orthopedics and traumatology and illustrates their application in the specific case of Nice University Hospital. It is based on a review of the literature and an interview with a university hospital research director focused on improving the care of patients with osteoarticular trauma. The results of this state-of-the-art review present the advantages and limitations of various technologies: modeling, simulation and three-dimensional (3D) printing, extended visualization, robotic and navigation systems, and internet and smartphone applications. Their integration into healthcare facilities and the healthcare ecosystem is discussed in relation to the concept of digital twins and criteria for human, organizational, and societal feasibility. This study contributes to the thinking of surgeons and their teams in developing their digital devices.