Evaluating Impact

What is the impact of scientific developments on human life? Consider the example of telephones, or more current modes of communication, skype, e-chat, etc.

There have been many advances in the empirical methodology of impact assessment over the course of history, especially in the last few decades with the rise of more sophisticated statistical modeling and methods of program evaluation.

Some observers problematise such advancements by highlighting their inability to take into account broader consequences, not just immediate, of each intervention. One example would be to ask what the new intervention has replaced and are we suffering some loss of value by switching to the new...consider the rise of formal insurance and the fall of societal networks of support...or the rise of e-interaction replacing more human and face to face interactions. Others discuss the inability of these methods to account for more long term effects...cell phones make life a lot easier, but do we know if it has any negative long term consequences for things that we value, such as quality of our lives?

We can go on and on with more examples and critics, but what I learned new and found worth sharing is what Sigmund Freud calls "cheap enjoyment" in his famous book "Civilization and its Discontents" which he describes as in an anecdote as "the enjoyment obtained by putting a bare leg from under the bedclothes on a cold winter night and drawing it in again."

How does this complicate the impact assessment thesis? Well, pulling the bedclothes over you has no value if you take into account removing it yourself in the first place! Maybe it is just me that finds this exciting as it was totally new perspective for me.