Introduction

In this volume, we explore the perspective that the development of a technology and its introduction to society should be seen as an experimental process because of the myriad of uncertainties which will only be reduced gradually after the technology is actually employed. Furthermore, unexpected technological developments, such as the Fukushima disaster, may trigger an experimental process in which society must contend with new uncertainties posed by a technology and its social embedding and effects. The aim of this edited volume is to understand better the role of experimentation in the introduction of new technologies into society. This concerns what has been called real-world or societal experimentation with new technologies (Martin and Schinzinger 1983; Krohn and Weyer 1994; Felt et al. 2007; Van de Poel 2009), and where appropriate in the volume, we also address more traditional forms of experimentation, such as laboratory and eld experiments as well as thought experiments and living labs.