The 25th anniversary of TAB was celebrated with a diverse programme on the topic of »Human-Machine-Interaction« in the foyer of the Paul-Löbe-Haus of the German Bundestag. After the opening by the President of the Bundestag, Professor Norbert Lammert, and an introduction by the Chairwoman of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment, Patricia Lips, the parliamentary rapporteurs of the four parliamentary groups in the Bundestag first discussed the benefits and use of TA from the point of view of the MP and the parliamentary groups, before Professor Armin Grunwald introduced the thematically oriented part of the celebratory event.

The topic "man-machine interface" was not only the subject of an ongoing TA project, but had also been occupying the KIT Institute of Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) as operator of TAB for quite some time. Current and future neurotechnological possibilities, their societal benefits, but also possible risks are - from a theoretical and practical perspective - the subject of the discussion panel "Cyborgs and Machine-Humans - Between Therapy and Utopia", moderated by science journalist Volkart Wildermuth. In addition to Armin Grunwald, Professor Christiane Woopen, Chair of the German Ethics Council, Professor Tanja Schultz, Chair of Cognitive Systems at the University of Bremen, and Professor Thomas Stieglitz, Chair of Biomedical Microtechnology at the University of Freiburg, represented the scientific community. Enno Park, chairman of Cyborgs e.V., Karl Heinz Ammon, user of a state-of-the-art myoelectric arm prosthesis, and Martin Pusch from Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH contributed the view of developers and users.

A musical-virtual "introduction" to the topic was provided by the artistic action "The Invisible Drumset", developed and performed by the duo "Christopher Rumble" (Berlin/Dresden) and Dr. Marc Bangert from the Dresden Institute for Musicians' Medicine. The performance combined findings from neurotechnological research with high-tech and cultural-artistic transformation and was intended to symbolize both the multidimensionality of technology assessment and the wide-ranging interest of politics.

Further Information

• Programme (PDF)
• 25 years of scientific policy advice. Report and recording of the event on the website of the German Bundestag
• Ceremonial event on the archive pages of the ABFTA of the 18th legislative period)
• 25 years of scientific policy advice - Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag. Commemorative publication on the event with speeches and pictures of the event as well as the minutes of the plenary session on the occasion of the anniversary (105 pages, German, PDF)
• Recording and minutes of the
  155th plenary session of 18.02.2016 TOP 6: 25 years of technology assessment at the German Bundestag.
• Press release of the KIT
• 25 YEARS of TAB - Celebration event with the topic "Human-Machine-Interaction". TAB-Fokus Nr. 10 (German)
• Project Human-Machine interaction

Recording of the event