技术评估是科学技术发展到现阶段的必然产物。它是为了事先防止科学技术用于社会将发生的种种问题,利用软科学研究开发的成果(即预测方法),对科学技术的社会影响进行综合的、多方面的评价和估计,并提出替代方案。这里的影响,不仅仅包括短期内出现的影响,而且包括范围很广的、长期起作用的影响,特别是间接的、一般难以预料的影响,以及经过长时间后才表现出来的影响。 技术评估已成为工业先进国家七十年代社会政策和科技政策的主要支柱之一。1969年,美国在制订国家环境政策法时,规定要进行环境影响评估,成为世界上第一个把技 Technical assessment is an inevitable outcome of the development of science and technology to this stage. It is designed to prevent the advancement of science and technology in the society in advance and use the results of soft science research and development (ie, forecasting methods) to conduct comprehensive and multi-faceted evaluations and estimates of the social impact of science and technology, and propose alternative solutions. . The impact here includes not only the short-term impacts but also the long-term and widespread effects, especially the indirect and generally unpredictable impacts, as well as the effects that have only been shown after a long time. Technology assessment has become one of the main pillars of social policy and science and technology policy in the advanced industrial countries in the 1970s. In 1969, when the United States formulated the National Environmental Policy Act, it stipulated that an environmental impact assessment should be conducted to become the first technology in the world.