This chapter does not, like others in this Handbook, concern technology development, but rather human development, in the global context. Our understanding of development tends to be one-dimensional, concentrating on economic indices. Development is regarded by some as a measure of economic growth, as measured by GDP (gross domestic product), denoting the total value of a country’s economic production or GNI (gross national income), the World Bank economic indicator formerly known as GDP.

Even this classification is problematic: for example, income is not coterminous with development (World Bank, 2013) and GDP by itself is not necessarily a good indicator of economic sustainability (SIDS Outcome, 2013). Development is also denoted by the presence of other human development indicators (HDI), which include life expectancy at birth. One catalogue of development desiderata is represented by the Millennium Development Goals, which were agreed by the UN in 2000 as the most pressing goals to achieve, namely to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and enable global partnership for development.

Finally, development can be measured by the ability of citizens to realize their innate capabilities. Following Sen (1995) and Nussbaum (2000), one might sum up development in this way: once anyone anywhere on the planet has the basic human capabilities, they can exert their creativity to even higher reaches of capability and functioning. These are defined as: ‘1. Life, 2. Bodily health, 3. Bodily integrity, 4. Senses, Imagination, and Thought, 5. Emotions, 6. Practical reason, 7. Affiliation, 8. Other Species, 9. Play, 10. Control over One’s Environment a. political, b. material’ (Nussbaum, 2000).