Technology constantly poses us challenges. The opportunities it offers come with dangers attached. Social media encourage envy and depression when we see the fun activities our friends are enjoying, cell phones distract us from work with their readily available games, and the internet contributes to fragmenting society into epistemically isolated groups almost incapable of dialogue. All disciplines have responded to these problems with research aimed at overcoming the tests. Among the solutions offered are counseling for technology dependency, regulations for the information that can be shared, technology-free zones, and a focus on developing technology that serves needs rather than desires.
Philosophy has responded with ethical codes for technology use, theories about what technology is, methods for studying technology, and discussions about how technology changes fields like epistemology, metaphysics, ontology, and politics. Yet these ideas often come in response to new technologies and the problems they create, rather than the ideas guiding the development of technologies. It is clear why humans want to create new technologies, but including more deliberation at all steps of the process will reduce the harms we must deal with. Here are some papers whose ideas can help us out.
- Renato Dos Santos, “On the Philosophy of Bitcoin/Blockchain Technology: Is it a Chaotic, Complex System?” Metaphilosophy, October 2017.
- Robert Rosenberger, “Notes on a Nonfoundational Phenomenology of Technology,” Foundations of Science, September 2017.
- Marc Van den Bossche, “Releasement and Nihilism in the Art of Living with Technology,” Foundations of Science, June 2017.
- Yoni Van Den Eede, Gert Goeminne, and Marc Van den Bossche, “The Art of Living with Technology: Turning Over Philosophy of Technology’s Empirical Turn,” Foundations of Science, June 2017.
- Gui Cao, “Comparison of China-US Engineering Ethics Educations in Sino-Western Philosophies of Technology,” Science & Engineering Ethics, December 2015.
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