PHI 111

by Daniela Peckova Watanabe

[futuristicphilosophy]

“Cultural and Ethical Issues in Science and Technology”

Taking the course “Cultural and Ethical Issues in Science and Technology” has given me an awareness of the online surveillance issue and data as a commodity. The course made me think about how technology can connect people from completely different backgrounds opening worlds of possibilities but that at the same time the same technology is only democratic when is available to everyone. Making groundbreaking devices like the “Google Glass” can change our everyday life, but devices that cost over a $1000 create an even bigger social gap when not available to everyone. And when this device can film and photograph you without warning another issue is created, your right to privacy is broken. We learned how social ties are used to build degrees of comfort in us while our data is collected for resale. Also, we discussed how misogynism and racism can be imprinted in digital designs, and by bringing thought and discussing these causes we can make sure they are thought of when we developing a new project. I learned to think about the philosophy and social issues that new technologies can create. Technology is power, to rule over another, now we have voice and access to educate ourselves and stand up for regulations.

[futuristicphilosophy]

Color-blind in design and marketing

The concept of color-blind being imprinted in the design of websites and facial recognition devices is quite appalling, it means certain races are not being thought of when a product is being developed. As an example by the Complex magazine article, the Apple watch “Perhaps the biggest hardware release since the iPhone, gadget enthusiasts everywhere highly anticipated the Apple Watch’s release. One of its noteworthy features is the heart rate monitor, which uses a device called the "pulse oximeter" that emits infrared light through a user's wrist to measure the oxidation of their blood. The oximeter determines a user's heart rate based on how much light is absorbed through the skin and blood cells. The problem with this technology, however, is that it doesn’t work on dark or tattooed skin.” My personal experience working in marketing campaigns as a model has led me to realize how the white skin tone is portrait as glamorous in Asia, relating tanned with the hard work in the fields and white as someone who works in an office. From 10 years ago to now things got so much better in Japan, a market that wasn’t welcoming to dark skin people in campaigns, recently opened a few doors, at first I was told I was too tanned to model in Tokyo but eventually I worked pretty good for local magazines. In New York the marketing campaigns enforce diversity and I would say it’s the best time to be an Asian model in the United States. 

[futuristicphilosophy]

Digital Divide

Only being online doesn’t eliminate social exclusion. In history, Imperialist countries had technology advantages and wealth that made it possible for them to rule over others. The internet has shifted the power to the private sector which can lead to new forms of colonialism and that’s when we talk about methods of surveillance through unregulated and undisclosed data collection or the use of technologies that would be available only to certain groups. The article ”Want to Predict the Future of Surveillance? Ask Poor Communities.” explains "Data is the new oil. Beyond collecting information, it also means gathering power," argues Joana Varon Ferraz, a researcher from the Center of Technology and Society at Fundação Getúlio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, "Every government has become catholic." Catholic political and commercial systems foster defiance. We don't necessarily resist because we've done something wrong. We resist because surveillance is not just about privacy; it is about power, control, self-determination, and autonomy.

The article “Digital Surveillance is Class Warfare” stated how data can be used in a non-democratic way ”Madden said—Facebook recently presented research to advertisers on how the platform can identify depressed teens—or to train algorithms which could eventually be used to discriminate against these groups; for example, when deciding insurance premiums or bail eligibility. “

Digital inclusion is important because it means giving a fair chance to minorities or lower classes, it’s not about giving tools it is showing how to use them. It’s using surveillance to improve our security but disclosing it, regulating it and spreading it in all sectors and not only using to protect higher classes and the private sector. There is no way back, the article continues offering the solution “There are alternatives to disengagement. Brazil and Germany introduced a joint resolution to the UN condemning the member countries of what is unofficially known as the Five Eyes Alliance-the U.S., the U.K., New Zealand, Canada, and Australia-for massive electronic surveillance and infringement of human rights. The EU is developing a General Data Protection Regulation that would unify data protection under a single European law. The BRICS cable, a 21,000 mile, 12.8 Terabyte per second fiber system connecting Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and Miami-is creating an alternative data pipeline to lower the cost of communication among major economies of the global south and provide non-U.S. routes for world communications.” Public opinion counts and can make changes if everyone pushes to, it did in 1968 when politicians that supported the war were looked upon, budgets weren’t approved to fund the war and the US eventually withdraw from Vietnam.

[futuristicphilosophy]

Equality

Gender equality on the internet is both part of the problem and the solution because it where women can disseminate their thoughts, launch businesses and protest for equal salaries, the internet does give voice and independence, but if we think deeper we can see that the problem starts in the platforms used. The whole world is controlled by coding and according to the International Data Corporation (IDC), only 0.26% of the population knows it, mostly men. GitHub a leading software platform says, Java’s female proficient percentage is only 2.5%. Also, most of the funding in Silicon Valley goes to companies led by men, according to Fortune in 2018 only 2.2% of the founder who got venture capital money were women. As in race or gender, I’m for equality, the same opportunities and salaries being given based on value and effort. We can too appreciate the differences between genders where men or women can have some advantages in doing certain tasks but when it comes to men and women seeking employment or funding with the same set of skills, they should have the same opportunities and salaries offered. And that’s for Hollywood actors, trash collectors, coders, and CEOs. I believe gender equality is an attitude that starts inside of our homes, it’s a revolution that has been going on for a while. We can’t say it is a reality in the majority of the countries but it’s a reality in many households where mom and dad decides and provides, it is something currently discussed deeply in the US and so it’s a trend that might be implemented globally eventually if we keep enforcing it.

References and further readings:

https://www.infoq.com/news/2014/01/IDC-software-developers/

http://www.idc.com/research/viewtoc.jsp?containerId=244709

https://medium.com/angels-news/silicon-valleys-equity-gap-women-own-just-9-29159f40a17

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/magazine/women-coding-computer-programming.html

https://www.womenwhocode.com

https://fortune.com/2019/01/28/funding-female-founders-2018/

[futuristicphilosophy]

Self-enhancement Technologies

In the article “Enhancement Technologies and the Modern Self” by Carl Elliot from the University of Minnesota, Elliot argues that “The more skin lightening cream that is sold, the more stigmatized dark skin will become”(p.367). It’s not the cream that should be forbidden or the technology but the people that should be educated. It’s already happening for a while and it took over two thousand years to be where we are so it will not change overnight. 

Carl Elliot continues “Being in touch with your inner feelings, desires and aspirations have become essential for self-fulfillment, and self-fulfillment has become a necessary component of a meaningful life. If you are not fulfilled, your life is not measuring up to the promise of what a human life could be. “(p.370)

It might be true that it is easier to be a fulfilled person by self-acceptance than by technology enhancement interventions but when we see more severe cases of people being helped by such interventions as medication for depression, plastic surgeries or even mechanic body parts, we see that technology is not the problem. It is the measure; as a popular Brazilian saying said: “the difference between the poison and the medicine is the dosage.” Regulations will have to say when is too much and when the leaders lose track everyone will pay the price and nature will retaliate and teach us the lesson. Only our morals can save us.

What worries me is the accessibility and advantages the technology gives certain classes over others. For example, coding being used to control basically everything in the world but only a few percentages of the population being able to read it. Like coding, self-enhancing technologies should be democratic and available to all.

[futuristicphilosophy]

WEB 3.0

It seems utopian to think just optimistically about the internet as a positive force for change in our society. In my thoughts, the future is a mix of both, mostly good, just like human nature. Everything that happens in face to face communities will be intensified in online communities. 

At this point it is unrealistic to think of social media disappearing from everyone’s life; as humans are more and more lonely and businesses have been profiting a lot from social media. In this week’s topic, we came to the conclusion that what needs to be clarified is what would we like the internet to do for us?

Feenberg says technology is ‘co-constructed’ by the social forces it organizes and unleashes (p.3) the technology is a terrain of struggle and according to the Ethan Zuckerman’s report “Six or Seven Things Social Media Can Do For Democracy” our struggle is that there’s a new urgency to create a metric that will give us better social media,  and he says “I am concerned that we’ve not had a robust conversation about what we want social media to do for us.”

The internet is the most democratic thing that ever happened to humanity, the free exchange of information. 

Never we had collected so much data to know about human behavior and yes it is affecting us on so many levels but so it did everything that happened in history. We will evolve and the techno-social system will change us. What I recently learned is what democratic things social media can do for us, for example, democratically informing us, amplifying important voices and issues, being a tool for connection and solidarity, a space for mobilization, show a diversity of views and perspectives, a space for deliberation and debate, a space for democratically governed spaces. I say we want more democratic web 3.0.

web 1.0 free exchange of information.

web 2.0 the social rise of communication in the early 2000s.

web 3.0 the internet as a form of social cooperation.

[futuristicphilosophy]

Democracy in technology.

Feenberg argues that democratic participation in the design of technology is very important for bringing in new and under-represented social interests, it’s hard to question that everyone could benefit from more inclusive institutions that are creating the new technologies. Internet is a technology that brought more equality and gave voice to minorities, in fact, it might be the most democratic thing that ever happened. Feenberg is right to believe that democracy might lead to significant transformations because only through giving voice we might know where the problems lie and what technologies can be created to solve those problems. Through giving voice we would also be able to know which problems are affecting a bigger group of people. The internet is the technology that through data collection is letting companies know what we like since so much data is being collected, companies might also ask what our real problems are so they can monetize while helping us as a society. Redesigning technology to be more fair and inclusive seems like a perpetual activity as it is the development of new technologies itself. 

[futuristicphilosophy]

The Technology Question in Feminism

Society qualities and issues are inherent in product designs, it’s a reflection of our times. In terms of designs and how products get made I expect equality, appreciating the differences between sexes. We don’t have to be the same to be equal, we can have different strengths and technology can help us to compensate for our weaknesses between sexes or we can have something specifically designed only for men and that’s ok too. I hope women get equal pays in technology and equal opportunities but through capacity and not only to reach feminism goals. We have come so far through the sacrifice of so many. It seems a mere luxury to think of how products can be designed equally, for me, it’s more about what goes behind the scenes of technology. In the factories of underdeveloped countries. I hope technology can help women to feel safe and I hope women use technology to gain their financial freedom. In my homeland Brazil there is an app called “lady driver” that is designed to keep women safe, it’s Uber only for females. I hope women come to be so equal in terms of opportunities that gender is no longer a subject. 

[futuristicphilosophy]

Week 3 Actor-Network Theory and Sismondo’s Objections

The four objections to Actor-Network Theory (ANT) Sismondo lists are: “Practices and Culture” as our beliefs affect simply every idea “Problem of Agency” as a network might include other marginalized roles intentionalities. “Problems of Realism” as even though things were not yet discovered by scientists they might already exist and it's not the act of finding our that makes them exist. “Problem of the Stability of Objects and Actions” our judgments define and limit possibly hiding many layers of expert judgments.

All objections are valid but “Practices and Culture” is the most serious objection because what limits us is our beliefs, sometimes limiting us to see the truth even when we try to think rationally. Whether we realize or not our thoughts contain a combination of beliefs and cultural background ideas. Only a machine that doesn’t have feelings would be able to be clear of this objection. It seems like the Actor-Network Theory is right saying that men are becoming one with technology but putting both at the same level is not accurate as man does differ and is not coming from a clear state but full of culture, humanity, and feelings.  It's inherent to the scientist. That might be technology’s advantage over humans or not. Even if ANT doesn’t make fully realistic assumptions they still raise an import discussion.

[futuristicphilosophy]

Week 2- We can’t blame technology.

Technology is intertwined with the man itself as we were born with enough intelligence to look for solutions. It’s helpful to think about the essence of technology because as Feenberg says “it is by no means irrelevant to a modern world armed with nuclear weapons and controlled by vast technology-based organizations.”  Nuclear power is the best example of the importance to reflect on the “essence” of technology. In the past technology made it possible for nations smaller in the territory and population like Japan to rule over China or England to conquer North American territories. Technology doesn’t seem to be the problem, it is the man behind it that can lack values and morals or be to power-driven.

Borgman does have a valid point when he says that focal things require a certain effort and as an example, he cites fast food and microwaves killing the unity of family that are ritually reaffirmed each evening and is also valid when he says individual involvement with nature and other human has been reduced to a minimum and procession became the highest values but without disagreeing with Borgman and Heideggers I believe their theories do not offer real solutions as Feenberg said “some critique is so broad it offers no criteria for the constructive reform of technology itself. “ On the other hand, I do feel more connected to my family and old friends living overseas because of technology.

Feenberg seems to be coming from a more neutral point when he says we can’t understand technology through nostalgia; there is so much we have gained from technology that seems too nostalgic to focus on what we have lost. We chose technology every day, technology is about moving forward, and striving for the best, and doesn’t come without a price. Nothing that it was will be, we need to stand up for regulations on technologies; and on traditions and family ties,  we just might need another technology to fix the problems raised by Borgman and Heidegger.

[futuristicphilosophy]

Week 1

Every technology is destined to obsolesce, it’s a vicious cycle of replacement for a more efficient means to something. When Schadewalt says ‘we have taken the man out of nature, placed him over and against it' he is right but that too shall pass. It seems that we are so advanced as we had more innovation in the last 50 years than ever, much more than in the 500 years during Dark Ages but in reality, there is so much we still don’t know, quantum mechanics is kind of new also the study of Astronomy reveals how much is to be discovered. The future might bring new technologies that will humble mankind as we learn that we are the best technology ever created, maybe we will be able to prove that we have a physical body but also energetic ones that extend further. The word “nature” has evolved as men separated itself from it, the next technologies might unify these two again.