Cultural Practices Questions
1. Discuss the cultural context of something in your blog.
In Wang Qingsong’s art titled “Work, Work, Work”, the artist shows the theatrics around working an office job. In society, a person's worth is based on how much money they can earn, and in effect, how much can someone work? The artist makes the argument that the rapid shift in industrialization is having negative effects on the individuals making up pieces in the giant puzzle, and if the basic human needs should be worth less than the work you can put in?
2. What are intrinsic vs instrumental notions of technology. Use an example from your blog.
Heidegger has three claims about technology:
technology is “not an instrument”, it is a way of understanding the world;
technology is “not a human activity”, but develops beyond human control;
technology is “the highest danger”, risking us to only see the world through technological thinking.
I do not agree with all of Heidegger’s claims. I agree that technology is “not an instrument” but in my opinion it goes beyond “understanding the world.” Technology at its basic is a tool used by humanity, and can be used without understanding. Does riding a bike let you understand the world? No, I would argue that technology is an improvement in life that allows humanity to progress as a species. I agree with the statement “technology is not a human activity.” It “develops beyond human control.” Humanity as a species learns and adapts through mistakes and trials. Technology is about taking our experiences as a species and using them in meaningful ways to develop and improve. I agree with the statement technology is “the highest danger.” As my opinion before, technology is a tool for humanity, and there are rational and irrational fears around what technology can cause. An example of this is in the technological advancement of dynamite; it was designed as a mining tool but ended up being used to murder other humans.
Instrumental technologies are a means to an end; you use something till it breaks.
Intrinsic technologies are valued by someone for its own sake; such as creating happiness for others.
An example of this is artificial intelligence. AI is being used by humanity to automate tasks that humans normally would have to do, and more efficiently. This means that difficult tasks that were very menial for a person can be automated and taken for granted. AI is a means to an end: It's used to automate something or perform a task til that task no longer needs to be completed. But AI has changed how we understand ourselves and the world; is it ethical to make an intelligent machine work under us? Will artificial intelligence become better than humans, completely replacing the people it was designed to replace?
3. In regards to your engagement in your course of study, what sort of technologies are you interested in developing?
My technological focus is in automation; I am a lazy person and would rather write a script to spawn trees on a landscape than manually place them. To develop this I have been taking courses in artificial intelligence and studying it in my own time.
4. What systems does your tech example rely on or engage with?
Artificial intelligence uses cybernetic systems to achieve a goal; the difference between artificial intelligence and normal programs is the ability to analyse and self-improve. Artificial Intelligence must be trained to perform a task, like a human. It has a goal that will be affected by the environment, but also correct itself and learn how to perform the goal more efficiently. Object Orientated Ontology (OOO) is also used as artificial intelligence can operate beyond what humans can conceptualize. The AI is programmed using object-orientated languages and follows the systems of objects and classes.
5. What ethical ‘issues’ might be relevant to your example?
With artificial intelligence, a common theme in the media is that artificial intelligence will eventually develop beyond humanity and threaten our human race. This is a misconception but is an interesting look into what could happen when AI designed to replace humans in menial tasks will grow to replace humanity at everything. But is humanity really a system of goals in a object-orientated world? I believe artificial intelligence will never replace humanity due to what being human means; being unique. Every person is different and will perform tasks different to each other, in ways that artificial intelligence can not grow to learn or predict in all cases. The simple AIs that we have in the modern day do not have the capability to evolve in the same way that humans have and are limited in the amount of data we give them. Artificial intelligence is biased to the data that can be given to it, and runs on vulnerable technology that is subject to sudden change or catastrophic failure.
Qingsong, W. (2012). Work, Work, Work [Photograph]. C-type print, courtesy of the artist.