Philosophy & Ethics of Technology
Welcome back to my blog!.
So I was listening to one of my lecturer’s podcast (Waseem Akhtar) and It’s called "Philosophy & Ethics of Technology" with Professor Peter-Paul Verbeek. Professor Peter-Paul Verbeek is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Technology at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Twente. He is chair of the Philosophy of Human-Technology Relations research group and co-director of the DesignLab of the University of Twente. He is also honorary professor of Techno-Anthropology at Aalborg University, Denmark and is chairperson of the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology (COMEST). His research focuses on the philosophy of human-technology relations, and aims to contribute to philosophical theory, ethical reflection, and practices of design and innovation.
So Professor Peter-Paul started by talking about the history and development of Technology. He says people are threatened by technology and this is because it has an impact on how we live our lives. As soon as we started using the writing technology, it had a great impact on our memories and it got pholosophers really worried. He says technology is an opportunity to re-invent ourselves. Professor Paul-Peter defined Philosophy of Technology as a sub-field of Philosophy. It helps to understand what technology is and how we can ask the right questions about technology and evaluate it. He stated that technology is a way of thinking about the world, where the world becomes a manipulative object, and we become the manipulative subject. Technology differentiates human beings from animals and it helps to shape how we live our lives.
Professor Paul-Peter also talked about mediation being a way to express our technology, like the means or medium that we use to express technology, For example, if you think that technology is a will to power, the medium and means of technology will show that. On one hand, you think you’re in control of technology, next minute, you see it taking over you, this is where ethics of technology comes in. Ethics of technology helps to shape our ideas and interaction of technology. He used the Anastasia as an example. Its a good technology that has helped people to be operated on without feeling pains.
He emphasized that we need to understand the principles and ethics regarding robots, we need to evaluate it from with-in and understand it more deeply how it can impact our lives. Robots shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for humans. It’s not about asking if they should be allowed in our society, instead we should figure out what values we need to follow, when we give them a place in our society. People thinking we will become slaves to technology is science fiction, and it’s not bad if technology is smarter than humans. For example, a human would prefer working with a shovel than using their hands to dig. So the question is, how can we deal with Technology and Artificial Intelligence? How can we make it explainable and avoid the ideas of being biased and naive?
Dear Humans, we need technology to have the power we do not possess, to fill up the incomplete spaces. We should see technology as mediators and not replacement for us because we are involved in appriopriating technology. I think we shouldn’t be scared of how technology evolves, instead, we should see it as a way of making life easier for us. We need to start by having discipline and ethics to prevent technology from taking over us humans, once we have this, technology shouldnt be something we should be scared about. Therefore, lets embrace technology and accept it into our lives.
