Cover of Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology
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Displaying: 1-9 of 9 documents


1. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology: Volume > 14 > Issue: 2
Sylvia Blad The Impact of 'Anthropotechnology' on Human Evolution
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From the time that they diverged from their common ancestor, chimpanzees and humans have had a very different evolutionary path. It seems obvious that the appearance of culture and technology has increasingly alienated humans from the path of natural selection that has informed chimpanzee evolution. According to philosopher Peter Sloterdijk any type of technology is bound to have genetic effects. But to what extent do genomic comparisons provide evidence for such an impact of ‘anthropotechnology’ on our biological evolution?
2. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology: Volume > 14 > Issue: 2
S. D. Noam Cook Turing, Searle, and the Wizard of Oz: Life and Custom Among the Automata or How Ought We to Assess the Attribution of Capacities of Living Systems to Technological Artefacts?
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Since the middle of the 20th century there has been a significant debate about the attribution of capacities of living systems, particularly humans, to technological artefacts, especially computers—from Turing’s opening gambit, to subsequent considerations of artificial intelligence, to recent claims about artificial life. Some now argue that the capacities of future technologies will ultimately make it impossible to draw any meaningful distinctions between humans and machines. Such issues center on what sense, if any, it makes to claim that gadgets can actually think, feel, act, live, etc. I outline this debate and offer a critique of its persistent polarization. I characterize two of the debate’s major camps (associated roughly with Turing and Searle); argue that the debate’s structure (including key assumptions inherent to each camp) precludes resolution; and, contend that some central clashes within the debate actually stem from an inadequately drawn distinction between claims about the capacities of artifacts and claims about the proper criteria for assessing such attributions. I offer a different perspective in which I: challenge some central elements of the debate that contribute to its perennially irresolvable state; hold that the debate needs to be placed more squarely in sync with how we in fact treat the attribution of such capacities to humans themselves; and, offer (unlike the other two camps) a foothold for making moral assessments of such proposed technologies.
3. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology: Volume > 14 > Issue: 2
Yoni Van Den Eede Collecting Our Lives Online: The Use of Digital Media Seen through the Lens of Collecting Practices
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As we become more and more involved with digital technologies on a daily basis, we are in need of a model to make sense of what we do with and “in” them. Here we analyze the use of digital media by way of a collecting paradigm, since our online activities – centered on selecting, accumulating, organizing, and showing – strongly resemble the practice of collectors. In the first part of the paper, we outline the main traits of collecting practices, and discuss relevant online practices in the light of these traits, thereby tracing the contours of an online “collecting culture.” In the second part, we list the possible underlying causes and motivations for collecting, and investigate how far these explanations also apply to online activity, so offering a preliminary framework for the further study of online practices.
4. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology: Volume > 14 > Issue: 2
José Manuel de Cózar-Escalante Living in a Nanotech Home: Invisibility, Representation and Democratic Oversight of Nanotechnological Developments
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While applying general ethical principles and reasoning to the dilemmas presented by the development of nanotechnology is often useful and always legitimate, we also need to find a way to bridge the gap between general principles and the specific issues that arise from the development of individual nanotechnologies. Drawing inspiration from pragmatist thinking, a useful strategy is to focus on the links between the epistemological, political and social representations of a particular case. Using the example of a nanotechnological house, this paper analyzes the problematic connections between scientific knowledge, technical expertise, decision-making and public engagement in nanotechnology representational networks.
5. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology: Volume > 14 > Issue: 2
Kirsty Best Redefining the Technology of Media: Actor, World, Relation
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As scholars of technology investigate changes to media alongside the growing popularity of the Internet, video games and other media devices, the descriptive characteristics of media themselves have become stretched further and further to accommodate a raft of new content, technologies and distribution platforms. This stretching becomes a problem when it becomes important to conceptually separate the formerly non-mediated communication devices, such as mobile phones, from their re-emergence as media platforms. A clear separation is important for asking questions about what cultural, social, economic and political effects such media encroachment might entail. The current paper attempts such a conceptual distinction.
book reviews
6. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology: Volume > 14 > Issue: 2
Phillippe Verdoux Minds and Computers
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7. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology: Volume > 14 > Issue: 2
Paul B. Thompson Beyond Environmentalism
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8. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology: Volume > 14 > Issue: 2
David Bzdak Shop Class as Soulcraft
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9. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology: Volume > 14 > Issue: 2
Peter Nekola Material Matters
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