Philosophy of Technology

1
Philosophy of Technology

• And Computing

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What is Technology

• As artifact, tool, physical thing
• Hammer
• Computer
• Software?
• Know how
• Fire, Distilling, Steel making PROCESS
• Intellectual property

3
Science vs. Technology

• Technology is
• the handmaiden of science
• the child of the doing of science
• science discovers the rules of nature
• technology provides the payback (harnesses
  science)
• Difference between
• discovering / constructing theory
• using the theory to produce a technology
• steam engine, radio, TV, computer

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Science (theory) vs. Technical (know how)

• Theoretical vs. Technical Knowledge
• Ancient Greeks - Today

Knowledge
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Science vs. Technology

• Science explains,
• why things work
• Technology is how things work,
• how to do

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Pragmatism

• E.g. John Dewey
• Inverts the pyramid
• Theory is NOT Truth
• Theory is not an end in itself, but a means
• Theory is kind of technology

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Heideggers view of technology

• NOT simply a collection of artifacts
• but an all encompassing world view
• "the technological understanding of being."
• A culture's tools and practices define a
  particular way of interacting with the world.
• Epochs
• model of wild nature
• religious world view (middle ages)
• modern world
• technology was designed to stand against nature
  and satisfy desires of autonomous subjects
• new age of technology

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Examples of how technology in the new age
completely "enframes" the world, into a grand
unified system

• Hydroelectric dams
• energy is distributed across population
• everyone reliant on distribution system
• Networked Computers (better fit)
• Information (the ultimate resource)
• Endlessly disaggregated, and redistributed
• The network enframes our entire world
• information about anything can be sent over
  network
• individuals are reduced to resources
• "eyeballs" in the view of internet advertising
  agents.

9
technology seduces us to substitute material
objects for what makes the good life.

• 2 types of technological artifacts
• Focal Things the place for activities that
  define forms of life
• a hearth provided a setting for family life
• Devices hide activity associated with them
• encourage us to think of the good they produce as
  a commodity.
• central heating provides heat, but operation is
  hidden
• we think of the heat merely as a commodity
• not as the focus of a way of life

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Critical Theory and Technology

• Borgmann's antidote for losing our personality to
  hyper-reality is to return to focal activities.
• Focal activities are practices which center our
  attention on the richness of life.
• E.g., the preparation of a well cooked meal
• calls on our skill,
• focuses our attention on the necessities of life,
  
• aesthtic or sacramental communal activity,
• frozen dinners commodify the process of eating.
• Technology can assist in focal activities
• e.g. kitchen implements
• as long as the technology does not become the
  focus

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Marcuse

• Technological thinking leads us to decontextulize
  
• by measuring everything (quantifiable terms), we
  separate ethical from the true
• values are relegated to the subjective
• technological rationality
• Technologies are value neutral
• only uses are good or evil, despite fact that
  uses are shaped by the technologies.
• technology leads to new forms of domination.

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Technology changes thought

• Nature of writing
• fountain pen, typewritten, word processor,
• interpersonal communications letters, telephone,
  e-mail IM.
• Nature of work
• crafts, factory production, new information
  economy.
• relationship to information
• library model of careful selection
• classification, and permanent collections
• information retrieval model of access to
  everything, diversification, and dynamic
  collections.
• All of these changes are disruptive,
• foreclose old practices and provide new
  opportunities.
• Some people are always hurt by shifts, while
  others thrive.

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Human-Computer Interaction

• Bad Design
• The computer becomes the focus rather than the
  focus being practice pursued
• Good Design
• useful, usable, easily learned
• let people do what they want to do
• does not crowd ones focus of attention
• should fade into the background

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Donald Norman (1990)"The Design of Everyday
Things" Good design

• user can figure out what to do
• user can tell what is going on
• use the natural properties of people and the
  world to produce systems whose operation is
  obvious.
• Different features offer different affordances,
• operations that they suggest to the user.
• e.g. ,buttons are for pushing, and knobs are for
  turning
• If everything has obvious function, then little
  instruction is needed.

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John Gould (1988) "How to Design Usable Systems"

• focus on the needs of users from the very start
  of the project.
• four simple principles
• early and continuous focus on users
• early and continual testing
• iterative design as result of testing
• integrated design, all elements develop
  constantly and in coordination

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Pragmatism and design

• Pragmatism knowledge and technology is socially
  situated.
• Dewey scientific theories and logic are tools
  used in a certain social practice.
• better philosophical basis for computer science
  education than the rationalism that underlies
  most training.
• The rationalist attitudes concentrate on logic
  and theory rather than attention to the needs of
  computer users.
• Interface I/O metaphors guide users
• Desktop, folders, menus,