Enjoyed this. Totally agree that we need to reconnect technology with philosophy. The connection is there (and has always been), but we often miss what’s right in front of us.
One of the best things about the recent developments in AI has been the way it’s brought this connection to the forefront in more obvious ways.
Thanks Josh. I agree, and that's why I call AI the perfect "forcing function" for philosophy. It's a unique opportunity for philosophy to be an active agent in the discourse, but the window is closing.
Are there historical parallels when philosophers proactively engaged with an emerging technology to get ahead of the conversation? Maybe the bio-ethics movement of the 90s and early 2000s? It makes me wonder if there are lessons to be learned.
Unfortunately most/all of Western philosophers are trapped in the left brained spirit-killing paradigm of the Emissary as described or pointed to by Iain McGilchrist in his book The Master & His Emissary.
As such they can hardly even begin to really see and feel and therefore do anything about the multi-dimensional meta-crisis that is now occurring.
The thus created death-saturated world machine is intrinsically hostile towards the health and well-being of all living-breathing-feeling life forms.
But even so various other philosophers and social critics have been describing the origins and historical developments of what Lewis Mumford called the Invisible Megamachine that now (and then too) controls and patterns every minute fraction of modern civilization.
Mumford, Ellul, Maritain, Postman, Illich etc etc.
At another level both Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, and George Orwell were describing and warning us about the nature of the emerging collective nightmare. We are now living in a time and place wherein both the thus predicted nightmares, and the thus disintegration of civilization can be watched in full color on your TV. And even gleefully aggravated and participated in via various social-media platforms.
Enjoyed this. Totally agree that we need to reconnect technology with philosophy. The connection is there (and has always been), but we often miss what’s right in front of us.
One of the best things about the recent developments in AI has been the way it’s brought this connection to the forefront in more obvious ways.
Thanks Josh. I agree, and that's why I call AI the perfect "forcing function" for philosophy. It's a unique opportunity for philosophy to be an active agent in the discourse, but the window is closing.
Are there historical parallels when philosophers proactively engaged with an emerging technology to get ahead of the conversation? Maybe the bio-ethics movement of the 90s and early 2000s? It makes me wonder if there are lessons to be learned.
Unfortunately most/all of Western philosophers are trapped in the left brained spirit-killing paradigm of the Emissary as described or pointed to by Iain McGilchrist in his book The Master & His Emissary.
As such they can hardly even begin to really see and feel and therefore do anything about the multi-dimensional meta-crisis that is now occurring.
The thus created death-saturated world machine is intrinsically hostile towards the health and well-being of all living-breathing-feeling life forms.
But even so various other philosophers and social critics have been describing the origins and historical developments of what Lewis Mumford called the Invisible Megamachine that now (and then too) controls and patterns every minute fraction of modern civilization.
Mumford, Ellul, Maritain, Postman, Illich etc etc.
At another level both Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, and George Orwell were describing and warning us about the nature of the emerging collective nightmare. We are now living in a time and place wherein both the thus predicted nightmares, and the thus disintegration of civilization can be watched in full color on your TV. And even gleefully aggravated and participated in via various social-media platforms.