Towards a Philosophy of Technology
Some early thoughts
Much of this Substack has been the result of exploring various aspects of technology and philosophy, all in the hopes of pushing the philosophy of technology forward.
The following are some working notes that have both informed previous posts and will inspire future ones.
Consider this a version of working with the garage door open, in the hopes of implanting some mind viruses in others and being similarly infected by anyone else so inspired.
10 early thoughts from exploring philosophy and technology
1. Technology is philosophy made real. Every innovator defines a version of “the good” and uses technology to make that definition real.
2. Every technological problem is becoming a planetary problem as technology and ecology have become two sides of the same planetary face.
3. The limiting factor in solving planetary challenges is not technological limitation but our incapacity to coordinate.
4. Democracy in its current forms seems increasingly less capable of generating something beyond capitalism that is big enough to become technology's guide and judge.
5. Evolution as a paradigm of adaptation loses salience as trial-and-error becomes increasingly less viable as a mechanism for adapting advanced technology. We need new paradigms.
6. Our sci-fi authors can't seem to imagine a viable future that combines advanced tech with a flourishing humanity. What if such a future is unimaginable because it is in fact impossible?
7. The accelerating rate of technological change defies emergence by exceeding the carrying capacity of previous hierarchical substrates and preventing new thermodynamically stable equilibria from forming.
8. We need a new myth of technology that rightly situates the human between nature and technology and puts all three in service of life itself. Increasing the universe's capacity to convert free energy into entropy is not sufficient.
9. Upon reaching a minimally advanced threshold, all technological questions converge on the religious. e.g. What, if anything, is sacred about the human? Should anything constrain the technological pursuit of immortality? What is technology even for?
10. Only technology can save us. The dead gaze of the machine staring back at us will become the forcing function we need to collectively resolve the death of god.
Ok, stopping at 10 before this becomes another 3,000 word post.
Which of these do you find the most compelling?
"The dead gaze of the machine staring back at us will become the forcing function we need to collectively resolve the death of god." - a very interesting problem!
For science fiction writers, I recommend Stanislaw Lem, who proposed an interesting measure of a civilization’s advancement: eventually, all advanced civilizations send their waste into the nearest star. This represents a technology that coexists with a thriving humanity/civilisation.
Thanks for implanting some mind viruses.