Welcome to Cyborg Campfire

This will be the class blog for Philosophy 215D (Ethics and Technology). The course description is as follows.


Course Description and Objectives: The main goal of this class is to deepen our understanding of the impact of technology on various aspects of human life and experience. Using the works of philosophers, sociologists, and artists as our point of departure, we will critically examine a wide variety of approaches to coming to terms with the “age of technology” in which we live. Topics we will examine include the relationship between humans and machines, the cultural implications of technology, the arts and technology, and the possibility that we are entering a ‘post-human’ age.

Upon completion of this course students should be familiar with, and be able to critically discuss, at least the following themes and ideas:

The relationship between science and technology.
The classical approach to the philosophy of technology represented by Martin Heidegger, Jacques Ellul, and others.
More recent ‘empirical’ accounts of technology.
The worry that technology poses a threat of some kind to ‘human nature.’
The philosophical implications of recent developments in AI technologies.
The transformation of culture by the Internet.
The way that various technologies have impacted the arts.

Texts: 1. Hans Achterhuis, American Philosophy of Technology: The Empirical Turn. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001. 2. Albert Borgmann, Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984.
3. Hubert L. Dreyfus, On the Internet. London: Routledge, 2001. 4. Stanislaw Lem, The Futurological Congress. New York: Continuum, 1974.

Films: Koyaanisquatsi (selected scenes), Metropolis, Robot Stories (selected scenes), Alphaville (selected scenes), The Bride of Frankenstein. These films should be considered the equivalent of course texts. You are responsible for viewing them carefully and critically, and being able to discuss their main themes in detail on tests and quizzes. If you miss a film you must make arrangements to view it outside of class.