Futurists of the World Takes on Philosophy
How can we use a Philosophical mindset when talking about technology?
This open room was a continuation of our interview with Sylvia Gallusser from our Twitter Spaces. She has a fascination with Philosophy, and has been exploring the interception with futures for a while. She wanted to spark a conversation with other like minded people, or with anyone who was listening from the audience. This session had a slight interest in technology, how we moved in life, and how we can better interpret it for the future. There were three main questions that Sylvia proposed throughout the hour, and we captured the essence of what was said.
So, here’s a quick recap of a few things we talked about:
How do you think about technology? Is it an object, an activity, a field of knowledge, or is it an interpretation of the world?
During the conversation, different speakers gave their own opinion to this question. To some, it is an object that is used as a tool that can improve a task. In the early human development, sticks and stones were the technology, as was steam for another generation, the industrial revolution for another, and as the digital age is for us. To others, it is an enabler that influenced society, and how it changed our way of living. To another, technology is the reflection where we are heading as a society. In the end, we have realized that a word that we always use on a daily uses, but don’t really understand the many meanings behind it.
Is technology neutral or not?
- Instrumentalism- Society creates and uses technology only as a tool.
- Determinism- Technology determines society, it shapes how we live.
Most of the individuals leaned towards determinism because of how much technology has influenced the way that we live now. Someone mentioned how it was much more as a tool at the the early stages when people were able to experiment the technology in a variety of ways, before it was able to influence the user back. Now, we are seeing a shift back to designing and building such technology with human experience in mind. Will we see a world where Instrumentalism will be the norm? One participant says we are already are in that kind of society.
Should we consider philosophy as a unity more theoretically, or do you think we should keep the difference fields of technology separately when trying to understand our life?
This was a question that we didn’t get to, but definitely listen to what Sylvia was talking about, and see if you can provide your own thoughts after listening!
In the end, we had a room full of techno-optimist who believed that technology is a good thing for our world. Of course there are a few hiccups here and there, but we believe that a lot of people already know the negative impact that technology can have, but also know of the positivism that it can bring. How do you think about philosophy, technology, and futures thinking together?
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Credit: Sylvia Gallusser, Monica Mendez Caballero, Gordon Withrow, Tom Meyers, Deepshikha Yadav, Daniel Steiche, Hannelie Venucia, Emmanuelle Naranjo, and Victor Sarat
This is a short recap of an audio-only conversation that was held in Clubhouse on October 8th, 2021.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
