#CfP #Cities by #Night : The #PhilosophyOfTheCityJournal is looking for submissions by 31 January 2024. More information: https://ugp.rug.nl/potcj/announcement #PhilosophyOfTheCity #PhilosophyOfTechnology

#AI #Weizenbaum #Chatbots #PhilosophyOfTechnology: "Artificial intelligence, he came to believe, was an “index of the insanity of our world.”

Today, the view that artificial intelligence poses some kind of threat is no longer a minority position among those working on it. There are different opinions on which risks we should be most worried about, but many prominent researchers, from Timnit Gebru to Geoffrey Hinton – both ex-Google computer scientists – share the basic view that the technology can be toxic. Weizenbaum’s pessimism made him a lonely figure among computer scientists during the last three decades of his life; he would be less lonely in 2023.

There is so much in Weizenbaum’s thinking that is urgently relevant now. Perhaps his most fundamental heresy was the belief that the computer revolution, which Weizenbaum not only lived through but centrally participated in, was actually a counter-revolution. It strengthened repressive power structures instead of upending them. It constricted rather than enlarged our humanity, prompting people to think of themselves as little more than machines. By ceding so many decisions to computers, he thought, we had created a world that was more unequal and less rational, in which the richness of human reason had been flattened into the senseless routines of code.

Weizenbaum liked to say that every person is the product of a particular history. His ideas bear the imprint of his own particular history, which was shaped above all by the atrocities of the 20th century and the demands of his personal demons. Computers came naturally to him. The hard part, he said, was life."

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/25/joseph-weizenbaum-inventor-eliza-chatbot-turned-against-artificial-intelligence-ai

#Introduction : I just moved to this server. I am a #Philosopher working at the @utwente at the intersection of #PhiloosophyOfTheCity and #PhilosophyOfTechnology . I have a special interest in #design and, thus, are part of the #SiG #DesignEthics in the #DesignResearch society, and - finally - I am interested in the role of #AI and #Robotics in #cities and in #HumanitarianAid .

I totally fell in love with Lewis Mumford's #essay on "Authoritarian and Democratic Technics"

A timeless piece on how the insatiable, ideological drive behind Science and Tech has created a system that strips us away from our humanity & disconnects us from each other.

His solution? Redesign tech & cut the system back so that there's space for our human autonomy and intervention.

Also a good #DIY + tech manifesto; and great prose 🖤

#philosophy #philosophyoftechnology
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3101118

Who should I follow if I want to learn about the #philosophyoftechnology ?

I see that doing an #introduction is a thing. So here goes:

I am a Dane living in #Vienna as of August '22, working at an International School.

I have a background in academic #philosophy, specialising in #PhilosophyofTechnology (#VirtualReality and Digital Existence in particular) and German (post)idealism.

I used to work for a while in Danish politics (#dkpol) as well as in #SocialHousing (which satisfied my #architecture interest)

Also into #dnd + board and videogames

End of 1st toot.

hi everyone; here's my short #introduction ⤵️

I'm an engineer & philosopher of technology who works as a researcher & lecturer at the University of Twente (the Netherlands).

I'm also a community-based #climate and #environmental activist.

My work centers on the intersection of Internet use and the climate movement.

+ info about my research:
https://patyt.net/research/
https://people.utwente.nl/p.d.reyes

#philosophy
#philosophyoftechnology
#ethicsoftechnology
#academic
#activism
#climatechange

@vortex_egg

I'm trying to think about it in terms of system dynamics and feedback loops.

This is a very solid approach, and addresses technology's impacts on society and civilisation.

There's also the questions of what technology IS and how it operates, neither of which seem to be well-formed that I can tell. I'm increasingly frustrated that there seems not to be a good philosophy or theory of technology generally. (Ellul, Foucault, Heidigger, Mumford, Schumpeter, and a few others try, though I find it weak sauce despite some good points). But definition and mechanism both address the good/evil/neutral question.

The work I keep returning to, and finding despite some weaknesses (very dry & technical) compelling strengths (excellent organisation and reasoning) is Michael and Joyce Heusemann's Techno-Fix. It's by technologists, though critical ones, and looks specifically to mechanism.

Links and some earlier discussion of mine:

http://newtechnologyandsociety.org/
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780865717046
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SDbmJh8uSAY
https://archive.org/details/scm-33066-michaelhuesemanntechno-fixwhyt
https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/21pc8c/michael_joyce_heusemann_technofix_why_technology/

#technology #TheoryOfTechnology #PhilosophyOfTechnology #TechnoFix #Heusemann #MichaelHeusemann #JoyceHeusemann #TechOntology