WEEK 7

HUMAN FLOURISHING IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

PHILOSOPHY- The study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as
existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind and language.

Branches of Philosophy
1. Natural Philosophy
2. Moral Philosophy-
3. Metaphysical philosophy
4.
MARTIN HEIDEGGER (1889-1976)
v German philosopher whose work is associated with phenomology and existentialism.
v His ideas have exerted influence on the development of contemporary European
philosophy.
v His best-known work is Being and Time (1927). He gave a very impressive analysis of
human existence, the prominence of the important themes of existentialism like care,
anxiety, guilt and above all death is brought out here.
v He begins “The Question Concerning Technology” by examining the relationship
between human and technology, a relationship Heidegger calls a free relationship. If this
relationship is free, it opens our human existence to the essence of technology”. This
essence of technology, however, has nothing to do with technology. Rather, as
Heidegger suggests, ‘The essence of a thing is considered to be what the thing is.”
v Heidegger examines two definitions of technology. Firstly, he offers that “Technology is
a means to an end”(Instrumental definition). Secondly, he proposes that “Technology is
a human activity (Anthropological definition).

The Question Concerning Technology

• 1. Heidegger begins by portraying his investigation of technology as the building of a

path.
• 2. He examines the common understanding of technology as a neutral instrument under
the control of humans.
• He proposes to get to the true sense via the correct sense
• 3. He analyses the notion of instrumentality to reach the truth or the essence of
technology- it is traced to causality.
• 4. Technology is a very particular kind of revealing to, and the description articulates the
key terms of Heidegger’s philosophy of technology: Modern technology challenges-forth
nature to yield treasures to humans; technology sets-upon (positions and orders) the
yields of nature so that they are available and of humans, becoming part of the standing
reserve.
 • 5.He discusses the relation of modern science to the essence of technology-
• He claims for the sciences the aggressive approach to nature that goes well with
technology, but poorly with science.

• 6. The enframing of technology is destiny.

• Destiny is neither an inevitable fate that descends on humanity nor the result of human
willing.
• Disclosure of destiny and human freedom are one and the same.
• 7. There is a twofold danger to destiny.
• One is the danger that human being reduces itself to standing reserve and in so
appearing to have taken total control encounters nothing any more.
• The other is the danger that the disclosure of the enframing forecloses every other
dispensation and conceals that too is a disclosure.
• 8. Still the enframing is a disclosure. It involves human being, therefore harbors the
possibility of saving power.

Doctrine of causality
1. Causa materialis- the material, the matter out of which an object is made.
2. Causa formalis-the form, the shape into which the material enters.
3. Causa efficiens- which brings about the effect that is finished
4. Causa finalis- end

Bringing Forth- making something

u The bringing forth-poesis-which underlies causality is a bringing out of concealment.
u The revealing is what the Greeks call truth-Aletheia- means unhiddedness or disclosure.
u Technology brings forth as well , and it is a revealing.
u This is seen in the way the Greeks understood techne, which encompasses not only
craft, but other acts of the mind and poetry.
u Heidegger characterizes modern technology as a challenging forth- very aggressive in its
activity.
u With modern technology, revealing never comes to an end.
u The revealing always happens on our own terms as everything is on demand.
u He also described modern technology as the age of switches, standing reserve and
stockpiling for its own sake.
Example:
1. Volcanic eruption- challenging forth
2. Coral bleaching-challenging forth
3. Planting trees- bringing forth
4. Mining- challenging forth
5. Farming- bringing forth
 Questioning as the Piety of Thought
Ø Piety means obedience and submission.
Ø One builds a way towards knowing the truth who he/ she is as a being in this world.
Ø Thus we shall never experience our relationship to the essence of technology so long as
we merely represent and pursue the technological, put up with it, or evade it.
Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately
affirm or deny it. But we are delivered over to it in the worst possible way when we
regard it as something neutral; for this conception of it, to which today we particularly
like to pay homage, makes us utterly blind to the essence of technology (1977,p1)
Ø ENFRAMING: WAY OF REVEALING IN MODERN TECHNOLOGY
Calculative thinking
Ø One orders and puts a system to nature so it can be understood better and controlled
Meditative thinking
Ø One lets nature reveal itself to him/ her without forcing it.

1. Technology as a Mode of Revealing

2. Technology as Poesis: Applicable to Modern Technology
3. Questioning as the Piety of Thought
4. Enframing: A way of Revealing in Modern Technology
5. Human Person Swallowed by Technology
6. Art as a Way out of Enframing

WEEK 8
HUMAN FLOURISHING
Human flourishing is defined as an endeavor to achieve self-actualization and fulfillment
within the context of a larger community of individuals. This also means access to the pleasant
life, the engaged or good life and the meaningful life.
(Seligman, Steen, Park and Peterson, 2005), stated that human flourishing requires the
development of attributes and social and personal levels that exhibit character strengths and
virtues that are commonly agreed across different cultures.
According to Aristotle, there is an end of all the actions that we perform which we desire for
itself. Flourishing is the greatest good of human endeavors and that toward which all actions
aim. The good is what is good for purposeful and goal-directed entities. He presented the
various popular conceptions of the best life for human beings; (1) a philosophical life, (2).life of
pleasure and (3) a life of political activity.
Eudamonia means good spirit is a property of one’s life when considered as a whole. It is
formally egoistic in that a person’s normative reason for choosing particular actions stems from
the idea that he must pursue his own good or flourishing. It also implies a divine state of being
that humanity is able to strive toward and possibly reach.
Happiness is “doing well” and” living well”. It is a pleasant state of mind.
 Verbally there is a very general agreement; for both the general run of men and people of
superior refinement say that is ( Eudaimonia), and identify living well and faring well with being
happy; but with regard to what ( Eudaimonia) is they differ, and the many do not give the same
account as the wise… (Nicomachean Ethics 1095a17).
Epicurus identifies that the eudaimon life is the life of pleasure maintains that life of pleasure
coincides with the life of virtue. He understands Eudaimonia as a more or less continuous
experience of pleasure and, also freedom from pain and distress. Virtue is only instrumentally
related to happiness.
Socrates believed that virtues such as self-control, justice, courage, wisdom, piety and
related qualities of mind and soul are absolutely crucial if a person is to lead a good and happy
life. Virtues guarantee a happy life Eudaimonia
For Plato, Eudaimonia depends on virtue (arête) which is depicted as the most crucial and
the dominant constituent of euddaimonia.
Pyrrho, founder of Pyrrhonism, a school of philosophical skepticism that places the
attainment of ataraxia (a state of equanimity) as a way to achieve Eudaimonia. Pyrrhonist
practice is for the purpose of achieving epoch.

WEEK 9
The good life
A PUZZLING PROBLEM
• People want to be healthy but many consume junk food
• People want to be happy but many do things that make themselves miserable
• Most things that taste good are probably bad for you.
• Most things that give you thrill are probably bad for you too.
What is the good life?
• People have different ideas of what constitutes the good life.
• Wrong pursuits may lead to tragic consequences.
• Correct pursuits may lead to flourishing.
ARISTOTLE (NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 2:2)
All human activities aim at some good. Every art and human inquiry, and similarly every
action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has
been rightly declared as that at which all things aim.
Nicomachean Ethics and Modern Concepts
Eudaimonia- Eu-good, daimon- spirit= good life
Good life- happiness and virtue
Virtue- intellectual and moral
The 4 Pillar of the Good life
• Health, wealth, love and happiness
 THE HAPPINESS PURSUIT
• Everybody wants more happiness and success.
• It’s good to know how to optimize happiness and success.
• There is a wide agreement that happiness is the greatest human good.

RISK FACTORS
• The happiness pursuit becomes one’s ultimate purpose in life.
• The happiness pursuit is not guided by a philosophy of life informed by general
principles of meaning, spirituality and virtue.

Golden Rule

• Confucius: What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.

• Aristotle: We should behave to others as we wish others to behave to us.
• Buddhism: Hurt not others with that which pains thyself.
• Christianity: D unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Ø They make personal happiness and success their ultimate end of life without moral
compass and without the desire to pursue inner goodness.
Disillusion- King Solomon realized the vanity of success long, long ago: The world will
never be enough: “The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing”(
Eccl.1:8)
Ø It takes more and more to reach the same level of happiness- addiction, money etc.
Ø Nothing in this world can fill the spiritual vacuum within us.
Ø Dreams are often broken when reality strikes.
FATE AND CIRCUMSTANCE
Ø Bad things happen to good people
Ø Reversal of fortune
Ø For some people, most days are bad days. ( poverty)

Living an authentic life means living with deep acceptance on the facticity of death resulting to
a life lived-Heidegger
The unexamined life is not worth living for-Socrates
The Holistic Approach
good people, good community and world peace= good life
MATERIALISM
A form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in
nature, and that all things, including mental aspects and consciousness are results of material
interactions.
q The first materialists were the atomists in Ancient Greece.
q Democritus and Leucippus led a school whose primary belief is that the world is made
up of and is controlled by the tiny invisible units in the world called atomos or seeds.
q Atomos simply comes together randomly to form the things in the world.
Classification of Materialism
1. Naïve materialism
2. Dialectical materialism
3. Metaphysical materialism

Hedonism
Is a school of thought that argues that the pursuit of pleasure and intrinsic goods are the
primary or most important goals of human life.
Ø A hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure (pleasure minus pain) but when having
finally gained that pleasure, happiness remains stationary.
Ø “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.”
Stoicism
§ Another school of thought led by Epicurus.
§ The stoics espoused the idea that to generate happiness, one must learn to distance
oneself and be apathetic.
§ The path to happiness for humans is found in accepting this moment as it presents itself,
by not allowing ourselves to be controlled by our desire for pleasure, or our fear of pain.
THEISM
• The belief in the existence of the Supreme Being or Deities
• Describes the classical conception of God.
• The ultimate basis of happiness is the communication with God
• Monotheism- Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism
 Humanism
• A school of thought espouses the freedom of man to carve his own destiny and to
legislate his own laws, free from the shackles of a God that monitors and controls.
• Is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human
beings, individually and collectively.
• Refers to nontheistic life stance centered on human agency and looking to science
rather than revelation from a supernatural source to understand the world.
The Good Life is a Balance Life
ü A single-minded pursuit is not always beneficial.
ü Active engagement needs to be balanced by rest.
ü Exclusive love needs to be balanced by greater love.
ü Achievement needs to be balanced by acceptance.
 ü Self-transcendence needs to be balanced by fair treatment.
No one can deny the fact that science and technology has a profound impact on how
modern man thinks and appreciates matter. It can be concretely seen in the present
conditions of man in the society. The desire to feel satisfaction of research and
development through genetic engineering, cloning and the likes opened endless doors
for skeptics.

WEEK 10
When Technology and Humanity Cross
The idea that new technologies can liberate us from the human condition is a fantasy. In
reality, the 21st-cenntury will be all too human.
David Mattin

Humanity
Ø A virtue associated with basic ethics of altruism derived from human
condition ( wikipedia).
Ø According to Confucius, humanity is a” love of people”, if you want to
make a stand, help others make a stand.

Human Robot Interaction

Today, in the era of present technology, robotics has become a big part of our collective
lives. Robots are utilized for their knowledge, exactness and interminable vitality to perform
assignments consistently and profitably, that when performed by people tends to create flaws.
For instance, AI robots have already started an enormous job in improving waste administration
and finding distinctive approaches to handle the waste issue endured by most developing
nations like India. Indeed, the robot age has arrived. The possibility of robots may bring to most
minds the possibility of androids like T-800 in the movie “Terminator”. The vast majority of us
are not able to understand that a lot of robots exist in the most basic forms today; they are not
so much android but rather more like industrial tools or equipment. This implies the world would
be prepared for more smart intelligence to be utilized in day-to-day applications (Singh).

The Impact of Technology on Human Health

Technology has crept into every corner of our lives, form obsessive texting to checking
emails more often. Most of us absorb three times more information everyday compared with 50
years ago. According to University of California researchers, we spend 12 hours in front of TV
and computers at home. Multitasking participants had more difficulty filtering out irrelevant
information than those focusing on one task at a time. Teens, however, are emotionally more
vulnerable to the effects of rampant texting and online sharing. According to a 2010 Nielsin
survey, we send and receive text messages 3, 339 times a month (Deodhar).

The Future of Humanity (Nick Bostrom, 2009)

Extinction
An estimated 99% of all species that ever existed on earth are already extinct (Raup,
1991). There are different ways in which human species could become extinct: Primarily, by
transforming or evolving into one or more species or by merely dying out without any
replacement or continuation. Our species has survived earthquake, volcanic eruption, typhoons
and other natural phenomena for tens of thousands of years. Nowadays, one of the utmost
extinction risks arise from human activity. For instance, Advances in biotechnology might make
it possible to design new viruses that combine the easy contagion and mutability of the influenza
virus. A dreadful pandemic with high virulence and 100% mortality rate among infected
individuals could possibly will terminate human species. Additionally, an all-out nuclear war
between Russia and the United States might be an example of a global catastrophe that would
be unlikely to result in extinction.

Recurrent Collapse
This means that the human condition will reach a kind of statis, either instantly or after
undergoing one or more cycles of collapse regeneration. Human civilization may endure
catastrophes that prevent it from moving beyond a certain level of advancement. It also requires
a carefully calibrated homeostatic mechanism that possesses the level of civilization restricted
within a relatively narrow interval.

Plateau
Human civilization may reach a level of technological advancement beyond which no
further advancement is feasible. Predictions that life span can be greatly increased have
depended in part on the apparent decelerations and plateaus.

Post humanity
People have developed significantly different cognitive abilities, population sizes, body
types, sensory or emotional experiences or life expectancies. Post humanity has established
itself as a label for a form of human existence radically transformed by the most advanced
medical techniques and by the use of biotechnology and nanotechnology for human
enhancement.

Technology Trends (Jayshree Pandya)

1. Biological Engineering and Bio-Economy

2. Molecular Manufacturing and Self-replicating Systems
3. Distributed Additive Manufacturing
4. Artificial Intelligence Driven Automation
5. Neuromorphic Computing and Computing Beyond Turing Limit
6. Quantum Computing and Control
7. Nanosatellites and Space Exploration
8. Internet to BrainNet
9. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
10. Brain Mapping and Brain Uploading
 WEEK 11
why does the future not need
Technology is changing our world at an overwhelming pace. Most people are deeply involved
with technology. They tend to be ever optimistic about its prospects and persistently eager to
adopt and promote it. Many focused their optimistic remarks on health care, food, energy,
environment, education, economy and agriculture. In the span of a few short years, social
media, mobile devices and internet have transformed how we communicate and get information
about the world. Rapid advances in science and technology foreshadow a world that can
displace some forms of human labor. In addition, nearly everyone expressed concerns about
the long-term impact of new tools and techniques on the essential elements of being human.
However, many shared deep worries and trepidation about the danger brought by rapid
technological change. It is of course true that no one can predict the future. The key variable in
understanding the future is rarely technology alone, but how humans use it, perceive it, and
adapt to it.
C.S.Lewis argued that humanity, so –called power over nature “turns out to be a power
exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument’. He feared that
modernism and its ability to explain away everything but “nature “would leave us emptied of
humanity. All that would be left is our animal instincts. The choice we have to see humanity as a
complex combination of both material and spiritual components or else to be reduced to
machines made of meat ruled by other machines with nothing other than natural impulses to
guide them. He also warned us of a society that has explained away every mystery, and the
danger of what he calls “man-molders which will be armed with the powers of an Omni-
competent state and irresistible scientific technique.
According to Francis Fukuyama, there are three possible scenarios for the near future.
First, the genetically enhanced intelligence or the prospect of living longer lives free from
genetic disease. Next, advance in stem cell research might soon allow us to regenerate any
tissue in the body. Lastly, the widespread use of psychotropic drugs like Prozac and Ritalin that
can make everyone happy without the side effects of the drugs.
Jacques Ellul warns that as technological capabilities grow, they results in countless
means to accomplish tasks than ever before. The more dependent we become on technology,
the more it conforms our behavior to its requirements rather than vice versa.
William Gibson, who coined the term “cyberspace”, has said the ‘the future is here”- it’s
just not evenly distributed”. Some of the important changes in the future will come not from a
new technology, but from a large number of people having access to something that already
exists (Scharre, 2017).

21st Century Technologies

1. Genetic engineering- is the process by which an organisms’ genetic material is altered
or manipulated so that the organism will have specific characteristics.
It has been applied in numerous fields including research, medicine,
industrial biotechnology and agriculture.
 It can be used in Cloning, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), Gene
therapy.
2. Robotics
Is an interdisciplinary research area at the interface of computer science and
engineering. It involves the conception, design, manufacture and operation of
robots. (Wikipedia).
Characteristics of Robots: Robots all consist of some sort of mechanical
construction, Robots need electrical components that control and power the
machinery.
Types of Robots: Pre-Programmed Robots ( operate in a controlled environment
where they do simple, monotonous tasks), Humanoid robots ( robots that look
like and/ or mimic human behavior- Sophia), Autonomous Robots ( operate
independently of human operators, Teleoperated Robots ( mechanical bots
controlled by humans), Augmenting Robots ( either enhance current human
capabilities or replace the capabilities a human may have lost),
Applications: military robots ( to search, rescue and attack), industrial robots (
IBM keyboard manufacturing factory in Texas), collaborative robots or cobots,(
intended for direct human robot interaction within shared space), construction
robots ( robotic arm and robotic exoskeleton), agricultural robots ( closely linked
to the concept of AI-assisted precision agriculture and drone usage), medical
robots ( da Vinci Surgical System and Hospi), kitchen automation ( Rotimatic,
flatbreads baking, Frobot, frozen yogurts), Robot combat for sport, domestic
robots ( Roomba vacuums the carpets), nanobots (Kinesin uses protein domain
dynamics in nanoscales to walk along a microtubule) and swarm robotics
(disaster rescue missions, target localization and tracking, simultaneous
localization and mapping, cooperative environment monitoring and convoy
protection).
3. Nanotechnology- is the study and manipulation of atomic or molecular scale to improve
or even revolutionize many technology and industry sectors.
4. Artificial Intelligence
Refers to “machines” that respond to stimulation consistent with traditional
responds from human, given the capacity for contemplation, judgement and
intention.
Alan Turing established the fundamental goal and vision of artificial intelligence.
It is the attempt ro replicate or simulate human intelligence in machines.
Norvig and Russell defined Artificial Intelligence in four approaches: Thinking
rationally, thinking humanly, acting rationally and acting humanly.
It is being used in health care, energy development, finance, transportation,
aviation and telecommunications.
It includes autonomous vehicles such as drones and self-driving cars, playing
games such as chess or Go, search engines such as Google search, online
assistants such as Siri, image recognition in photographs, predicting flight delays
and medical diagnosis.
 Methods and Goals in AI: The symbolic ( or top-down) approach-seeks to
replicate intelligence by analyzing cognition independent of the biological
structure of the brain in terms of the processing of symbolic label. and the
connectionist ( bottom-up) approach- involves creating artificial neural networks
in imitation of the brain’s structure.

Potential Risks to Society

Ø Devaluation of humanity
Ø Decrease in demand of human labor
Ø High costs of creation
Ø Ethical issues
Ø Social isolation
Ø Environmental Problems

List of Emerging Technologies that will shape our Future

1. Electric/ self-driving cars

2. Robot butlers
3. Flying cars
4. Space tourism
5. Colonization of other planets
6. Wearable screens
7. 3D printed Food and Metal
8. 5G-6G connectivity
9. Re-engineering and Recycling
10. High-rise farms
11. Lab-grown meats
12. Robot soldiers
13. Roads over rivers and seas
14. Holography
15. Body implants prosthesis

WEEK 13
Information Age
v Computer Age, Digital Age, New Media Age, Internet Age
v a historic period in the 21st century characterized by the rapid shift from traditional
industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy
based on information technology.

Early Developments of Information Age

1945- Fremont Rider described the miniaturized microform analog photographs, which could be
duplicated on-demand for library patrons and other institutions.
1965- Moore’s law was formulated. It is an observation that the number of transistors in a
dense integrated circuit doubles about every two years.
Early 1980s- production of the smaller and less expensive personal computers allowed for direct
access to information.
1995- Nicholas Negroponte published his book, Being Digital, the similarities and differences
between products made of atoms and bits.

Primary Information Age- newspaper, radio, television.

Secondary Information Age- Internet, satellite television and mobile phones
Tertiary Information Age- emerged by media of the Primary Information Age interconnected with
media of the Secondary Information Age.

Pre-industrial Age- a time before there were machines and tools to help them perform the
tasks. About 2.5 million years before writing was developed, technology began with the earliest
hominids who used stone tools, which they may have used to start fires, hunt, and bury their
dead. Communications were limited between communities. People used traditional paper and
writing materials, signs or symbols to communicate with each other. For example, Egyptians
used papyrus scrolls. Sumerians used clay tablets, Pre-historic men used hand stencils and
simple geometric shapes to create art on the walls of caves and Johannes Gutenberg invented
the printing press during Renaissance period.

Industrial Age- is a period of history that encompasses the changes in economic and social
organization that began around 1760 in Great Britain and later in other countries, characterized
chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines such as the power loom
and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments.

Communication during the Industrial Age

Samuel F.B Morse invented the telegraph which became the standard for international
communication with a modified code.
Alexander Graham Bell patent the telephone, an electric tool transmitting analogue speech
along wires.
Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, a device for the mechanical recording and
reproduction of sound.
Heinrich Hertz identified and studied radio waves in 1886.
Guiglielmo Marconi developed the first practical radio transmitters and receivers.
Philo Farnsworth invented the first fully electronic television. It became an important mass
medium for advertising, propaganda and entertainment.

Electronic Age began when electronic equipment and large technologies, including
computers came into use. The invention of the transistor ushered in the electronic age. People
harnessed the power of transistors that led to the transistor radio, electronic circuits, and the
early computers. In this age, long distance communication became more efficient.

Transistor led to the creation of other media tool.

Enigma machine is a piece of spook hardware used as a way of deciphering German signals
traffic during World War Two.
Transisor radio became the most popular electronic communication and device in history.
EDSAC ( Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) is considered to be the first stored
program electronic computer.
ENIAC ( Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) as the first electronic general purpose
digital computer.
UNIVAC( Universal Automatic Computer) is a line of electronic digital stored-program
computers.
IBM is the first mass produced computer with floating-point arithmetic hardware.
Hewlett Packard 9100A is an early computer or programmable calculator
Floppy disk is a removal magnetic storage medium.
Walkman is originally used for portable audio cassette players.

Information Age-People advanced the use of microelectronics with the invention of personal
computers, mobile devices, and wearable technology. Moreover, voice, image, sound and data
are digitalized. We are now living in the information age.

You tube was created by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. It is an online video-
sharing platform. It also allows users to view, upload, share, report, subscribe and comments on
videos.

Facebook Inc. was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow roommates and students. It is a
popular global social networking website. It also offers other products and services such as
Facebook Messenger, Facebook Watch and Facebook Portal.

MacBook is a discontinued Macintosh portable computer developed and sold by Apple Inc. It
includes a Retina display, fanless design and a shallower butterfly keyboard and a single USB-
C port for power and data.
Google LLC is based on multinational technology company that specializes in internet-related
services and products, which include sottware, hardware, online advertising, a search engine
and cloud computing
Microsoft Corporation develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software,
consumer electronics, personal computers and related services.