STAS REVIEWER

• Heidegger examines two

definitions of technology. Firstly,
COURSE COURSE Session he offers that “Technology is a
MODULE UNIT means to an end”(Instrumental
5 2 2 definition). Secondly, he proposes
The Human Person flourishing in terms that “Technology is a human
of Science and Technology activity (Anthropological
definition).
PHILOSOPHY- The study of general and
fundamental problems concerning The Question Concerning Technology
matters such as existence, knowledge,
values, reason, mind and language. •1. Heidegger begins by portraying his
investigation of technology as the
Branches of Philosophy building of a path.
1. Natural Philosophy •2. He examines the common
2. Moral Philosophy- understanding of technology as a neutral
3. Metaphysical philosophy instrument under the control of humans.
•He proposes to get to the true sense via
MARTIN HEIDEGGER (1889-1976) the correct sense
•3. He analyses the notion of
• German philosopher whose
instrumentality to reach the truth or the
work is associated with
essence of technology- it is traced to
phenomology and existentialism.
causality.
• His ideas have exerted influence
•4. Technology is a very particular kind of
on the development of
revealing to, and the description
contemporary European
articulates the key terms of Heidegger’s
philosophy.
philosophy of technology: Modern
• His best-known work is Being
technology challenges-forth nature to
and Time (1927). He gave a very
yield treasures to humans; technology
impressive analysis of human
sets-upon (positions and orders) the
existence, the prominence of the
yields of nature so that they are available
important themes of
and of humans, becoming part of the
existentialism like care, anxiety,
standing reserve.
guilt and above all death is
•5.He discusses the relation of modern
brought out here.
science to the essence of technology-
• He begins “The Question
•He claims for the sciences the
Concerning Technology” by
aggressive approach to nature that goes
examining the relationship
well with technology, but poorly with
between human and technology,
science.
a relationship Heidegger calls a
•6. The enframing of technology is
free relationship. If this
destiny.
relationship is free, it opens our
•Destiny is neither an inevitable fate that
human existence to the essence
descends on humanity nor the result of
of technology”. This essence of
human willing.
technology, however, has nothing
•Disclosure of destiny and human
to do with technology. Rather, as
freedom are one and the same.
Heidegger suggests, ‘The essence
•7. There is a twofold danger to destiny.
of a thing is considered to be
•One is the danger that human being
what the thing is.”
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
• The bringing forth-poesis-which
underlies causality is a bringing
out of concealment.
• The revealing is what the Greeks
call truth-Aletheia- means
unhiddedness or disclosure.
• Technology brings forth as well ,
and it is a revealing.
• This is seen in the way the
Greeks understood techne, which
encompasses not only craft, but
other acts of the mind and
poetry.
• Heidegger characterizes modern
technology as a challenging forth-
very aggressive in its activity.
• With modern technology,
revealing never comes to an end.
• The revealing always happens
on our own terms as everything is
on demand.
• 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
• Piety means obedience and
submission.
• One builds a way towards
knowing the truth who he/ she is
as a being in this world.
• 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)
• ENFRAMING: WAY OF REVEALING
IN MODERN TECHNOLOGY
• Calculative thinking
• One orders and puts a system to
nature so it can be understood
better and controlled
• Meditative thinking
• 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
 COURSE COURSE Session
MODULE UNIT
6 2 3
Human Flourishing
Dasein” which literally means “being
there” focuses on the “mode of
existence”
Eudemonia is consists of Greek words
“eu” which means “good” and “daemon”
which means “spirit”.
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.
 COURSE COURSE Session
MODULE UNIT
7 2 3 Good life- happiness and virtue
The Good Life
Virtue is the excellence of character that
empowers one to do good and be good.
THE HAPPINESS PURSUIT
Happiness defines a good life.
Eudamonia refers to good spirit
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
Virtue- intellectual and moral
The 4 Pillar of the Good life
• Health, wealth, love and
happiness
• 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.
➢ 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)
➢ It takes more and more to reach
the same level of happiness-
addiction, money etc.
➢ Nothing in this world can fill the
spiritual vacuum within us.
➢ Dreams are often broken when
reality strikes.
FATE AND CIRCUMSTANCE
➢ Bad things happen to good
people
➢ Reversal of fortune
➢ 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.
❑ The first materialists were the
atomists in Ancient Greece.
❑ 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.
❑ 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.
➢ A hedonist strives to maximize
net pleasure (pleasure minus
pain) but when having finally
gained that pleasure, happiness
remains stationary.
➢ “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
 development through genetic
engineering, cloning and the likes
opened endless doors for
skeptics.

COURSE COURSE Session

MODULE UNIT
8 2 3

When Humanity and Technology Cross

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.
HUMANITY
 From the latin word “humanitas”
which means “human nature,
kindness.”
 the human race, which includes
everybody on earth.
 It’s also a word for the qualities
that make us human, such as that
ability to love and have
compassion, be creative and not
be a robot or alien.
"Soft war" is a concept used to explain
rights and duties of is urgent even
terrorists during armed struggle.

The Good Life is a Balance Life The idea that new technologies can
✓ A single-minded pursuit is not liberate us from the human condition is a
always beneficial. fantasy. In reality, the 21st-cenntury will
be all too human.
✓ Active engagement needs to be
balanced by rest. David Mattin
✓ Exclusive love needs to be
Humanity
balanced by greater love.
➢ A virtue associated
✓ Achievement needs to be with basic ethics of
balanced by acceptance. altruism derived
from human
✓ Self-transcendence needs to be condition (
balanced by fair treatment. wikipedia).
➢ According to
No one can deny the fact that
Confucius,
science and technology has a humanity is a” love
profound impact on how modern of people”, if you
man thinks and appreciates want to make a
matter. It can be concretely seen stand, help others
in the present conditions of man make a stand.
in the society. The desire to feel
satisfaction of research and
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
COURSE COURSE Session
MODULE UNIT
9 2 5
Why does the future not need us?
Post-humanity is a theory/ concept that
is of an advance level of technological or
economic development that would
involve a radical change in the human
condition, whether the change was
brought by biological enhancement or
other cause.
GNR- Genetics ,Nanotechnology and
Robotics
KMD- knowledge and enabled mass
destruction
WMD- Weapon of Mass Destruction
NBC- Nuclear, Biological and Chemical
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 Is an interdisciplinary
an Omni-competent state and irresistible research area at the
scientific technique. interface of computer
According to Francis Fukuyama, there science and engineering.
are three possible scenarios for the near It involves the conception,
future. First, the genetically enhanced design, manufacture and
intelligence or the prospect of living operation of robots.
longer lives free from genetic disease. (Wikipedia).
Next, advance in stem cell research Characteristics of Robots:
might soon allow us to regenerate any Robots all consist of some
tissue in the body. Lastly, the widespread sort of mechanical
use of psychotropic drugs like Prozac construction, Robots need
and Ritalin that can make everyone electrical components that
happy without the side effects of the control and power the
drugs. machinery.
Jacques Ellul warns that as Types of Robots: Pre-
technological capabilities grow, they Programmed Robots (
results in countless means to accomplish operate in a controlled
tasks than ever before. The more environment where they
dependent we become on technology, do simple, monotonous
the more it conforms our behavior to its tasks), Humanoid robots (
requirements rather than vice versa. robots that look like and/
William Gibson, who coined the term or mimic human behavior-
“cyberspace”, has said the ‘the future is Sophia), Autonomous
here”- it’s just not evenly distributed”. Robots ( operate
Some of the important changes in the independently of human
future will come not from a new operators, Teleoperated
technology, but from a large number of Robots ( mechanical bots
people having access to something that controlled by humans),
already exists (Scharre, 2017). Augmenting Robots (
either enhance current
21st Century Technologies human capabilities or
1. Genetic engineering- is the replace the capabilities a
process by which an organisms’ human may have lost),
genetic material is altered or Applications: military
manipulated so that the organism robots ( to search, rescue
will have specific characteristics. and attack), industrial
It has been applied robots ( IBM keyboard
in numerous fields manufacturing factory in
including research, Texas), collaborative
medicine, industrial robots or cobots,(
biotechnology and intended for direct human
agriculture. robot interaction within
It can be used in shared space),
Cloning, construction robots (
Genetically robotic arm and robotic
Modified exoskeleton), agricultural
Organisms(GMOs) robots ( closely linked to
, Gene therapy. the concept of AI-assisted
2. Robotics 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
➢ Devaluation of humanity
➢ Decrease in demand of human
labor
➢ High costs of creation
➢ Ethical issues
➢ Social isolation
➢ 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