Philosophy of Technology

"Somewhat similar to the last, it’s called Philosophy of Technology: 5 Questions . Not unlike Five Books, it’s from a very interesting series where they choose a subject and ask 20 or 25 experts the same five questions that they think will uncover the most about this field. It provides an excellent introduction to philosophy of technology but also some of the most controversial and important issues discussed and tackled by practitioners. For me it is fascinating because they asked loads of people in peripheral areas: philosophers of science, sociologists of science, bioethicists, and it revealed how broad the field is and how difficult it is to talk about technology. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter What was also fascinating in this book was how little discussion there was in philosophy of technology circles about the internet –philosophers of technology completely missed the train on the internet. I haven’t seen any good books, or any books frankly, which engage with new media or blogs or social networking or privacy, let alone transparency or WikiLeaks from the philosophy of technology perspective. For me it is kind of sad that probably one of the most important issues of our day is neglected, with most philosophers of technology still arguing about the clock and the wheel. I don’t know if the internet isn’t too big a subject, and we need a separate independent field, something like philosophy of the internet. It boils down essentially to whether the internet is so unique as a technology that it even defies the conventions of philosophy of technology as a field, and whether it requires its own set of principles and assumptions."