LESSON 1: THE HUMAN PERSON
FLOURISHING IN TERMS OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Key aspects of human flourishing in terms of
science and technology
*Health and medicine
*Education and knowledge access
*Economic prosperity
*Environmental sustainability
*Social connectivity
*Personal empowerment
*Cultural and artistic expression
*Global Collaboration
Philosophy
- The study of general and fundamental
problems concerning matters such as
existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind
and language.
Branches of Philosophy
Natural philosophy
• Philosophical study of nature and the physical
universe that was dominant before the
development of modern science.
Moral philosophy
•Rational study of the meaning and justification of
moral claims.
• A moral claim evaluates the rightness or
wrongness of an action or a person's character.
Metaphysics
•It concerns existence and the nature of things that
exist
Concerns the nature of, and relations among, the
things that exist.
MARTIN HEIDEGGER (1889-1996)
● German philosopher
● Work is associated with phenomenology
and existentialism.
Existentialism- is the philosophical belief we are
each responsible for creating purpose or meaning
in our own lives.
Existential crisis- is a recurring pattern of thoughts
regarding your identity, purpose in life, and legacy,
among other things. Existential questions may
appear at any point in your life and can affect your
mood and overall quality of life.
Phenomenology- is commonly described as the
study of phenomena as they manifest in our
experience, of the way we perceive and understand
phenomena, and of the meaning phenomena have
in our subjective experience.
Ex: interviewing families and parents, talking to
kids, and looking for patterns in a message.
Heideggers' definition of technology
● 1st "Technology is a means to an end"
(Instrumental definition).
- We should remember that technology is a
means to an end, a tool, and we should
understand how to implement it for our
benefit while mitigating its risks and
vulnerabilities if inappropriately used.
● 2nd "Technology is a human activity”
(Anthropological definition).
- Technological developers
- Ethical views
- It can be harmful
- He concedes that this definition is correct
that it describes technology accurately but it
does not go far enough for Heidegger's
purposes.
- Our everyday understanding of technology,
that is, has blind spots that prevent us from
understanding more fully our relationship
with technology. Even our attempts to
maintain control over technology, to master
it so that it doesn't destroy us, are informed
by our "instrumental conception" of what
technology is. As Heidegger observes, "The
will to mastery becomes all the more urgent
the more technology threatens to slip from
human control"
- Casuality
Questions concerning Technology
- The enframing of technology is destiny.
- Still the enframing is a disclosure.
- It involves human beings, therefore harbors
the possibility of saving power.
- We don’t know what is reality

Aristotles' four causes (Consality)
1. Causa Materialis or the Material
Cause (-silver)
● made from
2. Causa Formalis or the Formal
Cause (-form or shape)
● what is the nature for
● Ex: shape pf the chair
3. Cuasa Finalis or the Final
Cause (-the purpose)
● ex: to find a sit- chair
4. Causa Efficiens or the Efficient
Cause (-agent: silversmith)
● ex: who made the chair
Technology brings forth as well, and it is a
revealing
- Modern technology as a challenging forth-
very aggressive in its activity.
- The revealing always happens on our own
terms as everything is on demand.
- Modern technology as the age of switches,
standing reserve and stockpiling for its own
sake.
ENFRAMING: WAY OF REVEALING IN
MODERN TECHNOLOGY
● Calculative thinking
● Meditative
The danger of non stop revealing
- Spiritual
- Ex. Microchip- elon musk
- Bka we forget our creator
- We should balance
The society in the face of science and technology
- moral ethics on how we use technology in a
good way or bad way
Continuation of Lesson 1:THE HUMAN PERSON
FLOURISHING IN TERMS OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Human flourishing
- an endeavor to achieve self-actualization
and fulfillment within the context of a larger
community of individuals.
- This also means access to a pleasant life,
an engaged or good life and a meaningful
life.
Human flourishing requires the development of
attributes and social and personal level that exhibit
character strength and virtues are commonly
agreed in different cultures.
Aristotle
- There is an end of all the actions that we
perform which we desire for itself
- purpose
- Flourishing is the greatest good of human
endeavors and that toward which all actions
aim.
- 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
Happiness is “doing well” and” living well”. It is a
pleasant state of mind.
Eudaimonia
● (n.) lit. "human flourishing"; a contented
state of being happy and healthy and
prosperous
● In moral philosophy, eudaimonia is used to
refer to the right actions as those that result
in the well-being of an individual.
Epicurus
● Identifies that the eudaimonia life is the life
of pleasure and maintains that the life of
pleasure coincides with the life of virtue.
● His view is not more of how happiness can
be defined but more on theory about the
real source to experience it.
Socrates
● 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.
Plato Stories
● Eudaimonia depends on virtue which is - The lesson in the content of the material
depicted as the most crucial and the Inspire and achieve
dominant constituent of eudaimonia. - Ex. Material: Books & documentaries
Pyrrho Parenting
● founder of Pyrrhonism, a school of - influence to child development support to
philosophical skepticism that places the their child
attainment of ataraxia as a state of Brain development
equanimity) as a way to achieve - Information you gathered in life
Eudaimonia
● Pyrrhonist practice is for the purpose of Lesson 3: Good Life
achieving epoch
Mark Manson- what is happiness for you
UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN FLOURISHING
It has been discussed that human beings are
endowed with innate abilities and characteristics
Human Flourishing that let him sustain his function
and to survive in the given environment.

Good life
- People have different ideas of what
constitutes a good life.
- Wrong pursuits may lead to tragic
consequences.
- People want to be healthy, but many
consume junk food
- Most things that taste good are probably
bad for you.
- Most things that give you thrill are probably
bad for you too.
Character
Aristotle
- kindness, empathy, compassion, and more.
- "All human activities aim at some good.
- big role in human flourishing
Every art and human inquiry, and similarly
- Positive or optimistic character will have
every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at
better relationship
some good; and for this reason the good
Environment
has been rightly declared as that at which
- The experience in the surroundings
all things aim."
Habits
Being good
- give impact to the well being
- Character and relationship
- Ex. Balanced diet, meditation- which will
- Entails nurturing character and fostering
have healthy lifestyle
relationships.
Being right
- Based on conscience, feeling of guilt and
self approach
- Own consciousness of function and survival
Four pillars of good life
● Health
● Wealth
● Love
● Happiness
● Happiness becomes one's ultimate purpose
in life.
● Happiness is not guided by a philosophy of
life informed by general principles of
meaning, spirituality and virtue.
Nicomachean Ethics and Modern Concepts
Eudaimonia- Eu-good, daimon-spirit= good life
Good life- happiness and virtue
Virtue- intellectual and moral
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 pursuit of happiness becomes one’s ultimate
purpose in life.
• The pursuit of happiness 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
- Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you.
Heidegger
- Living an authentic life means living with
deep acceptance of the facticity of death
resulting in a life lived.
Holistic Approach
- good people, good community and world
peace = good life
Materialism
- 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- the unquestioned and
unquestioning belief in the primacy of the physical
universe, often despite strong available evidence to
the contrary.
2. Dialectical materialism- is a way of
understanding reality; whether thoughts, emotions,
or the material world.
3. Metaphysical materialism- is a philosophical
approach that argues that all philosophical,
emotional, mental, and conscious states are a
result from the material/physical world.
Hedonism
- 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
- 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 monotheistic life stance centered
on human agency and looking to science
rather than revelation from a supernatural
source to understand the world
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)
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.
(TIMBREZA, 2013)
On the other hand, man's varied ethical foundations
may also differentiate the idea of good life. Some
may define it through attaining pleasure
(hedonism); others may relate it to peace of mind
through minimizing desires and passions () and
some views are based on professing moderate
pleasure, which for them, "anything that is taken in
excess is bad" (epicureanism)
The Good Life is a Balance Life
✓ A single-minded pursuit is not always beneficial.
✓ Active engagement needs to be balanced by
rest.
✓ Exclusive love needs to be balanced by greater
love.
✓ Achievement needs to be balanced by
acceptance.
✓ 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.
Lesson 4: Human Technology
Humanity
- From the Latin word "humanitas" which
means "human nature, kindness."
- A virtue associated with basic ethics of
altruism derived from human condition
 - According to Confucius, humanity is a" love
of people", if you want to make a stand, help
others make a stand
The 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, Al 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.
The impact of Technology in Human Health
- Technology has crept into every corner of
our lives, from 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 Nielsen survey, we
send and receive text messages 3, 339
times a month.
Extinction
- An estimated 99% of all species that ever
existed on earth are already extinct.
- 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 earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, typhoons and other
natural phenomena for tens of thousands of
years.
- Nowadays, one of the utmost extinction
risks arises 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
a 100% mortality rate among infected individuals
could possibly 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 status, 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
- A plateau is a flat, elevated landform that
rises sharply above the surrounding area on
at least one side.
- The Technology Plateau essentially comes
up as an interesting look into the future
 - Thinking that a technology will plateau
seems short sighted and dismissive of
history.
- A plateau implies that no progress will ever
be possible again in that field.
- These innovations allowed for more
advancement in the realm of graphics which
is closely related to the needs and wants of
the commercialist consumer society as
response to these increasing
advancements.
- Now, in this day and age, we are shifting
more forward to more cores - from the four
cores that dominated these past 2
generations (8.5 years) to hex cores and
beyond.
Advantage of Technology
● Life has become easy through science and
technology.
● Traveling has become faster than before.
● Communicating becomes easier, faster and
cheaper it also increase the standard of
living
● Man became advanced.
● The impossible has become possible due to
the progress in science and technology.
Disadvantage of Technology
● Humans had misused the technology and
used it for damaging purposes.
● By the use of technology, man is doing
illegal things.
● New technology like mobile phones are
generating bad consequences for children.
● By means of modern technology, terrorists
use it for destructive purposes.
● Many illnesses are created due to the
development of atomic energy and atom
bombs.
● Modern technology like nuclear energy has
not only affected other creatures.
● Natural beauty is decreasing due to the
development of modern technology.
Technology trends
1. Biological Engineering and Bio-Economy
2. Molecular Manufacturing and Self-
replicating Systems
3. Distributed Additive Manufacture
4. Artificial Intelligence Driven Automation
5. Neuromorphic Computing and Computing
beyond turning limit
6. Quantum Computing and Control
7. Nanosatellites and Space Exploration
8. Internet to Brain Net
9. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
10. Brain Mapping and brain Uploading
Lesson 5: Why the future doesn’t need us
Christian Lou’s Lange- Technology is a useful
servant but a dangerous matter.
● Human interests on technology allows them
to expand the range of human experiences.
● These are qualified experiences and what’s
more, they can share these experiences
with other human beings, injecting
technology into their lives, thus, the future of
technology is based on HOW THE HUMAN
WILL USE IT.
● 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.
● ​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).
Three possible scenarios near in the future- by
Francis Fukuyama
1st- Genetically enhanced intelligence or the
prospect of living longer lives free from genetic
disease.
2nd- Advance in stem cell research might soon
allow us to regenerate any tissue in the body.
3rd - the widespread use of psychotropic drugs like
Prozac and Ritalin that can make everyone happy
without the side effects of the drugs.
21st century technologies
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
Robotics
- Is an interdisciplinary research area at the
interface of computer
- science and engineering. It involves the
conception, design,
- manufacture and operation of robots.
● Characteristics of Robots: Robots all consist
of some sort of mechanical construction,
Robots need electrical components that
control and power the machinery.
● 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).
Types of robotics
● 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 robots
controlled by humans)
● Augmenting Robots (either enhance current
human capabilities or replace the
capabilities a human may have lost)
Nanotechnology
- is the study and manipulation of atomic or
molecular scale to improve or even
revolutionize many technology and industry
sectors
Artificial Intelligence
- “machines” that respond to stimulation
consistent with traditional responses from
humans, given the capacity for
contemplation, judgment and intention
- Alan Turing established the fundamental
goal and vision of artificial intelligence. It is
the attempt to replicate or simulate human
intelligence in machines.
 - Norvig and Russell defined Artificial 2. Robot butlers
Intelligence in four approaches: Thinking 3. Flying cars
rationally, thinking humanly, acting rationally 4. Space tourism
and acting humanly. 5. Colonization of other planets
- It is being used in health care, energy 6. Wearable screens
development, finance, transportation, 7. 3D printed Food and Metal
aviation and telecommunications. 8. 5G-6G connectivity
- It includes autonomous vehicles such as 9. Re-engineering and Recycling
drones and self-driving cars, playing games 10.High-rise farms
such as chess or Go, search engines such 11.Lab-grown meats
as Google search, online assistants such as 12.Robot soldiers
Siri, image recognition in photographs, 13.Roads over rivers and seas
predicting flight delays and medical 14.Holography
diagnosis. 15.Body implants prosthesis
- Methods and Goals in AI: The symbolic ( or
top-down) approach seeks to replicate According to Nick Bostrom (2004), there are four
intelligence by analyzing cognition future scenarios for the humanity and technology
independent of the biological structure of
the brain in terms of the processing of 1. The extinction scenario
symbolic labels. and the connectionist ( 2. The recurrent collapse scenario
bottom-up) approach- involves creating 3. The plateau scenario
artificial neural networks in imitation of the 4. The cumulative probability of post humanity
brain’s structure.

a. Hearing colors/hearing at arm's length

b. Eye-camera/smart contact lens/eyeball
jewelry implant.
c. Human compass
d. Password pill
e. Electronic throats tattoo
f. Interaction with devices
g. Robots arm/ controlling wheelchair
h. Bionic limb
i. Artificial vision system
j. Terminator arm/ titan arm
k. USB finger/ Mind Uploading

Potential Societal Risk

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

Emerging Technology
1. Electric/ self-driving cars