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STAS - Science, Technology and Society Midterm transes

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Science, Technology and Society

Midterm Transes

HUMAN FLOURISHING
- It is defined as an endeavor to achieve self-actualization and SOCRATES
fulfillment within the context of a larger community of - He believed that virtues such as self-control, justice, courage,
individuals. This also means access to a pleasant life, an wisdom, piety and related qualities of mind and soul are
engaged or good life and a meaningful life. absolutely crucial if a person is to lead a good and happy life.
- It requires the development of attributes and social and Virtues guarantee a happy life-Eudaimonia
personal levels that exhibit character strengths and virtues that ● Wisdom
are commonly agreed across different cultures. - Creativity
- is defined as being good spirited - Curiosity
- high spirited person, energetic, happy and likes doing exciting - Judgement
and enjoyable things - Love of learning
EUDAIMONIA - perspective
- Greek word, which refers to a state of being in a contented ● courage
state of being healthy, happy and prosperous - Bravery
- "human flourishing or prosperity" has been proposed as a - Persistence
more accurate translation - Honesty
- zest
ARISTOTLE ● Humanity
- There is an end to all the actions that we perform which we - Love
desire for itself. Flourishing is the greatest good of human - Kindness
endeavors and that toward which all actions aim. The good is - Social intelligence
what is good for purposeful and goal-directed entities. ● Transcendence
- He presented the various popular conceptions of the best life - Appreciation of beauty
for human beings; (1) a philosophical life, (2).life of pleasure - Gratitude
and (3) a life of political activity. - Hope
- Eudaimonia means good spirit is a property of one’s life when - Humour
considered as a whole. It is formally egoistic in that a person’s - spirituality
normative reason for choosing particular actions stems from ● Justice
the idea that he must pursue his own good or flourishing. It - Teamwork
also implies a divine state of being that humanity is able to - Fairness
strive toward and possibly reach. - leadership
- Happiness is “doing well” and” living well”. It is a pleasant ● Moderation
state of mind. - Forgiveness
- Modesty
EPICURUS - Prudence
- Eudaemon, a life of pleasure maintains that life of pleasure - Self-control
coincides with the life of virtue. He understands Eudaimonia as
a more or less continuous experience of pleasure and, also PLATO
freedom from pain and distress. Virtue is only - Eudaimonia depends on virtue (arête) which is depicted as
instrumentally related to happiness. the most crucial and the dominant constituent of eudaimonia.
- Happiness = Pleasure

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PYRRHO
- He founded Pyrrhonism, a school of philosophical skepticism AMORAL PERSON
that places the attainment of ataraxia (a state of equanimity) as - has no regard for any standards of right or wrong, and just
a way to achieve Eudaimonia. does what he/she likes.
- Pyrrhonist practice is for the purpose of achieving epoch.
MARTIN HEIDEGGER
VIRTUE - German philosopher whose work is associated with
- Virtue, by definition, is the moral excellence of a person. phenology and existentialism.
Morally excellent people have a character made-up of virtues - His ideas have exerted influence on the development of
valued as good. They are honest, respectful, courageous, contemporary European philosophy.
forgiving, and kind, - Example: They do the right thing, and - His best-known work is Being and Time (1927). He gave a
don’t bend to impulses, urges or desires, but act according to very impressive analysis of human existence, the prominence
values and principles. of the important themes of existentialism like care, anxiety, guilt
- Some might say good qualities are innate, but we’re not and above all death is brought out here.
perfect. Virtues need to be cultivated to become more - He begins “The Question Concerning Technology” by
prevalent in life. With the habit of being virtuous, we take the examining the relationship between human and
helm of our own life, redirecting its course towards greater technology, a relationship Heidegger calls a free relationship. If
happiness and fulfillment. this relationship is free, it opens our human existence to the
essence of technology”. This essence of technology, however,
ARISTOTLE’S 12 VIRTUES: has nothing to do with technology. Rather, as Heidegger
- Courage - bravery suggests, ‘The essence of a thing is considered to be what the
- Temperance - moderation thing is.”
- Liberality- spending - Heidegger examines two definitions of technology. Firstly, he
- Magnificence - charisma offers that “Technology is a means to an end”(Instrumental
- Magnanimity - generosity definition). Secondly, he proposes that “Technology is a human
- Ambition - pride activity (Anthropological definition).
- Patience - calm
- Friendlines - social IQ THE QUESTIONING CONCERNING TECHNOLOGY
- Truthfulness - honesty - He discusses the relation of modern science to the essence
- Wit - humor of technology
- Modesty - ego - He claims for the sciences the aggressive approach to nature
- Justice - indignation that goes well with technology, but poorly with science.
- The enframing of technology is destiny. Destiny is neither an
IMMORAL PERSON inevitable fate that descends on humanity nor the result of
- knows the difference between right and wrong and chooses human will.
to do what is wrong. - Disclosure of destiny and human freedom are one and the
same.
MORAL PERSON - There is a twofold danger to destiny. One is the danger that
- knows the difference between right and wrong and chooses human being reduces itself to standing reserve and in so
to do what is right. appearing to have taken total control encounters nothing any
more.
- The other is the danger that the disclosure of the enframing

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forecloses every other dispensation and conceals that too is a
disclosure.
- Still the enframing is a disclosure. It involves human being,
therefore harbors the possibility of saving power.
DOCTRINES OF CAUSALITY
- The modern concept of causality, even if philosophically a
challenge, is rather simple. A thing or an event causes another
thing or event.
- The first thing or event is called a cause, the second is
called an effect. If I hit the tennis ball with my racket, my
hitting is the cause of the ball flying.
- In ancient philosophy the concept of cause is a lot more
elaborate.
- The modern understanding of cause is what the ancients
would know as the efficient cause, the causa efficiens.
- In Aristotle’s classical scheme of causes this would be one of
totally four causes, viz. the formal cause, the material cause,
the efficient cause, and the final cause.
● Causa materialis/material cause - the material, the
matter out of which an object is made
● Causa formalis/formal cause - The form, the shape
into which the material enters.
● Causa efficiens/efficient cause - Which brings about
the effect that is finished
● Causa finalis/final cause - End
ARISTOTLE FOUR
- Causa eficiens - intention: unsolved contradiction -
peace-making transformed contradictions
- Causa materialis - capability: arms and army -
peace-keeping nonviolent peace forces
- Causa formalis - rules ad bello/rules in bellum deep
culture (DMA deep structure of hierarchy) - rules of
conviviality/rules of mediation (conciliation deep
culture TeY-YTr deep structure of equiarchy
- Cause finalis - victory by winning - peace-building by
transcending
BRINGING FORTH
- 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 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.
● Examples:
- Volcanic Eruption - challenging forth
- Coral Bleaching - challenging forth
- Planting trees - bringing forth
- Mining- challenging forth
- Farming- bringing forth
QUESTIONING AS THE PIETY OF THOUGHT
- Piety means obedience and submission.
- One builds a way towards knowing the truth of 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 technology, 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
- when we are questioning that is the start that we submit
ourselves to our thoughts
- process that builds a way towards knowing the truth of who
we are as a human being in this world.
ENFRAMING: WAY OF REVEALING IN MODERN
TECHNOLOGY
- Nature is put in a box or in a frame so that it can be
understood and controlled according to people’s desires.

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Science, Technology and Society
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WHY ENFRAMING IS DONE?
- people want security
- reserve
- ready to be used
ART AS A WAY OF ENFRAMING
- HEIDEGGER, proposes that art as a way out of this
enframing.
- With art, we are better able to see the poetic in nature in
reality.
- It leads as a way from calculative thinking towards
meditative thinking.
CALCULATIVE THINKING
- Calculative thinking is the more technical kind of human
thought, in which people gather information and put it together
in order to put it to some specific use.
- Calculative thinking is always in use with mankind, as it is
necessary to the more practical activities and motivations of
life. It is the more active aspect of human thought, concerned
more with the doing of a thing than of considering the possible
consequences.
- one orders and puts a system to nature so it can be
understood better and controlled
MEDITATIVE THINKING
- Meditative thinking involves something much deeper than
practical calculation, and it takes much more effort.
- Meditative thinking tells us why we should do or should not do
a thing, beyond the simple calculative process of actually doing
it.
- Meditation is not limited to expanding on calculation, and it
does not necessarily have to have an end product, as does
calculation.
- one lets nature revealitself to him/her without forcing it.
THE GOOD LIFE
- Everyone is in pursuit of a good life. We do certain things
because we want to achieve a life which will make us happy
and content. By studying and working hard, we try to attain this
goal not only for ourselves but also for our loved ones and the
rest of humanity. People’s definition of the good life may vary
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and differ in the particulars. In general, however, we recognize
universal truths that cut across our differences.
- In Ancient Greece, long before the “word science” was
coined, the need to understand the world and reality was
bound with the need to understand the self and good life.
- For Plato, the task of understanding the things in the world
runs parallel with the job of truly getting into what will make the
soul flourish.
- It was Aristotle who gave a definite distinction between the
theoretical and practical sciences. Aristotle counted ethics and
politics. Whereas “truth” is the aim of theoretical sciences, the
“good” is the end goal of the practical ones.
- Every attempt to know is connected in some way in an
attempt to find the “good” or as said in the previous lesson, the
attainment of human flourishing
- It is interesting to note that the first philosopher who
approached the problem of reality from a “scientific” lens as we
know now, is also the first thinker who dabbled into the
complex problemazation of the end goal of life:
HAPPINESS. This man is none other than Aristotle.
- Aristotle extends this analysis from the external world into the
province of the human person and declares that even human
beings are potentialities who aspire for their actuality. Every
action that emanates from a human person is a function of the
purpose (telos) that the person has.
- When a girl tries to finish her degree in the university, despite
the initial features she may have had., she definitely is being
propelled by a higher purpose than to just graduate. She wants
something more, maybe to have a license and land a
promising job in the future.
- Every human person, according to Aristotle, aspires for an
end. This end, we have learned from the previous chapters, is
happiness or human flourishing.
HAPPINESS AS THE GOAL OF A GOOD LIFE
- In the eighteenth century, John Stuart Mill declared the
Greatest Happiness Principle by saying that an action is right
as long as it maximizes the attainment of happiness for the
greatest number of people.
- Mill said that the individual happiness of each individual
should be prioritized and collectively dictates the kind of action
that should be endorsed
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- The ethical is, of course , meant to lead us to the good and
happy life. Through the ages, man has constantly struggled
with the external world in order to reach human flourishing.
History has given birth to different schools of thought, all of
which aim for the good and happy life.
MATERIALISM
- 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
indivisible units in the world called atomos.
- For Democritus and his disciples, the world, including human
beings, is made up of matter. As such, only material entities
matter. In terms of human flourishing, matter is what makes us
attain happiness.
HEDONISM
- The hedonists, for their part, see the end goal of life in
acquiring pleasure. Pleasure has always been the priority of
hedonists.
- For them, life is about obtaining and indulging in pleasure
because life is limited.
- The mantra of this school of thought is the famous “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 original term, apatheia, precisely means to be indifferent.
- For stoics, happiness can only be attained by a careful
practice of apathy.
- Some things are not within our control.
THEISM
- Most people find the meaning of their lives using God as a
fulcrum of their existence. The Philippines, as a predominantly
Catholic country, is witness to how people base their life goals
on beliefs that hinge on some form of supernatural reality
called heaven.
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- The ultimate basis of happiness for theists is the communion
with God.
HUMANISM
- Humanism as another school of thought espouses the
freedom of man to care for his own destiny and to legislate his
own laws, free from the shackles of a God that monitors and
controls .
- For humanists, man is literally the captain of his own ship.
- This is the spirit of most scientists who thought that the world
is a place and space for freely unearthing the world in seeking
for ways on how to improve the lives of its inhabitants.
WHY DOES THE FUTURE NOT NEED US?
C.S LEWIS
- 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.
FRANCIS FUKUYAMA
- 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, advances 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.
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JACQUES ELLUL ● Teleoperated Robots

- warns that as technological capabilities grow, they result in - Mechanical robots controlled by humans
countless means to accomplish tasks than ever before. The ● Augmenting Robots
more dependent we become on technology, the more it - either enhance current human
conforms our behavior to its requirements rather than vice capabilities or replace the capabilities a
versa. human may have lost

WILLIAM GIBSON ROBOTICS APPLICATIONS:

- William Gibson, who coined the term “cyberspace”, has said ● military robots - to search, rescue and attack
"the future is here”- it’s just not evenly distributed”. Some of the ● industrial robots - IBM keyboard manufacturing
important changes in the future will come not from a new factory in Texas
technology, but from a large number of people having access ● collaborative robots or cobots - intended for direct
to something that already exists human robot interaction within shared space
● construction robots - robotic arm and robotic
GENETIC ENGINEERING exoskeleton
- It is the process by which an organisms’ genetic material is ● agricultural robots - closely linked to the concept of
altered or manipulated so that the organism will have specific AI-assisted precision agriculture and drone usage
characteristics. ● medical robots - da Vinci Surgical System and Hospi
- It has been applied in numerous fields including research, ● kitchen automation - Rotimatic, flatbreads baking,
medicine, industrial biotechnology and agriculture. Frobot, frozen yogurts
- It can be used in Cloning, Genetically Modified Organisms ● Robot combat for sport, domestic robots -
(GMOs), Gene therapy. Roomba vacuums the carpets)
● nanobots - Kinesin uses protein domain dynamics in
ROBOTICS nanoscales to walk along a microtubule
- It Is an interdisciplinary research area at the interface of ● swarm robotics - disaster rescue missions, target
computer science and engineering. It involves the conception, localization and tracking, simultaneous localization
design, manufacture and operation of robots. and mapping, cooperative environment monitoring
- Characteristics of Robots: Robots all consist of some sort and convoy protection
of mechanical construction, Robots need electrical
components that control and power the machinery. NANOTECHNOLOGY
- It is the study and manipulation of atomic or molecular scale
TYPES OF ROBOTS to improve or even revolutionize many technology and industry
● Pre-Programmed Robots sectors.
- operate in a controlled environment where
they do simple, monotonous tasks ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
● Humanoid robots - Refers to “machines” that respond to stimulation consistent
- robots that look like and/ or mimic human with traditional responds from human, given the capacity for
behavior- Sophia contemplation, judgement and
● Autonomous Robots Intention.
- operate independently of human - It is being used in health care, energy development, finance,
Operators transportation, aviation and telecommunications.

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- It includes autonomous vehicles such as drones and ● Lab-grown meats

self-driving cars, playing games such as chess or Go, search ● Robot soldiers
engines such as Google search, online assistants such as Siri, ● Roads over rivers and seas
image recognition in photographs, predicting flight delays and ● Holography
medical diagnosis. ● Body implants prosthesis
- Methods and Goals in AI: The symbolic ( or top-down)
approachseeks to replicate intelligence by analyzing cognition
independent of the biological structure of the brain in terms of
the processing of symbolic labels. and the connectionist (
bottom-up) approach- involves creating artificial neural
networks in imitation of the brain’s structure.

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 RUSSEL

- defined Artificial Intelligence in four approaches: Thinking
rationally, thinking humanly, acting rationally and acting
humanly.

POTENTIAL RISK TO SOCIETY

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

LIST OF EMERGING TECHNNOLOGIES THAT WILL SHAPE

OUR FUTURE
● Electric/ self-driving cars
● Robot butlers
● Flying cars
● Space tourism
● Colonization of other planets
● Wearable screens
● 3D printed Food and Metal
● 5G-6G connectivity
● Re-engineering and Recycling
● High-rise farms

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