Technology Games: Using Wittgenstein for Understanding and Evaluating Technology

In the philosophy of technology after the empirical turn, little attention has been paid to language and its relation to technology. In this programmatic and explorative paper, it is proposed to use the later Wittgenstein, not only to pay more attention to language use in philosophy of technology, but also to rethink technology itself—at least technology in its aspect of tool, technology-in-use. This is done by outlining a working account of Wittgenstein’s view of language (as articulated mainly in the Investigations) and by then applying that account to technology—turning around Wittgenstein’s metaphor of the toolbox. Using Wittgenstein’s concepts of language games and form of life and coining the term ‘technology games’, the paper proposes and argues for a use-oriented, holistic, transcendental, social, and historical approach to technology which is empirically but also normatively sensitive, and which takes into account implicit knowledge and know-how. It gives examples of interaction with social robots to support the relevance of this project for understanding and evaluating today’s technologies, makes comparisons with authors in philosophy of technology such as Winner and Ihde, and sketches the contours of a phenomenology and hermeneutics of technology use that may help us to understand but also to gain a more critical relation to specific uses of concrete technologies in everyday contexts. Ultimately, given the holism argued for, it also promises a more critical relation to the games and forms of life technologies are embedded in—to the ways we do things.     

Technology: Autonomous or neutral

Two conflicting visions of technology nevertheless agree that scientists and engineers bear little moral responsibility for their inventions. According to one vision, technology is largely autonomous,” that is, self‐determinative operating according to its own blind laws independently of human will. According to the other, technology is fully controllable, but control rests solely with ‘end‐users’ as technology is, in itself, value‐neutral. After a brief characterization of the domain of technology, each vision of technology is criticized in turn. Despite the many penetrating insights offered by the best exemplar of the first approach— Jacques Ellul—it is shown that his approach rests on unacceptable metaphysical and epis‐temological assumptions: because it seemingly explains so much, it explains nothing; and it anthropomorphizes technology. Champions of the value neutrality thesis fail to sustain their argument because they overlook the ways in which various technologies embody the values of particular persons, institutions, or classes. Undermining these two prominent visions of technology opens the way for afresh consideration of the moral responsibilities of the creators and users of technology.     

Sales Technology Applications: Interactive Video Technology in Sales Training: A Case Study

Interactive video (IV), a new technology for training, has had a recent surge in popularity. The use of interactive video technology has been reported to reduce training costs, increase quality, and decrease the amount of time required for training. The major characteristics of this new technology are presented. A state-of-the-art application of an IV system for sales training developed at BellSouth Services is discussed. The results confirm that IV is a promising new sales training tool.     

The Technology Effect: How Perceptions of Technology Drive Excessive Optimism

Purpose

We propose that constant exposure to advances in technology has resulted in an implicit association between technology and success that has conditioned decision makers to be overly optimistic about the potential for technology to drive successful outcomes. Three studies examine this phenomenon and explore the boundaries of this “technology effect.”

Design/Methodology/Approach

In Study 1, participants (N = 147) made simulated investment decisions where the information about technology was systematically varied. In Study 2 (N = 143), participants made decisions in a resource dilemma where technology was implicated in determining the amount of a resource available for harvest. Study 3 (N = 53 and N = 60) used two implicit association tests to examine the assumption that people associate technology with success.

Findings

Results supported our assumption about an implicit association between technology and success, as well as a “technology effect” bias in decision making. Signals of high performance trigger the effect, and the effect is more likely when the technology invoked is unfamiliar.

Implications

Excessive optimism that technology will result in success can have negative consequences. Individual investment decisions, organizational decisions to invest in R&D, and societal decisions to explore energy and climate change solutions might all be impacted by biased beliefs about the promise of technology.

Originality/Value

We are the first to systematically examine the optimistic bias in the technology effect, its scope, and boundaries. This research raises decision makers’ awareness and initiates research examining how the abstract notion of technology can influence perceptions of technological advances.

     

Technology and guidance: a balance

The following symposium discusses the place of technology in guidance and some of the concerns involved. Tiedeman, a leading authority on technological applications in guidance, takes the position that guidance technology is an important new development. Schmidt, who has written widely in the areas of psychology and counseling, questions the place of technology in guidance and society and underlines some of the concerns related to the adoption of technology. The authors' discussions of “one-way” versus “two-way” thinking and the problem of control over the technology should be of interest to readers concerned with applying technology in guidance.     

Ambient Intelligence and Persuasive Technology: The Blurring Boundaries Between Human and Technology

The currently developing fields of Ambient Intelligence and Persuasive Technology bring about a convergence of information technology and cognitive science. Smart environments that are able to respond intelligently to what we do and that even aim to influence our behaviour challenge the basic frameworks we commonly use for understanding the relations and role divisions between human beings and technological artifacts. After discussing the promises and threats of these technologies, this article develops alternative conceptions of agency, freedom, and responsibility that make it possible to better understand and assess the social roles of Ambient Intelligence and Persuasive Technology. The central claim of the article is that these new technologies urge us to blur the boundaries between humans and technologies also at the level of our conceptual and moral frameworks.     

Technology in guidance: a conceptual overview

Guidance technology has the potential to enable counselors to reach new goals and to accomplish old goals in new ways. The appropriate guidance use of technology, however, is not just one of designing machines but rather of discovering how to use technology to realize counselors' personal and societal goals in particular settings. The future of guidance could well depend on the capacity of the counseling profession to utilize technology effectively.     

Attachment to Technology: The Missing Link

Technology has transformed the way in which we conduct our interactions and communications in our relationships. As smartphones and the Internet have become embedded within managing our romantic relationships, they adopt a role much like another member of the couple. The purpose of this report is to present a perspective that, much like our attachment to our partners in romantic relationships, we are developing attachments to the technologies themselves. We will briefly summarize the state of the research on technology and anxiety and the work to date on technology use based on attachment style and present characteristics and examples elucidating attachment styles to technology.     

政治技术:一个文献的研究

“政治技术”是公共权力存在和运作过程中所内含和体现出的客观社会技术形式。当前,学术界对政治技术的研究视角主要体现在政治学和技术哲学两方面;研究内容主要表现为对政治技术问题的原则性肯定,对政治与技术关系的理论研究,对政治特定领域的政治技术的论述,对与政治技术相关或相近的政治理论的研究等方面。就整体而言,除少量研究成果较为集中外,对政治技术并未形成自觉的问题意识和统一有效的研究范式,往往视政治技术为毋须证明与细究的自明性命题,前期学术沉淀相对薄弱。     

Reaping the benefits of research: Technology transfer

This paper presents the results of a technology transfer project designed to transfer knowledge about model behavioral intervention projects that significantly decreased HIV-related risk behaviors. The National AIDS Demonstration Research Program Technology Transfer (NADR TT) Project encompassed: (1) preparation of manuals based on successful intervention research; (2) convening of 7 Regional meetings on Behavior Change Strategies for Injection Drug Users (IDUs); and (3) conduct of twenty-three state implementation training events. An evaluation of the NADR TT project showed that it was successful in its efforts to transfer knowledge regarding model intervention programs. Participants expressed an increased level of confidence in their ability to implement the model and individual model elements were perceived to be useful to—and implemented by—participants. Results also pointed out that significant barriers to implementation of model elements of the behavioral interventions exist.     

Democratizing Technology: Interests, Codes, Rights

This reply to criticism of Questioning Technology by Gerald Doppeltaddresses differences between political philosophy and philosophy oftechnology. While political philosophers such as Doppelt emphasize procedural aspects of democracy and equal rights, many philosophers of technologyimplicitly assume a substantive criterion of the good centered on thedevelopment of human capacities. Questioning Technology alsoemphasizes the diminishing agency of individuals in technologically advanced societies dominated by large scale organizations and themass media. These themes of social critique complement the main focusof political philosophy. Political philosophy must learn to addresstechnical issues as it has learned to address other social issuessuch as race and gender.     

Practicing the Disseminary: Technology Lessons from Napster

Whatever will happen in the way of the confluence of pedagogy and technology, it will not so much perpetuate past models in more efficient ways as it will reflect a stronger element of (for example) the unanticipated success of Napster. The author suggests a fivefold interpretation of Napster's implications as a guideline of what cybermedia do well, and how theological educators can use cybermedia to enrich their classroom teaching by distinguishing online from in‐class education. Cybermedia serve best when they do not duplicate or usurp functions best accomplished in person, and personal interaction thrives when not burdened with information‐transmission that might as well take place online.     

High Technology: Its Impact on Career Changes

In this article, the author describes the impact of high technology on career changes. Suggestions are provided to counselors for helping clients make successful career changes.     

The Ethics of Technology: Response to Critics

The Ethics of Technology: A Geometric Analysis of Five Moral Principles proposes five moral principles for analyzing ethical issues related to engineering and technology. The objections raised by several authors to the multidimensional scaling technique used in the book reveal a lack of familiarity with this widely used technique.