Technology of the future: opportunities and risks

Contemporary technologies, together with their future developments, are most challenging: they are, and will be, a great source of opportunities for increasing human life’s quality, but, at the same time, highly risky for at least two reasons. Firstly, they are quickly changing the very identity (or ontology, in philosophical terms) of the humans, and we are only partially aware of this epochal process. Secondly, there are becoming both so powerful and pervasive that – if not carefully managed, and, moreover, if we do not try to imagine their possible future scenarios – they can upset their initial aim, namely, increasing human life’s quality, by even worsening it.

Three international scholars, who are philosophers by training, will help our PhD students reflect on this urgent issue, by using the tools provided especially by epistemology, philosophy of technology, and moral philosophy.

Our philosophers will also use concrete examples provided by the most challenging contemporary technologies, which frequently share a crucial point: a progressive delegation, or externalization, of both human activities and abilities (both physical and mental) to automated processes, such as in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, bioengineering, autonomous driving, and, more broadly, where algorithmic machines substitute human minds in decision making processes.

The goal is providing PoliMi PhD students with essential epistemological tools, which are given by philosophy, to promisingly deepen the understanding and the critical managing of causes, methods, processes and effects of scientific and technological researches and practices.

In order to get the CFU and the mark, the PhD students should attend at least 5 lectures out of 6 and write a short report (about 3000 words) which should be sent to the coordinator of the course (simona.chiodo@polimi.it) by the end of September 2020. The short report should develop the connection between one of the issues explored during the course and the PhD student’s own research.

ROOM S.1.4

June 5, 2020: Mark Coeckelbergh (University of Vienna)

Morning (9.30 am): Artificial intelligence: expectations and ethical problems

Afternoon (2.30 pm): Human enhancement technologies: a framework for thinking about human being at risk

June 8, 2020: Sven-Ove Hansson (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm)

Morning (9.30 am): Science and the fact-finding practices of everyday life

Afternoon (2.30 pm): The epistemology of risk

June 15, 2020: Behnam Taebi (TU Delft)

Morning (9.30 am): Climate risks & risky technological solutions. Part I: Nuclear energy & homo sapiens’ unprecedented ethical dilemmas

Afternoon (2.30 pm): Climate risks & risky technological solutions. Part II: Geoengineering the climate and dealing with technical and ethical uncertainties