Science, Technology and problem of reality from a “scientific”

lens as we know now, is also the first

Society thinker who dabbled into the complex
Week 9 – The Good Life problemazation of the end goal of life:
HAPPINESS. This man is none other
Everyone is in pursuit of the good life. We than Aristotle
do certain things because we want to
achieve a life which will make us happy
and content. By studying and working ARISTOTLE
hard, we try to attain this goal not only for
ourselves but also for our loved ones and • Extends this analysis from the
the rest of humanity. People’s definition external world into the province of
of the good life may vary and differ in the the human person and declares
particulars. In general, however, we that even human beings are
recognize universal truths that cut across potentialities who aspire for their
our differences. actuality. Every action that
emanates from a human person is
• In Ancient Greece, long before the a function of the purpose (telos)
word “science” has been coined, that the person has
the need to understand the world • When a boy asks for a burger from
and reality bound with the need to a Filipino burger joint, the action
understand the self and good life. that he takes is motivated primarily
• For Plato, the task understanding by the purpose that he has,
the things in the world runs parallel inferably to get full or to taste the
with the job of truly getting into what burger that he sees on TV.
will make the soul flourish. • When a girl tries to finish her
• It was Aristotle who gave a definite degree in the university, despite the
distinction between the theoretical initial features she may have had,
and practical sciences. Aristotle she definitely is being propelled by
counted ethics and politics. a higher purpose than to just
Whereas “truth” is the aim of graduate. She wants something
theoretical sciences, the “good” is more, maybe to have a license and
the end goal of the practical ones land a promising job in the future
• Every attempt to know is connected • Every human person, accdg. to
in some way in an attempt to find Aristotle, aspires for an end. This
the “good” or as said in the end is happiness or human
previous lesson, the attainment of flourishing
human flourishing.

It is interesting to note that the first

philosopher who approached the
Nicomachean Ethics 2:2 happiness for the greatest number
of people.
All human activities aim at some good.
Every art and human inquiry and similarly • The individual happiness of each
individual should be prioritized and
every action and pursuit, is thought to
collectively dictates the kind of
aim to some good; and for this reason the
action that should be endorsed.
good has been rightly declared as the
which all thing aim. • The ethical is, of course, meant to
lead us to the good and happy life.
Through the ages, man has
Nicomachean Ethics 1:4 constantly struggled with the
external world in order to reach
… both the many and the cultivated call it human flourishing. History has
happiness and supposed that living well given birth to different schools of
and doing well are the same as being thought, all of which aim for the
happy good and happy life
Nicomachean Ethics 2:7
Now such a thing as happiness above all MATERIALISM
else, is held to be; for this we choose
always for itself and never for the sake of • The first materialists were the
something else, but honor, pleasure, atomists in Ancient Greece.
reason, and every virtue we choose Democritus and Leucippus led a
indeed for themselves, but we choose school whose primary belief is that
them for the sake of happiness, judging the world is made up of and is
that by means of them we shall be happy. controlled by the tiny indivisible
Happiness, on the other, no one chooses units in the world called atomos
for anything than itself. • For Democritus and his disciples,
the world, including human beings,
Nicomachean Ethics 1:10 is made up of matter. As such, only
It is the activities that express virtue that material entities matter. In terms if
control happiness, and the contrary human flourishing, matter is what
activities that control its contrary. makes us attain happiness.

HAPPINESS AS THE GOAL OF A HEDOISM

GOOD LIFE
• The hedonists, for the part, see the
• In the 18 century, John Stuart
th end goal of life in acquiring
Mill declared the Greatest pleasure. The pleasure has
Happiness Principle by saying always been the priority of
that an action is right as far as it hedonists.
maximizes the attainment of
 • For them, life is about obtaining • For humanists, man is literally the
and indulging in pleasure because captain of his own ship.
life is limited. • This is the spirit of most scientist
who thought that the world is a
place and space for freely
STOICISM unearthing the world in seeking for
• Another school of thought led by ways on how to improve the lives of
Epicurus, the stoics espoused the its inhabitants.
idea that to generate happiness, Week 10 – When Humanity and
one must learn to distance oneself Technology cross
and be apathetic.
• The original term, apatheia, “The idea that new technologies can
precisely means to be indifferent. liberate us from the human condition is a
• For stoics, happiness can only be fantasy. In reality, the 21st century will be
attained by a careful practice of all too human”
apathy. -David Mattin
• Some things are not within our
control.
Human Robot Interaction
THEISM • Today, in the era of present
technology, robotics has become a
• Most people find the meaning of
big part of our collective lives.
their lives using God as a fulcrum
of their existence. The Philippines, • Robots are utilized for their
as a predominantly Catholic knowledge, exactness and
country is witness to how people interminable vitality to perform
base their life goals on beliefs that assignments consistently and
hinged on some form of profitably, that when performed by
supernatural reality called heaven. people tends to create flaws.
• The ultimate basis of happiness for • For instance, AI robots have
theists is the communion with God. already started an enormous job in
improving waste administration
and finding distinctive approaches
HUMANISM to handle the waste issue endured
by most developing nations like
• As another school of thought India. Indeed, the robot age has
espouses the freedom of man to arrived.
care his own destiny and to • The possibility of robots may bring
legislate his own laws, free from the to most minds the possibility of
shackles of a God that monitors androids like T-800 in the movie
and controls. “Terminator”
 • The vast majority of us are not able The Future of Humanity:
to understand that a lot of robots Extinction (Bostrom, 2009)
exist in the most basic forms today;
• An estimated 99% of all species
they are not so much android but
that ever existed on earth are
rather more like industrial tools or
already extinct (Raup, 1991).
equipment.
There are different ways in which
• This implies the world would be human species could become
prepared for more smart
extinct: primarily, by transforming
intelligence to be utilized in day-to-
or evolving into one or more
day applications. (Singh)
species or by merely dying out
without any replacement or
continuation.
The Impact of Technology on Human
• Our species has survived
Health
earthquake, volcanic eruption,
• Technology has crept into every typhoons, and other natural
corner of our lives, from obsessive phenomena for tens of thousands
texting to checking emails more of years. Nowadays, one of the
often. Most of us absorb three utmost extinction risks arise from
times more information everyday human activity.
compared with 50 years ago. • For instance, advances in
According to University of biotechnology might make it
California researchers, we spend possible to design new viruses that
12 hours in front of TV and combine the easy contagion and
computers at home. mutability of the influenza virus.
• Multitasking participants had more • A dreadful pandemic with high
difficulty filtering out irrelevant virulence and 100% mortality rate
information than those focusing on among infected individuals could
one task at a time. Teens, however, possibly will terminate human
are emotionally more vulnerable to species. Additionally, an all-out
the effects of rampant texting and nuclear war between Russia and
online sharing. According to a 2010 United States might be an example
Nielsin survey, we send and of a global catastrophe that would
receive text essages 3,339 a/times be unlikely to result in extinction.
a month (Deodhar).

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 Technology Trends (Pandya, n.d.)
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
• Human civilization may reach a
level of technological advancement Week 11 – Why does the future not
beyond which no further
need us?
advancement is feasible.
Predictions that life span can be • Technology is changing our world
greatly increased have depended at an overwhelming pace. Most
in part on the apparent people are deeply involved with
decelerations and plateaus. technology. They tend to be ever
optimistic about its prospects and
persistently eager to adopt and
Post Humanity promote it. Many focused their
• People have developed optimistic remarks on health care,
significantly different cognitive food, energy, environment,
abilities, population sizes, body education, economy, and
types sensory or emotional agriculture.
experiences of life expectancies. • In the span of a few short years,
Post humanity has established social media, media devices and
itself as a label for a form of human internet have transformed how we
existence radically transformed by communicate and get information
the most advanced medical about the world. Rapid advances in
techniques and by the use of science and technology
biotechnology and nanotechnology foreshadow a world that can
for human enhancement. displace some forms of human
labor.
• In addition, nearly everyone
expressed concerns about the
long-term impact of new tools and
techniques on the essential
 elements of being human. advance in stem cell research
However, many shared deep might soon allow us to regenerate
worries and trepidation about the any tissue in the body. Lastly, the
danger brought by rapid widespread use of psychotropic
technological change. drugs like Prozac and Ritalin that
• It is of course true that no one can can make everyone happy without
predict the future. The key variable the side effects of the drugs
in understanding the future is rarely • Jacques Ellul warns that as
technology alone, but how humans technological capabilities grow,
use, perceive and adapt to it. they results in countless means to
• C.S Lewis argues that humanity, accomplish tasks than ever before.
so – called power over nature, The more dependent we become
“turns out to be a power exercised on technology, the more it
by some men over other men with conforms our behavior to its
Nature as its instruments’. He requirements rather than vice
feared that modernism and its versa.
ability to explain away everything • William Gibson, who coined the
but “nature” would leave us term “cyberspace”, has said the
emptied of humanity. All that would ‘the future is here”- it’s just not
be left is our animal instincts. evenly distributed”. Some of the
• The choice we have to see important changes in the future will
humanity as a complex come not from a new technology,
combination of both material and but from a large number of people
spiritual components or else to be having access to something that
reduced to machines made of meat already exists (Scharre, 2017)
ruled by other machines with
nothing other than natural impulses
to guide them. He also warned us 21st Century Technologies
of a society that has explained
away every mystery, and the
danger of what he calls “man- Genetic Engineering
molders which will be armed with • process by which an organisms’
the powers of an Omni-competent genetic material is altered or
state and irresistible scientific manipulated so that the organism
technique will have specific characteristics.
• According to Francis Fukuyama, • applied in numerous fields
there are three possible scenarios including research, medicine,
for the near future. First, the industrial biotechnology and
genetically enhanced intelligence agriculture
or the prospect of living longer lives
free from genetic disease. Next,
• can be used in Cloning, Genetically • Applications:
Modified Organisms (GMOs), a. military robots - to search,
Gene therapy. rescue and attack
b. industrial robots - IBM keyboard
manufacturing factory in Texas
Robotics c. collaborative robots or cobots -
intended for direct human robot
• interdisciplinary research area
interaction within shared space
at the interface of computer
d. construction robots - robotic arm
science and engineering. It
and robotic exoskeleton
involves the conception, design,
e. agricultural robots - closely
manufacture and operation of
linked to the concept of AI -
robots.
assisted precision agriculture
• Characteristics of Robots:
and drone usage
Robots all consist of some sort
f. medical robots - da Vinci
of mechanical construction,
Surgical System and Hospital
Robots need electrical
g. kitchen automation - Rotimatic,
components that control and
flatbreads baking, Frobot,
power the machinery.
frozen yogurts
• Types of Robots:
h. Robot combat for sport,
a. Pre-programmed robots
domestic robots - Roomba
– operate in a controlled
vacuums the carpets
environment where they
i. Nanobots - Kinesin uses protein
do simple, monotonous
domain dynamics in nanoscales
tasks.
to walk along a microtubule
b. Humanoid robots –
j. swarm robotics - disaster
robots that look like and/or
rescue missions, target
mimic human behavior –
localization and tracking,
Sophia
simultaneous localization and
c. Autonomous robots –
mapping, cooperative
operate independently of
environment monitoring and
human operators
convoy protection.
d. Teleoperated robots –
mechanical bots
controlled by humans. Artificial Intelligence
e. Augmenting robots –
either enhance current • Refers to “machines” that respond
human capabilities or to stimulation consistent with
replace the capabilities a traditional responds from human,
human may have lost. given the capacity for
contemplation, judgement and
intention.
• Alan Turing established the • Ethical issues
fundamental goal and vision of • Social isolation
artificial intelligence. It is the • Environmental problems
attempt to replicate or simulate
human intelligence in machines.
• Norvig and Russell defined List of Emerging Technologies that
Artificial Intelligence in four will shape our future
approaches: Thinking rationally,
• Electric/ self-driving cars
thinking humanly, acting rationally
• Robot butlers
and acting humanly.
• Flying cars
• It is being used in health care,
energy development, finance, • Space tourism
transportation, aviation and • Colonization of other planets
telecommunications. • Wearable screens
• It includes autonomous vehicles • 3D printed Food and Metal
such as drones and self-driving • 5G-6G connectivity
cars, playing games such as chess • Re-engineering and Recycling
or Go, search engines such as • High-rise farms
Google search, online assistants • Lab-grown meats
such as Siri, image recognition in • Robot soldiers
photographs, predicting flight • Roads over rivers and seas
delays and medical diagnosis. • Holography Body implants
• Methods and Goals in AI: The prosthesis
symbolic (or top-down) approach-
seeks to replicate intelligence by
analyzing cognition independent of
the biological structure of the brain
in terms of the processing of
symbolic label. and the
connectionist (bottom-up)
approach- involves creating
artificial neural networks in
imitation of the brain’s structure.

Potential Risks to Society

• Devaluation of humanity
• Decrease in demand of human
labor
• High cost of creation