HC 407 Honors Colloquium, Spring Term 2019

Readings and Questions On Technology and the Good Life

NB: This page will be updated throughout the term, so if you want to read and prepare ahead of the class, check with the instructor before you get too far.

  1. Introduction: A Lesson From the Titanic
  2. Ideas of the Good Life, Part 1
  3. Ideas of the Good Life, Part 2
  4. The History of Technology and the Good Life
  5. The Promise of Technology
  6. The Peril of Technology
  7. The Roots of Technological Ambivalence: Human Mental Fallibility
  8. The Roots of Technological Ambivalence: Human Moral Fallibility
  9. Wisdom, Part 1
  10. Wisdom, Part 2

Week 1

Introduction: A Lesson From the Titanic

You will receive, by e-mail, the first part of a chapter from a forthcoming book on Technology and the Good Life, "A Lesson From the Titanic". Read it and be prepared to respond to the following at our first meeting. You need not prepare written answers to this week's questions.

  1. Who are you and why are you taking this Colloquium?
  2. Briefly summarize the Titanic disaster in your own words.
  3. Beyond the proximate causes of the disaster identified in the American and British inquiries, what do you think were some of the fundamental factors contributing to it?
  4. What lesson, if any, is there to be learned for today and tomorrow from the Titanic disaster?
  5. What is your idea of the Good Life?

Week 2

Ideas of the Good Life, Part 1

Read at least these parts of Plato's Philebus:

  • the beginning of the dialog itself
    • from the text, "PERSONS OF THE DIALOG",
    • through Socrates' statement, "let us be very careful in laying the foundation."
  • and the last part of the dialog,
    • from the text, "SOCRATES: Well then, By Zeus",
    • to the end of the book.

Answer these questions on the Philebus. Answers to questions in bold face are required; answers to the other questions are optional.

  1. Who was Plato?
  2. Who was Socrates?
  3. Why do we read Plato today?
  4. What form does the Philebus take?
  5. Who are the PERSONS OF THE DIALOG and what roles does each take in the Philebus?
  6. What is the question that opens the Philebus and what could its answer have to do with our inquiry into the Good Life?
  7. What do you think happens in the part of the book you were not required to read?
  8. What final task does Socrates take up in the Philebus?
  9. Summarize Socrates' idea of the Good Life.

Read these parts of Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics:

Answer the following questions. Answers to questions in bold face are required; answers to the other questions are optional.

  1. Who was Aristotle?
  2. What form does Nichomachean Ethics take?
  3. At what do all things aim (I.1 [Book I chapter 1])? What is the significance of this?
  4. What does it mean to say that something is the chief good (Latin summum bonum, greatest good; I.2)? What influence would knowing what it was have on life?
  5. To what extent is it agreed that happiness is the highest of all goods (I.4)? To what extent do you agree?
  6. What is the chief good of man? (I.7) What does that mean?
  7. What appear to be the topics of Books II – IX (X.6)?
  8. How does Aristotle arrive at that which is the summum bonum (X.7)?
  9. And what is Aristotle's summum bonum (X.7)?
  10. Summarize Aristotle's idea of the Good Life?

Read these writings of Epicurus. (NB: This online version of Epicurus has many obvious typographical errors, and some which are perhaps not so obvous, but do the best you can with it.)

Answer the following questions on Epicurus. Answers to questions in bold face are required; answers to the other questions are optional.

  1. Who was Epicurus?
  2. For what major moral philosophy is Epicurus known?
  3. What is happiness to life?
  4. What is pleasure? What is it not?
  5. Summarize Epicurus' idea of the Good Life.

Week 3

Ideas of the Good Life, Part 2

The following represent several ideas of the Good Life. Pick one and spend two to three hours researching the idea it presents, starting with the linked sources but drawing on other related ones you can find.

Spend two to three hours thinking about what you read or watched and answering all of the following questions.

  1. Who was the author (or what was the source) of this idea of the Good Life?
  2. Summarize this idea of the Good Life.
  3. Drawing from these sources, from your previous readings for this Colloquium, other readings, and your life experiences, what is your idea of the Good Life?
  4. In what ways, if any, is technology a means to the Good Life?
  5. In what ways, if any, is technology an impediment to the Good Life?
  6. To what extent are you living the Good Life?
  7. How could it be better?

Week 4

The History of Technology and the Good Life

First, answer this question:
  1. What is technology and what does it have to do with the Good Life?

Next, read the Wikipedia summary of the History of Technology to get an overview of the topic. You may also want to consult a timeline, like Britannica's History of Technology Timeline.  Britannica's article on the history of technology is better than Wikipedia's, but it is quite a lot longer. HistoryWorld's article is also better, but only goes to 1851. Answer these questions:

  1. What is your idea of the Good Life? Summarize it.
  2. How has the potential to live the Good Life, as you define it, changed with the advance of technology? Addres each element.

Now, choose a time in history (not later than the early twentieth century) and a place in the world with which you are already somewhat familiar, do some research, and answer the following questions.

  1. What technology was available to the people of that time in that place? Do not try to develop an exhaustive list; just provide what you think to be a representative sample.
  2. Could those people have lived the Good Life, as you define it, with the technology available to them? Explain, with examples. Qualify your answer as necessary.

For your research, try searching the web using a phrase like "everyday life in ...".

Week 5

The Promise of Technology

Write your essay proposal. See the Syllabus.

Watch this conversation about the future of technology between Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis: Ray Kurzwil + Peter Diamandis Webinar. (13 October 2017) [1:37:15]

Optionally, here are some links to give you more background.

Answer these questions:

  1. Who are Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis and what qualifies them to speak on the future of technology?
  2. Given that you cannot eat it, wear it, or live in it, why does Kurzweil think information technology -- especially artificial intelligence technology -- is so important?
  3. Explain the two or three really Big Ideas brought out in this conversation.
  4. What other ideas presented by Kurzweil and Diamandis do you think particularly interesting, and why do you think them so?
  5. Based on the webinar and whatever else you have learned about technology, past, present, and yet to come, what is your vision of the future? What do you think life will be like about the time Kurzweil predicts for the Singularity, 2045? (You answer should run to a page or more of text or detailed outline.)
  6. What do Kurzweil and Diamandis advise that young people interested in technology be doing? What do you think you should be doing?
  7. (Optional) What does Kurzweil think it means to be human? What do you think it means?

Week 6

The Peril of Technology

This assignment is in two parts; be sure to do both of them.

Part 1: Technological Disasters

Pick one of the large-scale technological disasters listed below or another with which you are familiar, spend at least two hours researching it, answer the following questions, and bring your answers to class for discussion. For this assignment, you may use secondary sources.

  1. What happened? Write a short synopsis of the disaster.
  2. Who and how many people did it affect, directly and indirectly, and how did it affect their pursuit of the Good Life, as you have defined it?
  3. Why did it happen? Besides identifying the proximate causes, go deeper to speculate on more fundamental contributing factors.

Technological Disasters

  • Architecture & Construction Technology
    • Banqiao reservoir dam failure: 8 August 1975, China
    • Hyatt-Regency walkway collapse: 17 July 1981, Kansas City, Missouri
    • Hurricane Katrina damage: August 2005, Gulf Coast
    • Savar building collapse: 13 May 2013, Savar Upazila of Dhaka District, Bangladesh
  • Energy Technology
    • Honkeiko colliery mining disaster: 26 April 1942, Benxi, Liaoning province, China
    • The 1952 London Fog
    • Three Mile Island nuclear accident: 28 March 1979, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
    • Chernobyl nuclear disaster: 25 april 1986 near kiev, ukraine
    • Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill: 20 April 2010, Gulf of Mexico
    • Fukushima nuclear disaster: March 2011, Japan
  • Food Technology
    • Chinese milk scandal: July 2008, China
  • General or Various Technologies
    • The Holocaust: 1941-1945, Europe
  • Materials Technology
    • The Halifax explosion: 6 December 1917, Halifax, Nova Scotia
    • Texas City Explosion: 16 April 1947, Texas City, Texas
    • Bhopal chemical plant accident: 2-3 december 1984, bhopal, india
    • Oklahoma City bombing: 19 April 1995, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
  • Medical Technology
    • Thalidomide babies: 1950s-1960s, several countries
    • Therac-25 radiation overdoses: 1985-1987
  • Transportation Technology
    • Ford Pinto fuel tank explosions: late 1960s
    • Turkish Airlines DC-10 rapid decompression and crash: 3 March 1974, Paris
    • Collision of two Boeing 747s: 27 March 1977, Tenerife, Canary Islands
    • Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash: 12 August 1985, near Tokyo, Japan
    • Space Shuttle Challenger explosion: 28 January 1986, Cape Canaveral, Florida
    • MV Doña Paz passenger ferry collision and sinking: 20 December 1987, Phillipines
    • Exxon Valdez grounding and oil spill: 24 March 1989, near Valdez. Alaska
    • 9/11 terrorist attacks: 11 September 2001, New York City
    • Air France Flight 447 crash: 31 May 2009, Atlantic Ocean
    • Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shoot-down: 17 July 2014, over eastern Ukraine

For a more complete list of technological disasters (as well as natural disasters), see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_disasters.

Part 2: Current Technological Problems, Potential Problems, and Issues

Listed below are some known technological problems, potential problems, and controversial issues. Pick one of them, or another with which you are familiar, spend at least two hours researching it, answer the following questions, and bring your answers to class for discussion. For this assignment, you may use secondary sources.

  1. What happened or is happening? Write a short synopsis of the problem, as it stands now.
  2. What are its implications? If unchecked, what might it become in the future?
  3. Who and how many people is it affecting, or might it affect? How is it affecting, or might it affect, their pursuit of the Good Life?
  4. Why is it happening? Besides identifying the proximate causes, go deeper to speculate on more fundamental contributing factors.

Technological Problems

  • Agriculture Technology
    • Agricultural pollution
    • Genetically modified crops
    • Weedkiller (Dicamba) drift
    • Problems with the “perfect” banana
  • Architecture & Construction Technology
    • Construction accidents
    • Over-engineering of rivers
  • Communication Technology
    • Health effects of cell phone radiation
    • Phone addiction
    • Poor cell phone etiquette
  • Computer Technology
    • Wearable computers and privacy
    • Job losses to automation
    • Data breaches
    • Disruptive software updates
    • PIN and password problems
    • Internet Problems and Issues
      • Internet privacy and security
      • Social media bullying
      • Social media privacy
      • Is social media making us unsocial?
      • Revenge porn
      • Viral outrage
      • Attention theft
      • Internet-enabled academic dishonesty
      • Bitcoin mining impacts
      • Fake news, fake facts
      • Online hate speech
      • Internet-fueled extremism
      • Internet vulnerabilities to failure
      • Spam, phishing
      • Malware
      • Cyber crime
      • Environmental impacts of internet infrastructure
      • Predatory journals
      • The end of privacy
      • Smart speakers
      • Facial recognition
      • Internet business model
    • Artificial Intelligence Problems and Issues
      • AI misuse
      • Job losses to AI
      • Existential threat of AI
    • Robots
      • Job losses to robots
      • Killer robots
  • Energy Technology
    • Nuclear waste
    • Air pollution in China (and elsewhere)
    • Wind turbine syndrome
    • Power grid failures
    • Cyber attacks on power grids
    • Battery fires and explosions
  • Food Technology
    • Obesity epidemic
    • Food contamination
    • Pollution from food processing
  • General or Various Technologies
    • Busy-ness
    • Trash
  • Manufacturing Technology
    • Karoshi: death from overwork
    • Industrial system sabotage
  • Medical Technology
    • Antibiotic-resistant bacteria
    • Medical error
    • Genetic testing
    • Genetic engineering
    • Implanted medical device problems
    • Medical device security
    • Genetically engineered viruses
    • Synthetic bioweapons
    • Biohacking and DNA malware
    • Medical device security
  • Tools & Devices
    • Power tool injuries
  • Transportation Technology
    • Motor vehicle accidents
    • Distracted driving
    • Train accidents
    • Aircraft accidents
    • Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones)
    • Self-driving motor vehicles

Week 7

The Roots of Technological Ambivalence:
Human Mental Fallibility

Everyone knows that the use of technology can result in both good and evil, thus French sociologist Jacques Ellul referred to technology as ambivalent, "having either or both of two contrary ... values" (OED). The readings and questions for this week and the next probe into the roots of this technological ambivalence. For this week, first read chapter 6, "Cognition" (pp. 120‑155) in

Wickens, C.D., Lee J.D., Liu, Y., & Gordon Becker, S.E. (2004). "Cognition." In An Introduction to Human Factors in Engineering, 2nd edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

This chapter is on reserve in the OSU Library, a copy in each of the two black binders for HC 407.

Consider the model (Figure 6.1) on p. 122 and, drawing on the rest of the reading:

  1. For each component of the model, describe the function of that component and those of any subcomponents and identify any characteristics or limitations that might be considered mental fallibilities.
  2. For each of at least two of the fallibilities you have identified, speculate on how that fallibility might manifest itself as a human error in the use or operation of some technology. You could relate this to the disaster or problem you described last week, your own experience, or some hypothetical situation.

Then read the INTRODUCTION and chapters 1and 2 (pp. 4-38) in

Kahneman, Daniel (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Two copies of this book are on reserve in the OSU Library for HC 407 and inexpensive copies can be purchased in bookstores and online.

Answer these questions.

  1. How does this relate to the model of Wickens et al considered above?
  2. What are System 1 and System 2?
  3. Describe System 1 and System 2: the characteristics of each, how they contrast with each other, and how they work together.
  4. What characteristics or limitations of System 1 and System 2 might be considered mental fallibilities?
  5. For at least one of these fallibilities, speculate on how that fallibility might manifest itself as a human error in the use or operation of some technology. You could relate this to the disaster or problem you described last week, your own experience, or some hypothetical situation.

Week 8

The Roots of Technological Ambivalence:
Human Moral Fallibility

Technology is ambivalent and, it being an amplifier of human will and power, some of technology's ambivalence comes from the moral ambivalence of human nature: we are both good and evil. Although we may aim at the good – particularly the Good Life – for ourselves and for others, we are morally fallible, lapsing at least occasionally into evil. But does one side naturally predominate? Are we inherently good or evil? The question goes back for time out of mind, but many recent inquiries into it start with the opposing views presented by enlightenment thinkers English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).

Read Hobbes' Leviathan, just the Introduction and Chapter XIII. You can read more, of course, if you like.

  1. Summarize Hobbes' view of human moral nature.

Read Rousseau's “Discourse on Inequality,”  just pp. 9-23, the introduction to the discourse (or dissertation) and the first part of the discourse. You can read more, of course, if you like.

  1. Summarize Rousseau's view of human moral nature.

Read Robin Douglass' short essay, “Hobbes vs Rousseau: Are We Inherently Evil or Good?”.

  1. Who do you think is more correct? Hobbes? Rousseau? Or Douglass? Explain.

Based on your own experience and observation of others, as well as any other testimony or evidence you care to use (cite it), prepare to answer the question: Are we inherently good or evil?

  1. First, what does the question mean? Restate the question in your own words.
  2. Now answer the question, as you have asked it.
  3. What implications does your answer have for technological innovation, adoption, and use, as technology rapidly becomes more pervasive and powerful?

Week 9

Wisdom, Part 1

Read these sources. If no link is provided, the reading is on reserve in the OSU library.

  • Brand Blanshard - "Wisdom" [~2 pp]
  • Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics Book VI chapter 5 (practical wisdom) [~ 1 p]
  • Sharon Ryan - "Wisdom" [~11 pp]
  • John Kekes - "Wisdom" (available for download if accessed from an OSU account) [11 pp]
  • Robert Nozick - "What Is Wisdom and Why Do Philosophers Love It So?" [~13 pp]
  • Stephen R. Grimm - "Wisdom" [16 pp]

Answer these questions. Some of them are optional [opt].

  1. Of what relevance is wisdom in our pursuit of the Good Life with technology?
  2. According to Blanshard, with what is wisdom mainly concerned?
  3. What are Blanshard's components of wisdom?
  4. [opt] According to Blanshard, how do we get wisdom?
  5. According to Aristotle, what is the mark of practical wisdom?
  6. What is the relationship of practical wisdom to science and art?
  7. What, then, is practical wisdom?
  8. Does Ryan think that, to be wise, it is enough to be possessed of lots of accurate knowledge? Explain.
  9. Explain Ryan's Deep Rationality Theory of wisdom.
  10. [opt] What else did you find of particular interest in Ryan's article?
  11. According to Kekes, what is the difference between descriptive knowledge and interpretive knowledge?
  12. According to Kekes, what are the main elements (not his word) of wisdom?
  13. What does a wise person know, and what does it take to know it?
  14. [opt] What is good judgment?
  15. [opt] What else did you find of particular interest in Kekes' article?
  16. What is Nozick's definition of wisdom, in your own words?
  17. [opt] According to Nozick, is wisdom more positive or negative? Do you agree? Explain.
  18. Why do philosophers love wisdom?
  19. [opt] What else did you find of particular interest in Nozick's article?
  20. According to Grimm, what knowledge is necessary for wisdom?
  21. [opt] Is wisdom more like an end state or a process?
  22. Is Grimm's theory of wisdom fully articulated? Explain.
  23. Assuming that "experience alone is not sufficient for wisdom, … What is it that certain people learn from experience that sets them on the right path?"
  24. [opt] What are some general strategies that have been suggested for living well?
  25. [opt] What is wrong with rationality theories of wisdom, like Ryan's?
  26. [opt] What kinds of wisdom are there? (Not the kinds of wisdom theories.)
  27. What more might be needed for a satisfactory theory of wisdom?
  28. What is your definition of wisdom?

Week 10

Wisdom, Part 2

Read at least 60 pages from these sources

Answer the following questions.

  1. What wisdom can you glean from these readings regarding technology and the Good Life? Compile from them a list of relevant aphorisms (brief, wise sayings).
  2. What does each aphorism or set of related aphorisms mean to you in reference to technology and the Good Life?

Bring two copies of your aphorisms and interpretations to class, one for the instructor and one for yourself to use in the discussion.

   

Last update: 13 February 2020