Considering 'The Philosophy Of The Web' by Tania Lombrozo

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Tania Lombrozo, psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley writes, "We associate technology with the shiny and new. But humans have been using technology to change the environment and themselves since at least the lower Paleolithic period, when our ancestors were making stone tools." 

Photo: WESM

Is the technology of today fundamentally different? In particular, does it change the way we think of ourselves or our relationships to each other and the environment? Does it change the way we think about what exists (metaphysics), about what and how we can know about it (epistemology), or about how we ought to live (ethics)?

These are traditionally philosophical questions, but they're questions that some have been revisiting in light of one of today's most pervasive developments: the rise of the web.

A few weeks ago, two of us at 13.7 (Alva Noë and myself) participated in a workshop at the Googleplex on the "Philosophy of the Web." The workshop was organized by Harry Halpin, a research scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab who's been at the forefront of this emerging area of philosophy. With Alexandre Monnin, he has co-organized a series of workshops on the Philosophy of the Web (most recently at the Googleplex) and is now finishing a book on the subject. 

The best of the workshop series was published in a 2013 volume titled, Philosophical Engineering: Towards a Philosophy of the Web. 

Halpin was kind enough to answer a few questions about the philosophy of the web by e-mail:
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Additional resources

Philosophical Engineering: Toward a Philosophy of the Web (Metaphilosophy)
Published on: 2013-12-27
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Source: WESM