What is Technology Philosophy?

Technology Philosophy is using philosophy to improve the rigor of our thinking and proactively address issues as we create technology. Ideally our technology and biotechnology developments will open up new possibilities for humanity and the world.

Technology Philosophy is specifically not the 'philosophy of technology' which is in large part a retroactive and passive chronicle of activity in science and technology.

The affirmatory field of Technology Philosophy uses philosophy to theorize and create the development of novel science and technology.

More information: Technology Philosophy YouTube videos

Artworld's Reaction to Citizen Art: not like Science and DIYscience

Considering the tradition of the highly-regarded place of science in society and the venerated scientific method, it is surprising that the ScienceWorld has deigned to notice Citizen Science and DIYscience efforts. Initially, the reaction of science may have generally been to dismiss citizen science, however, in many cases, perspectives shifted to wondering how to collaborate with citizen science efforts and how low-cost world-wide accessible Internet models could help to crowdsource study participants, data analysis, and other aspects of studies. The ecosystem became a continuum ranging from institutional science ('high science') to the individual n=1 quantified self experimenter ('citizen science as the venture capital arm (e.g.; starter, feeder, interest-surfacer) of science').(More)

Now the advent of new media has democratized the tools for art production. It is much easier for individuals to express themselves creatively in many different digital art venues and genres. Some of the tools that facilitate individual and collaborative creativity include Garage Band, SoundCloud, Pinterest, the Spore creature creator, blogs, Twitter, and virtual worlds. It is therefore timely to ask about the ArtWorld's (e.g.; insiders: artists, museums, critics) potential reaction to Citizen Art. As opposed the ScienceWorld's reaction to Citizen Science, the ArtWorld's reaction to Citizen Art could be much more complex. This is because art has been, and may always be something contentious. Key questions remain unsettled and even more pronounced with new media and digital art:

• what is art? 
• who can do art? 
• who can determine what is art? 
• what is the consecration process for art? 
• what is the societal and political role of art? what is the role of art as critique (of art, society, politics, etc.)? 
• is art autonomous from society? 
• what does the commercialization of art mean? 

Precisely because it is art, and not science, the acceptance of Citizen Art by the ArtWorld is much more nuanced than the tangible and quantitative nature of science, including Citizen Science, that makes results demonstrable. What is at stake is also more nebulous, although some new genres of digital art like SciArt, itself a mix of science and art, may be earlier to be acknowledged by the ArtWorld. (More)

Killer Apps of Cognitive Nanorobotics

One of the most fun parts of thinking about nanocognition and cognitive nanorobotics is imagining the killer apps that we might have! 

1. Bias Reduction - The first and most obvious killer app is bias reduction, helping to identify and reduce the many cognitive biases of humans including loss aversion, overconfidence, confirmation, rationalization, neglecting probability, and hindsight biases. 
2. Memory Management - A second killer app is memory management – both accessing the right memories at the right time (and including possibly augmenting real memories with Internet-accessible personal or general data), and blocking access to memories, for example in trauma resolution or to consider issues cleanly and not fall into sunk cost or other cognitive traps. 
3. Desire, Values, and Utility Optimization - The third killer app is the ability to elicit and optimize value systems, utility functions, and desires - using cognitive nanorobots to evoke personal values profiles and manage mental state and behavior for greater fulfillment. 
4. Perceptual Augmentation - A fourth killer app is perceptual augmentation – using cognitive nanorobots to amplify subjective experience – to give us a way to see multiple realities simultaneously, and to see and think in time instead of space, and to see movement in both time and space. 
5. POV Apps - A fifth killer app is POV apps (point-of view apps) – a whole new class of apps based on the functionality of being able to see the points of view of others (per their permission). The advent of Google Glass suggests that this is not that far away. There could be the Negotiator App to look for areas of common ground between people in conflict or potential conflict, or the Art Appreciation App as articulated in Greg Egan's 'Diaspora' to try on the different aesthetics perspectives of your friends, there can be endless new permutations of Garage Band simply starting from “here, let me share my HUD.” 

 More: YouTube Video, Presentation