New book chapter about technological determinism
I have revisited my earlier work on technological determinism. It is called ‘Technological determinism, What it is and why it matters’. This new chapter appears in Technology Ethics. A Philosophical Introduction and Readings, edited by Gregory J. Robson and Jonathan Y. Tsou. The collection was published by Routledge in February 2023.
It was fun to go back to my ‘Technological determinism is dead. Long live technological determinism’ chapter. That was published in the 2007 Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, edited by Edward Hackett, Olga Amsterdamska, Michael Lynch and Judy Wajcman (The MIT Press).
In the intervening 15+ years, some things have changed. Most notably, the revival of AI has been accompanied by a revival of technologically determinist thinking.
The new volume is primarily aimed at students. The peer reviewers included students which was a refreshing experience. Robson and Tsou have put together a great collection that will be extremely valuable for teaching in philosophy of technology, STS, and other courses. The Routledge website includes supplementary materials for teaching,