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177From the philosophy of AI to the philosophy of informationThe Philosophers’ Magazine 28 (4): 56-60. 2004.Computational and information-theoretic research in philosophy has become increasingly fertile and pervasive, giving rise to a wealth of interesting results. Consequently, a new and vitally important field has emerged, the philosophy of information (PI). This paper introduces PI as the philosophical field concerned with (i) the critical investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilisation and sciences, and with (ii) the elaboration and a…Read more
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219Free online services: enabling, disenfranchising, disempoweringPhilosophy and Technology 28 (2): 163-166. 2015.Free online services have become an essential part of onlife experience in the digital society. And yet, such digital gifts can be argued to represent a modern-day Trojan horse. This paper advances the theory that, far from being “free”, the digital gift economy disempowers and disenfranchises users, eroding privacy and promoting inequality. It concludes that what is needed to improve the situation is better taxation and stricter regulation of the advertising industry.
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596Four challenges for a theory of informational privacyEthics and Information Technology 8 (3). 2006.In this article, I summarise the ontological theory of informational privacy (an approach based on information ethics) and then discuss four types of interesting challenges confronting any theory of informational privacy: (1) parochial ontologies and non-Western approaches to informational privacy; (2) individualism and the anthropology of informational privacy; (3) the scope and limits of informational privacy; and (4) public, passive and active informational privacy. I argue that the ontologic…Read more
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209Energy, risks, and metatechnologyPhilosophy and Technology 24 (2): 89-94. 2011.Technologies lower constraints and expand affordances. As a consequence, they tend to redesign the corresponding space of risks in which agents operate and interact. This paper analyses the concept of metatechnological risk from an ethical perspective, arguing that such an approach is necessary in order to mitigate future global energy crises.
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244E-ducation and the languages of informationPhilosophy and Technology 26 (3): 247-251. 2013.Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have transformed education by making information available to learners like never before. However, ICT’s are less successful in making information accessible, and even less so in making it usable. This paper argues that, while availability and accessibility are issues on the side of the providers, the usability and comprehension of accessible information are, in the final analysis, issues that involve the education of ICT users. For this reason, the …Read more
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218Degenerate epistemologyPhilosophy and Technology 25 (1): 1-3. 2012.When scientists come up with some incredible results, what should we believe? This paper discusses the role of probability and statistics in helping determine what science tells us about our knowledge of the world.
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118Will ITentities be the next great technological revolution?The Philosophers' Magazine 34 (34). 2006.
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299Cupiditas veri videndi: Pierre de villemandy's dogmatic vs. cicero's sceptical interpretation of 'man's desire to knowBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 3 (1). 1995.Throughout history, dogmatists and sceptics of various branches have been inclined to agree on the description of man as a 'filaletes zoon' - a 'truth-loving animal' as Sextus Empiricus had defined him - on the fact that 'the desire to know is innate in man' and on interpreting this as the ideal force inspiring the search for knowledge. The two parties have, however, always dissented considerably about the consequences to be drawn from such a vision of man as a knowledge-seeker. This paper seeks…Read more
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921Distributed morality in an information societyScience and Engineering Ethics 19 (3): 727-743. 2013.The phenomenon of distributed knowledge is well-known in epistemic logic. In this paper, a similar phenomenon in ethics, somewhat neglected so far, is investigated, namely distributed morality. The article explains the nature of distributed morality, as a feature of moral agency, and explores the implications of its occurrence in advanced information societies. In the course of the analysis, the concept of infraethics is introduced, in order to refer to the ensemble of moral enablers, which, alt…Read more
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291The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of computing and information (edited book)Blackwell. 2003.This Guide provides an ambitious state-of-the-art survey of the fundamental themes, problems, arguments and theories constituting the philosophy of computing.
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265Mapping the foundationalist debate in computer ethicsEthics and Information Technology 4 (1). 2002.The paper provides a critical review of thedebate on the foundations of Computer Ethics(CE). Starting from a discussion of Moor'sclassic interpretation of the need for CEcaused by a policy and conceptual vacuum, fivepositions in the literature are identified anddiscussed: the ``no resolution approach'',according to which CE can have no foundation;the professional approach, according to whichCE is solely a professional ethics; the radicalapproach, according to which CE deals withabsolutely unique…Read more
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283A subjectivist interpretation of relevant informationIn Herbert Hrachovec & Alois Pichler (eds.), Wittgenstein and the Philosophy of Information: Proceedings of the 30th International Ludwig Wittgenstein-Symposium in Kirchberg, 2007, De Gruyter. 2008.
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Blackwell guide to the philosophy of information and computing (edited book)Blackwell. 2002.This Guide provides an ambitious state-of-the-art survey of the fundamental themes, problems, arguments and theories constituting the philosophy of computing.
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282Children of the fourth revolutionPhilosophy and Technology 24 (3): 227-232. 2011.The information society may be described as the fourth step of humanity’s fundamental nature and role in the universe, after Copernicus, Darwin and Freud, with Turing. This paper explores some of the salient implications of this, such as our status as information organisms (inforgs), and our future interactions with other smart, engineered artefacts with which we increasingly share our on life. environment.
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711Big data and their epistemological challengePhilosophy and Technology 25 (4): 435-437. 2012.Between 2006 and 2011, humanity accumulated 1,600 EB of data. As a result of this growth, there is now more data produced than available storage. This article explores the problem of “Big Data,” arguing for an epistemological approach as a possible solution to this ever-increasing challenge.
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6Computers: information ethics and the foundation of computer ethicsIn Jesper Ryberg, Thomas S. Petersen & Clark Wolf (eds.), New Waves in Applied Ethics, Palgrave-macmillan. 2007.
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262A plea for non-naturalism as constructionismMinds and Machines 27 (2): 269-285. 2017.Contemporary science seems to be caught in a strange predicament. On the one hand, it holds a firm and reasonable commitment to a healthy naturalistic methodology, according to which explanations of natural phenomena should never overstep the limits of the natural itself. On the other hand, contemporary science is also inextricably and now inevitably dependent on ever more complex technologies, especially Information and Communication Technologies, which it exploits as well as fosters. Yet such …Read more
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505Artificial intelligence, deepfakes and a future of ectypesPhilosophy and Technology 31 (3): 317-321. 2018.AI, especially in the case of Deepfakes, has the capacity to undermine our confidence in the original, genuine, authentic nature of what we see and hear. And yet digital technologies, in the form of databases and other detection tools also make it easier to spot forgeries and to establish the authenticity of a work. Using the notion of ectypes, this paper discusses current conceptions of authenticity and reproduction and examines how, in the future, these might be adapted for use in the digital …Read more
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542A look into the future impact of ICT on our livesThe Information Society 23 (1): 59-64. 2007.This paper may be read as a sequel of a 1995 paper, published in this journal, in which I predicted what sort of transformations and problems were likely to affect the development of the Internet and our system of organised knowledge in the medium term. In this second attempt, I look at the future developments of Information and Communication Technologies and try to guess what their impact on our lives will be. The forecast is that, in information societies, the threshold between online and offl…Read more
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137A proxy culturePhilosophy and Technology 28 (4). 2015.The culture that characterises mature information societies is now evolving from being a culture of signs and signification into a culture of proxies and interaction. Through a definition and discussion of proxies and degenerate proxies, this paper analyses the factors behind this evolution and the potential implications for such a major societal transformation.
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444Artificial intelligence's new frontier: Artificial companions and the fourth revolutionMetaphilosophy 39 (4-5): 651-655. 2008.Abstract: In this article I argue that the best way to understand the information turn is in terms of a fourth revolution in the long process of reassessing humanity's fundamental nature and role in the universe. We are not immobile, at the centre of the universe (Copernicus); we are not unnaturally distinct and different from the rest of the animal world (Darwin); and we are far from being entirely transparent to ourselves (Freud). We are now slowly accepting the idea that we might be informati…Read more
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484AI4People—an ethical framework for a good AI society: opportunities, risks, principles, and recommendationsMinds and Machines 28 (4): 689-707. 2018.This article reports the findings of AI4People, an Atomium—EISMD initiative designed to lay the foundations for a “Good AI Society”. We introduce the core opportunities and risks of AI for society; present a synthesis of five ethical principles that should undergird its development and adoption; and offer 20 concrete recommendations—to assess, to develop, to incentivise, and to support good AI—which in some cases may be undertaken directly by national or supranational policy makers, while in oth…Read more
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2757Artificial intelligence and the ‘Good Society’: the US, EU, and UK approachScience and Engineering Ethics 24 (2): 505-528. 2018.In October 2016, the White House, the European Parliament, and the UK House of Commons each issued a report outlining their visions on how to prepare society for the widespread use of artificial intelligence. In this article, we provide a comparative assessment of these three reports in order to facilitate the design of policies favourable to the development of a ‘good AI society’. To do so, we examine how each report addresses the following three topics: the development of a ‘good AI society’; …Read more
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