I'm cramming for my conversation next week about ethics and tech, and as I prepare I thought it would be a fun way to add some transparency to the process. Usually when I prepare for a big episode I reach out to folks in my network, I dig for sources, I spend a lot of time with the topic in my head. When I thought about who I should reach out to as I think about the roots of some of the issues we'll cover next week, I wondered, who might help me with something of a literature review on the ethics and philosophy part. As we know - but sometimes forget - many of the questions that we're asking today about ethics relevant to computer science have been asked before. There are entire schools of thought dedicated, scholars who've spent lifetimes... but I haven't reached back to those texts in forever, maybe you haven't either. So I did what anyone would do...
John P. Cleary is my high school philosophy teacher, and the first person who came to mind when I considered who would make time for me as I cram for this interview. He's a busy guy, an Assistant Professor at Raritan Valley Community College, an acclaimed stage actor, and restorer of his cabin in the woods, where I imagine he'll one day sip brandy and read poetry by a wood stove. We caught up for a bit before diving in, but the questions you hear me refer to are ones that I shot him over Facebook Chat, where he and I keep in occasional touch.
Enjoy my chat with John, it's a prep call for next weeks episode on Ethics in Tech, but if, like me, you're looking for a lit review to help you think about the scholarly history of some of civilizations' thorniest questions, here it is...
Links:
Joe Kincheloe, The Sign of the Burger: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2255502.The_Sign_of_the_Burger
Nat'l Association of Media Literacy: https://namle.net/
Zimyatin's WE, Russian novel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_(novel)
Neil Postman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Postman
Martin Heidegger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Heidegger
Jurgen Habermas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%BCrgen_Habermas
McLuhan's Mechanical Bride: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mechanical_Bride
Donna Haraway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Haraway
Kaku, Physics of the Impossible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_of_the_Impossible
Also Mentioned:
Mary Shelly
Orwell
Huxley
Kelner
Noam Chomsky
Sartre
Friedrich Nietzsche
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