6.02: The Ethics of Technology

A Christian view of ethics and technology - or, how we think about everything from Uber and Facebook to dealing with poverty.

We talk about out explicitly Christian ethics - including our ethics of technology. How do we reason about technologies as individuals and communities? What is human flourishing?

Our previous discussion of self-driving cars (and note the title we picked two and a half years ago): 3.13: Inevitable

Articles on the self-driving car crash:

• “A self-driving Uber car has killed a pedestrian in Arizona”
• “Uber ‘likely’ not at fault in deadly self-driving car crash, police chief says” (The Verge)
• “Can You Sue a Robot?”, Ian Bogost/The Atlantic - a fairly thoughtful argument… which nonetheless ends up with some sweeping judgments of just the sort that we’re not sure are warranted in this specific case.
• John Gruber representing the “just get us to the future; it’s worth the cost” side of things -

Mentioned on the show:

• Prolegomena
  • Specifically referenced: Kant’s Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (wikipedia article)

• “All the Poor and Powerless”, by Shane and Shane

• L. M. Sacasas with some important reservations about Heidegger - reservations we share about a man who, whatever his influence, seems to have been a Nazi sympathizer.

• Mal’s speech in Serenity:

  A year from now, ten, they’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people… better. And I do not hold to that.

• “True Refuge”, by Ezra Feinberg. Used by permission.
• “Winning Slowly Theme” by Chris Krycho.

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• Andrew Fallows
• Kurt Klassen
• Jake Grant
• Jeremy W. Sherman

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