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Handling things that handle us. Things get to know who we are and tie us down to who we were

Gransche, B.: Handling things that handle us. Things get to know who we are and tie us down to who we were, in: Wiltse, H. (Hg.): Relating to Things That Relate to Us. London/ Oxford: Bloomsbury (im Erscheinen, 2019).

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Aufsätze

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Abstract

The rise of highly-automated, ‘autonomous’ systems marks a new stage of an ongoing development of technology and human-technology relations: a shift from craftsman to conductor. This essay provides insight into learning systems, everyday artificial assistance, a cunning of systems, competence, skill, and potentiality aspects from a philosophy of technology and action theory perspective. It discusses potential consequences for how humans relate to technology, to each other, and to themselves. A fundamental theory on technological acting and handling things is outlined in order to investigate potential effects of emerging human-technology relations; therefore, a multi-level approach for shared autonomy is presented. The focus lies on emerging learning, intelligent systems that we encounter in our everyday lives – such as assistance systems or social robots – and on the consequences for our autonomy, our potentiality, and eventually the openness of our future. In emerging human-technology relations, machine learning complements human learning. However, skills are acquired by putting them to work, not by delegating them to artificial assistants. Thus, future human-technology relations are at risk of confronting humans who know less and less about increasingly opaque systems with intelligent systems that learn more and more about the so called ‘users’ – especially how to serve and how to handle them.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
1. Handling things – Technical acting
2. Being handled by things – Intelligent systems
1.1. Types of technology and human-technology relations
1.2. Intermezzo: Literally?
1.2. Machine learning, everyday pervasion, and the cunning of systems
3. Effects on future openness

Several developments are contributing to a new kind of human-technology relation in which things (systems) gain technological autonomy and learn how to handle ‘users’. Thus, the role of human actors can gradually shift from active agents to passive participants of systemic processes.

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