Intentionality: Value Apart from the Machine [Last Word]

In this issue, we acknowledged that technologies are not merely aids to human activity, but powerful forces acting to shape, or reshape, our world. We surveyed a future with robots. We contemplate the advantages of indefatigable humanoids with enhanced physical capability to care for the more vulnerable members of society. Yet, we also perceive the threats of dehumanization when activities done by empathetic human caregivers are offloaded to thinking machines who cannot share in our grief, heartache, or pain. Our peers also drew our attention to the dangers of constant time-stress, and the frenetic pace of a high speed, high-pressured, 24/7 connected world. We perceive how easy it is for us to be lulled into technological somnambulism. Our peers also cautioned us to guard against the overreach of technological determinism. We were reminded; even if technologies significantly influence our world, technology does not predominantly determine our cultural values or social structures.