Technology versus Nature: What is Natural? (original) (raw)
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In the present paper, I will present a brief explanation of the parallel that Aristotle makes between nature creations and artificial creations, that is to say, I will explain in which sense Aristotle says that art (or technology) imitates nature. Nowadays, is common heard that the technological things are acting against the nature, that technology is a danger. What I will try to present in this paper is that artificial things have, in essence, the same aims of the nature. I consider that, despite the technological advances in our days have achieved levels of complexity that would be unbelievable in the past —cryonics, genetic engineering, cloning, to name some cases—, it is possible to discuss and analyze these advances under the light of what Aristotle said. Moreover, it is not a setback, but it can serve to give to us a new perspective, inside the actual technological debate. What I would like to argue here is the fact that technology can be a danger for nature is result of its bad use, that could be corrected, but per se, technology is not a danger at all (if we respect the essence of nature).
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Nanotechnology, human cloning, and genetically-modified foods are issues which raise profound ethical questions. Any technology which appears to be so unnatural that it falls outside the bounds of what humans ought to explore usually leads to the charge that scientists are dangerously “playing God” with “unnatural” investigations. But making sense of such concerns and discerning what it means for a technology to be “unnatural” turns out to be quite difficult. This essay will explor e possible commonalities in worries about the “natural/ unnatural” and the “internal/external” distinctions, and see if either distinction can bear the moral weight often placed upon them.
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Humans evolved the symbolic ability, a complex way to communicate through words, writings, images, sounds, both in direct and in mediated ways, synchronously and asynchronously, presently and remotely. But the symbolic ability is also a powerful “technology”, the main reason behind the evolution of the human species. It is at the basis of our attitude to invent technologies and create tools, machines, and even new future life forms. Born from the symbolic ability, sciences and technologies deeply in uenced the human life. In ancient Greece the average lifespan was 30 years, in the Roman era it was about the same, and by the end of the XIX Century it reached 40 years. Today, in roughly one century, in the so called “technological world”, the lifespan expectation has doubled. Hu- mans also developed a wide range of artefacts, machines, entities that are quickly becoming more and more powerful, complex, autonomous, and independent. ey could be de ned to a certain extent as “living entities”, expanding the idea of life and of life forms. All this processes seem push- ing forward the human biological, cultural, technical boundaries. How do they happen? Where are technologies based on? Can these processes give any glimpses on a possible evolution?
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In a critical reinterpretation of the idea of the ‘disenchantment of nature’, Nature, Technology and the Sacred argues that contemporary ideas and practices concerning nature and technology remain closely bound up with religious ways of thinking and acting. Using examples from North America, Europe and elsewhere, it reinterprets a range of ‘secular’ phenomena in terms of their conditioning by a complex series of transformations of the sacred in Western history. The contemporary practices of environmental politics, technological risk behaviour, alternative medicine, vegetarianism and ethical consumption take on new significance as sites of struggle between different sacral orderings. The book introduces a radically new direction for contemporary debates about nature, technology and society. By demonstrating that the history of religion and our practical and theoretical relationship with nature cannot be wholly separated, it points towards a new framing for today’s critical discourse concerning nature and technology – one that reinstates it as a moment within the ongoing religious history of the West.
Children, Youth and Environments, 2012
Acknowledgments vii Introduction xiii 1 The Old Way 1 2 Biophilia 11 3 The Technological Turn 27 4 A Room with a Technological Nature View 45 5 Offi ce Window of the Future? 65 6 Hardware Companions? 89 7 Robotic Dogs in the Lives of Preschool Children 107 8 Robotic Dogs and Their Biological Counterparts 125 9 Robotic Dogs Might Aid in the Social Development of Children with Autism 137 10 The Telegarden 151 11 Environmental Generational Amnesia 163 12 Adaptation and the Future of Human Life 185 References 211 Index 225 I like trees and people, diffi cult intellectual discussions, and good research. Thus I have been fortunate to be part of an extraordinarily talented group-the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems
The Human Relation With Nature and Technological Nature
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2009
Two world trends are powerfully reshaping human existence: the degradation, if not destruction, of large parts of the natural world, and unprecedented technological development. At the nexus of these two trends lies technological nature-technologies that in various ways mediate, augment, or simulate the natural world. Current examples of technological nature include videos and live webcams of nature, robot animals, and immersive virtual environments. Does it matter for the physical and psychological well-being of the human species that actual nature is being replaced with technological nature? As the basis for our provisional answer (it is ''yes''), we draw on evolutionary and cross-cultural developmental accounts of the human relation with nature and some recent psychological research on the effects of technological nature. Finally, we discuss the issue-and area for future researchof ''environmental generational amnesia.'' The concern is that, by adapting gradually to the loss of actual nature and to the increase of technological nature, humans will lower the baseline across generations for what counts as a full measure of the human experience and of human flourishing.