This document discusses the philosophy of technology and its application to design for society. It addresses how technologies mediate human experiences and actions, sometimes going too far (hubris). The author proposes an approach called "ascetic design" to shape technologies and account for their moral impacts, by anticipating how they will mediate human-world relations, assessing these mediations, and designing them to allow for human autonomy and self-reflection. The goal is to design technologies and human-technology relations in a way that considers humans' mediated experiences and roles.

1. Design for Society
Understanding and
designing human-technology
relations
Peter-Paul Verbeek
University of Twente
www.ppverbeek.nl

2. Design for Society
• 'Responsible design':
shaping society with technology
• Example: nudging
• But:
- how to analyze the impact?
- what are desirable impacts?
- how far can technology go?
• Using philosophy of technology
to design for society

4. Outline
1. Mediation Theory:
understanding human-technology
relations
2. Hubris and Hybrids:
the limits of humanity
3. Ascetic Design:
ethics from within

5. Outline
1. Mediation Theory:
understanding human-technology
relations
2. Hubris and Hybrids:
the limits of humanity
3. Ascetic Design:
ethics from within

6. Human-technology
relations
• Extension: instrumentality
– intentional humans,
neutral things
• Dialectics: tension
– oppression, externalization
• Hybridity: mutual constitution
– boundary blurring

7. Mediation Theory
Technologies mediate the relation
between humans and their environment:
human - world
becomes:
human - technology - world

8. Postphenomenology
perception / experience
human technology
world
action / practices

9. Human-technology
relations (Don Ihde):
• embodiment relation
(human - technology) → world
• hermeneutic relation
human → (technology - world)
• alterity relation
human → technology (world)
• background relation
human (technology / world)

12. Google
Glass

14. New
configurations (1):
• Fusion:
(human / technology) → world
• Use:
(human - technology) → world
human → (technology - world)
human → technology (world)
human (technology / world)
• Immersion:
human ↔ (technology / world)

15. New
configurations (2):
• Lab-on-a-chip: alteration
human → technology → human
• Glass: augmentation
(human - technology) → world
'→ (technology - world)

16. Outline
1. Mediation Theory:
understanding human-technology
relations
2. Hubris and Hybrids:
the limits of humanity
3. Ascetic Design:
ethics from within

17. Humans and
Technologies
• hybrids:
mixtures
• hubris:
going too far

18. Humans and
Technologies
• hybrids:
mixtures
• hubris:
going too far

20. Sigmund
Freud

24. Do Artifacts
Have Morality?
• Artifacts and Morality:
– moral instrumentalism
– artificial agency
– moral mediation
• Technological Mediation:
• mediation of praxis
and experience
• technologies help to shape moral
actions and decisions
human
experience
technology
praxis
world

25. Outline
1. Mediation Theory:
understanding human-technology
relations
2. Hubris and Hybrids:
the limits of humanity
3. Ascetic Design:
ethics from within

26. Technologies
of the self
• Michel Foucault:
- technology as power
• dialectical approach:
- technology as overpowering
- oppression and liberation
• hybrid approach:
- technologies of the self
- 'technological ascesis'

27. Ethics from Within
• from ’yes’ or ’no’
to 'how?'
• from 'assessment'
to ’accompaniment’
• 'ascetic design
and use'

28. The ethics of design:
materializing morality
1. Anticipating
mediations
2. Assessing
mediations
3. Designing
mediations

29. Designing Mediations
Types of influences
(Tromp, Hekkert, and Verbeek)

30. Nudging
• Nudging: the ultimate solution?
- ‘liberal paternalism’
- ‘transparent persuasions’
• Liberalism:
- ‘the blackmail of autonomy’
- nudges and mediations are inevitable
• Ascetic design:
- taking the mediated self as a starting point
- designing room for 'subjectivation'