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Re:Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Probl... by rcMgD2BwE72F on Thursday November 08, 2018 @12:15PM (#18407867)
These might be empty words in Sundar Pichai's mouth, but the underlying idea is not: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmakon_(philosophy)

It's time for Silicon Valley (I actually mean supporter's of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism actually) to learn what Classical Greeks discovered a long time ago.

Re:Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Probl... by dna_polymerase on Thursday November 08, 2018 @09:44PM (#18412001)
Could you elaborate on the Pharmakon in this context or point me at any resources to get a better understanding of it?
Re:Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Probl... by rcMgD2BwE72F on Friday November 09, 2018 @05:42PM (#18418658)
What makes a remedy a _good_ thing isn't the thing itself but the way it is used. That's therapeutics. A badly used remedy can easily become poisonous. It's the same with _any_ technology, e.g the Internet, smartphones, IA…

I'd recommend reading Bernard Stiegler, a French philosopher whose work has yet to been translated to English though (as I just discovered). I think this English interview might be a good introduction: http://krisis.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/krisis-2011-1-05....

Note that he often gets political but it's really worth it though if you're interested in the way technology is being designed and adopted by mankind (he's also focused on the Anthropocene but that's another topic). His annual conferences at Pompidou Centre / IRI (specially the ones about IA – https://enmi-conf.org/wp/enmi18/, in French unfortunately). I'd recommend his seminaries on philosophy (via his School of philosophy http://pharmakon.fr/wordpress/le-projet/the-school-of-philos... and via the Ars Industrialis non-profit) but they aren't yet translated. Again, sorry for that.