Technen: Elements of Recent History of Information Technologies with Epistemological Conclusions

317 Pages·2015·4.26 MB·English

by  Andrzej Piotr Wierzbicki (auth.)

Intelligent Systems Reference Library 71
Andrzej Piotr Wierzbicki
Techne : Elements
n
of Recent History of
Information Technologies
with Epistemological
Conclusions
Intelligent Systems Reference Library
Volume 71
Series editors
Janusz Kacprzyk, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
e-mail: [email protected]
Lakhmi C. Jain, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia
e-mail: [email protected]
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More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8578
Andrzej Piotr Wierzbicki
Techne : Elements
n
of Recent History
of Information Technologies
with Epistemological
Conclusions
123
AndrzejPiotr Wierzbicki
National InstituteofTelecommunications
Warsaw
Poland
ISSN 1868-4394 ISSN 1868-4408 (electronic)
ISBN 978-3-319-09032-0 ISBN 978-3-319-09033-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-09033-7
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Acknowledgments
ThisisaconsiderablyrevisedandenlargedtranslationofthePolishbookTechne ;
n
the translation and enlargement were supported by a statutory research of the
National Institute of Telecommunications in Poland. I would like to express my
thanks to an internal reviewer (my wife, Dr. Maria Wierzbicka) and other
reviewers, Professors: Jerzy Kleer, Józef Lubacz and Kornel Wydro for their
numerous and incisive comments that helped to clarify and enrich the material of
this book.
v
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Some Important Concepts for Further Investigations. . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Examples of Non-paradigmatic Episteme of Technology. . . . . 7
1.4 Concern of a Technician When Reading Texts
on Philosophy of Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.5 A Review of Contents of the Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Part I Epistemological Observations
2 Preface: New Epoch, It’s Conceptual Platform and Episteme. . . . 15
2.1 Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 New Epoch with Its Conceptual Platform and Episteme . . . . . 17
2.3 Main Elements of a New Conceptual Platform. . . . . . . . . . . . 25
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3 What is ‘‘Technology’’? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1 Introduction: Basic Definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2 Three Different Epistemai. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3 Selected Views of Philosophy of Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.4 The Feedback Relation of Strict Sciences and Technology . . . 45
3.5 Two Loops of Positive Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.6 The Problem of Responsibility for Socio-economic
Applications of Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.7 What will be the Technology of Knowledge
Civilization Era? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.8 New Warnings: What Should We Pay Attention to?. . . . . . . . 51
3.9 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
vii
viii Contents
4 Delays in Technology Development: Their Impact
on the Issues of Determinism, Autonomy
and Controllability of Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2 The Stages of the Processes of Creation, Production
and Use of Technology Products: Tools and Artefacts . . . . . . 62
4.3 Conclusions for Philosophy of Technology
and Humanist Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.4 Forecast and Foresight of Technology Development. . . . . . . . 71
4.5 Breakthrough Inventions and Everyday Innovations . . . . . . . . 73
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5 Rational and Evolutionary Technical Theory of Intuition. . . . . . . 79
5.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.2 Technical and Evolutionary Explanation of Intuition. . . . . . . . 81
5.3 Rational and Evolutionary Definition of Intuition. . . . . . . . . . 87
5.4 A Model of a Creative Intuitive Decision Process . . . . . . . . . 89
5.5 Further Conclusions of the Rational Evolutionary
Theory of Intuition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6 Problems of Metaphysics, Truth and Objectivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.1 Metaphysics of Fundamental Naturalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.2 Truth Versus Hermeneutic Horizon and Perspective. . . . . . . . 101
6.3 Scepticism, Feedback and Naturalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.4 Evolutionary Creation of Knowledge and a New Episteme . . . 108
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Part II Elements of Recent History of Information Technologies
7 Telecommunication, Radio Broadcasting, Television . . . . . . . . . . 119
7.1 Beginnings of Telecommunication, Radio Broadcasting,
Television: Important Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
7.2 Social and Conceptual Importance of Telecommunications . . . 123
7.3 The Social and Conceptual Importance of Broadcast
Telecommunication, Radio and Television. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
7.4 Some Disciplines Related to Telecommunications:
Radar Technologies, Biomedical Engineering,
Laser and Optical Fibre Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
7.4.1 Radar Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
7.4.2 Biomedical Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
7.4.3 Laser and Optical Fibre Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . 133
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Contents ix
8 Automatic Control, Analog Computers, Robotics:
The Concept of Feedback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
8.1 Introduction: Important Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
8.2 Analog Computers and Automatic Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
8.3 Robotics and Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
8.4 Conceptual Importance of Feedback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
9 Digital Computers, Transistors and Integrated Circuits. . . . . . . . 157
9.1 Introduction, Fundamental Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
9.2 Social and Conceptual Importance of Computers:
The Limits of Artificial Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
9.3 Electronic Flip-Flops: The Law of Moore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
9.4 Software and Hardware: Computational Complexity. . . . . . . . 171
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
10 Systems Theory, Theory of Chaos, Emergence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
10.1 Systems Theory: Introduction, Basic Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
10.2 Deterministic and Stochastic Chaos Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
10.3 Complexity and Emergence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
11 Informational Revolution: Personal Computers
and the Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
11.1 Introduction: Important Caesurae and Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
11.2 Personal Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
11.3 Computer Networks, WWW, Pendrives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
11.4 Mobile Telephony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
11.5 Internet and Network Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
11.6 Artificial Intelligence, Cognitivism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
11.7 Human Centred Computing, Human User Focus;
Knowledge Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
11.8 Intellectual Property Rights, Network Piracy,
and the Conflict Concerning Privatization
of Intellectual Heritage of Humanity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
11.9 Binary Logic and Logical Pluralism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Part III Epistemological Conclusions
12 Creative Space and Micro-Models of Knowledge Creation. . . . . . 219
12.1 New Models of Knowledge Creation at the Turn
of the 20th and 21st Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
x Contents
12.2 Organizational Processes of Knowledge Creation. . . . . . . . . . 220
12.3 Creative Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
12.4 Spirals and Academic Processes of Knowledge Creation. . . . . 229
12.5 Further Dimensions of Creative Space: Complex
Processes of Knowledge Creation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
12.6 Practical and General Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
13 Philosophy Versus History of Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
13.1 General Impression of a Technologist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
13.2 Do Scientific Revolutions Happen in Technology?
Rachel Laudan: The Nature of Technological Knowledge . . . . 245
13.3 Has a Philosopher of Technology the Right to Decide
What is Technology? Carl Mitcham:
Thinking Through Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
13.4 People and Technology Don Ihde Bodies
in Technology (2002) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
13.5 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
14 Threats and Challenges of the New Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
14.1 Methodological Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
14.2 Examples of Threats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
14.3 Challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
14.4 Challenges for Poland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
14.5 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Part IV Closing
15 Final Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Annex: My Experiences and Convictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313