Research and innovation in ICTs Technological power and responsibility principles - Politecnico di Torino Doctorate School 2017-2018
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Politecnico di Torino
Doctorate School 2017-2018
Research and innovation in ICTs
Technological power and responsibility
principles
Giovanni Colombo
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 1
Information and communication technologies
a transformative force rooted in the grand challenges of our age
fallibility, unstable character of economy
(money for money or money for prosperity?)
investment-production-market-profit-investment
(a cycle distortion?)
politics and democratic participation
(how ensuring social inclusion and equality?)
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 2
The growth dilemma strongly concerns the ICT Actors
the CO2 budget (COP 21) and the +2cd constraint
o de-coupling product-production footprint
Global emissions o circular economy
CO2 (GtCO2)
o personal and collective attitude
40
30
20
10
0
-10 t
2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100
(º) Cambridge - New York –
2017-2018 Global energy
Politecnico assessment towards a sustainable future - 2014
di Torino 3Not only the global dilemma interrogates our R&I action
….the ICTs affect the personal behaviour and the cognitive dimension
Social networks, the “like” society and the “rational” society (º)
emotional, performative
$ sentiment-based, stable, coded
I can do emotional design,
I’m like that
consumerism
(º) B. Chul Han – Psicopolitica Il neoliberalismo e le nuove
2017-2018 tecniche del
Politecnico potere – Nottetempo - 2016
di Torino 4The impact of technology on the reality, a very old issue
Antigone Chorus (442 B.C. - Sofocle)
Many things are formidable, and yet nothing
is quite so formidable as man.
Over the grey sea and the storming south wind,
through the foam and welling of the waves, he
makes his perilous way. Antigone
Frederic Leighton 1830-1896
The Earth also, highest of the deities, who never
shows fatigue, nor exhaustion, nor decay, ever he
furrows and ploughs, year on year,
with his ploughshare, muzzles
and horses.
Translation: H. Jonas
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 5The ICTs’ potentials - benefits and potential contradictions
network capacity and computational strength 1970 2018
Optical Fibre: 45 Mbit/s; range 10km tens of Tbit/s range 1.000 km
Computer Performance:
160M Hz; 8 Mbyte RAM; 30 M$ ?
3 GHz; 8 G byte RAM; 500$
o unlimited communication space and computational power
o non-involvement - abundance as unique aim, “others will exploit it”
o techno-determinism - technology, “sufficient key for social advances”
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 6Uniqueness of representation, transport, storage
1101
sampling
1011 from continuous to discrete
1010
t 0011
encoding
o easy conversion between languages, easy manipulation
o digital panopticon - info-bulimia, multi-tasking distraction
o brute force syndrome - no knowledge limits to do whatever I want
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 7Service and data virtualisation - web services
all functions on my PC!
service
persons and things involved
hw
platform
o descriptive language, network multiplying factor, new sociality
o abstraction - loss of expressive freedom; black-box trap, technological
consciousness sacrificed to the “easy to use” totem
o social network - a-social dimension, user exploitation, deep fake news
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 8A-spatiality
place-independence
?
place polarisation
o connection continuity, ubiquitous access, network functions and
services available everywhere
o cognitive release - “I am because I am connected and reachable”,
“I have access, then I know”
o detachment - “the network knows where I am and it guides me”
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 9Connectivity and time-independence
information effectiveness
network memory,
info is spread, no info is lost
?
everything rolls around
mobilising load
o the network delivers and registers, info is recovered, rolls around
independently from time and space
o interruption syndrome - “messages mobilise me” (º)
o entropic effect - info spread and repetition reduces info content
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino
(º) M. Ferraris: Mobilitazione totale 2016
10Biological integration, mind reproduction input
neural network
dendrite neuron
synapse output
o mind mechanisms functionally emulated, neural networks to face
complex problems, selfishness as for TLC network control
o functionalism vs. biological naturalism, mind - brain independence?
o technological replacement of intentionality and conscience?
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 11The philosophical view for a new kind of responsibility
connected to the transformative power of technology (º)
“… if the new nature of our acting calls for a new ethics of long-range
responsibility, coextensive with the range of our power,
then
it calls also for a new kind of humility, a humility owed not to the
smallness of our power, but to the excessive magnitude of it”
(º) Hans Jonas - The imperative of responsibility
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 12Responsibility is also inspired to concrete requirements
repairing the impacts of our careless actions is more tricky than acting
in a responsible way
The significant level of problems we face
cannot be solved at the same level of thinking
we were at when we created them
Albert Einstein
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 13Essential questions rise on the R&I on social challenges
Urban evolution, Energy conversion, Food and water, Production chains,
Social inclusion
Is the technical feasibility of an innovation a sufficient condition to
put it in operations?
Can a new ethical framework guarantee that technological advances
are beneficial for both individuals and communities?
criteria, principles
the nature of responsibility?
norm, prescription
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 14A responsible R&I approach to societal challenges
can borrow some ideas from the personal knowledge-acquisition cycle
anticipation
prediction Individual knowledge acquisition cycle
knowledge-building
(Kelly-Piaget)
new cognitive
constructs
verification
“We must remind that what we observe is
real world failure not the nature in its genuine form, but the
nature represented through the way we are
posing questions”
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino (Heisenberg) 15The constructivist paradigm
can represent a useful framework for responsible R&I actions in ICT
The comprehension of reality: a progression of mental
constructions considering also contextual and historical elements.
The interaction between the Researcher and the Observed
process, results in a double, transformative attitude.
The method: interpretative, dialectical, transdisciplinary,
focused on awareness and a participatory mind-set
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 16The responsible approach in ICT research and innovation
discloses personal and professional values
The phases of a R&I action facing a societal
issue
o to recognise the (desirable) research aims
o to identify the essential mechanisms of the
The values research object
o intentionality o to choose the innovation among the many
o critical spirit options by figuring-out the relevant impact
o comprehensiveness
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 17Intentionality – level of transformation and involvement aim
the garbage issue in the framework of circular economy
Rationalising intention: to increase the share of differentiated material and to
optimise the collection process (present, conservative trend)
Transformative intention: to reduce the overall footprint by
adding context variables: differentiation quality, user
behaviour, waste production per capita
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 18Critical spirit - open and non-conventional mind set
the health approach for an active ageing
Passive spirit: focus on personal diseases and elder-centred care: pharmacology
and techno-determinism
Excess of monitoring, control, classification: risk of hypochondria, anxiety
and cognitive regression
Critical spirit: focus on systemic care: cognitive,
emotional and behavioural needs of the elder
Activity and healthy status: end of causality?
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 19Comprehensiveness - shed new light on technological meaning
a development issue: the local-global dilemma
Globalised economy: unique and product-drive attraction model: efficiency,
competitiveness, market growth through essential ICT functions
a-spatiality, time independence, production supply chain
driven by the actual factory model
ICT functions available in any place, balance between
working and affective time, local production
new economic models ground on place as attraction force
for sustainable, inclusive and resilient local communities?
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 20The effort to adopt a responsible approach in R&I is per se beneficial The questions raised are not against, but rather in favour of R&I… … neither they are tedious, unnecessary and depressing. They challenge Researchers … …. to disclose creativity and to enrich their knowledge, wisdom and active role for the advantage of society 2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 21
The transformative power of a responsible ICT research
a sort of summary …. with implicit wishes for the coming experience
reality
research
actor
perspective
The way we look at the reality
is shaping our conscience and is changing
the world at the same time
2017-2018 Politecnico di Torino 22You can also read
