Non-neutrality ICT on battlefield
Description
Technology cannot be left out of the battlefield and our current military missions are characterised by so-called 'networked' operations. Here, soldiers are linked together through a range of ICT applications to optimise decision-making processes. Here, technology is often seen as a neutral element, doing no more than facilitating communication. However, several philosophers of technology have argued that technology is not neutral; rather, technology changes the way we experience ourselves and the world around us. For example, in the stream of post-phenomenologism, authors such as Don Ihde and Peter Paul Verbeek have described non-neutrality in terms of the normative dimension of technology and in the sense that technology changes our perception of ourselves and the world. In this lecture, four different types of non-neutrality are made visible in a specific case, that of the military high-tech environment with a focus on sharing visual information and visualisation technologies. It also enriches the existing forms of non-neutrality with the model of 'normative practice'. This is necessary for a better understanding of the normative dimension of ICT on the battlefield. The focus of the post-phenomenologist and other technology philosophers is mainly on technology or the technological artefact itself. What these approaches miss is that most technologies operate in a specific practice. The lecture argues that it is more useful to gain a proper understanding of the normativity of technology by recognising that technology can never be separated from its social context. Therefore, an enriched understanding of the non-neutrality of technology is proposed. This enables a normative evaluation characterised by specific distinctions. The main distinctions are between the structural and directional side of technology and the practices in which these technologies operate. The lecture will also apply this enriched non-neutrality model to battlefield visualisation technologies
Speaker(s)
Christine van Burken is a PhD candidate working in the field of military technology and ethics. She holds a BSc in Human Kinetic Engineering (The Hague University of Professional Education, 2002), a BSc in Mechanical Engineering (Eindhoven, Fontys University of Professional Eduction, 2004) and an MA at the Amsterdam Vrije Universiteit, faculty of Philosophy (2006). She worked several years as a mechanical engineer before starting her PhD studies in June 2009.
Currently, she's working on her dissertation in a NWO funded project "Moral Fitness of military personnel in a network enabled operations environment". She looks at ICT and other networking technologies in the military domain from the pespective of Philosophy of Technology. She also uses insights from Reformational philosophy to evaluate normative issues in networked (military) environments. Her main affiliation is Eindhoven University of Technology, but due to the interdisciplinarity of her project she is also affiliated to Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Defence Academy and TNO Human Factors."
Location
Utrecht
Organiser
Philosophy & Technology
Name and contact details for information
Further information from drs.ing. Henk Uijttenhout (vz), tel: 070 - 3875293 / 06 - 42505844 or via the e-mail address below