Artur Alves
- Assistant Professor (LTA), Centre for Engineering in Society, Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, Concordia UniversityPreviously: - Course Lecturer, Département de communication, Université de Montréal.- Non-Resident Visiting Scholar, DAHCS, McGill University, Montréal, Québec.- Researcher in CECL, New University of Lisbon, Portugal. - Auxiliary Professor in the Department of Sciences and Technologies of Information and Communication of the Atlântica University, Portugal. - Lecturer, Communication Studies Department, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.- Lecturer, Social Sciences School, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, Portugal.My most recent book, Criador e Criatura (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Portugal, 2013) reflects my PhD dissertation on the social impacts of information technology and emerging technologies, presented to the New University of Lisbon in 2010. I edited the book Unveiling the Posthuman. Oxford, Inter-Disciplinary Press (2012). My research on philosophy of technology and the social impacts of emerging technologies, new media and cyber conflict has been presented in several international conferences (see the Papers section).
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Books by Artur Alves
Creator and creature: the role of information and communication technologies in the new context of emerging technologies
ABSTRACT:
This text will try to address the following issue: what is the role of the new ICTs in the context created by emerging technologies? The purpose of this questioning is to understand the relevance of ICTs in contemporary technological experience, in the general framework of science, technology and society studies that might be able to coherently integrate new knowledge about perception, representation and cognition. A secondary, albeit important, question presents itself, related to the clash of new perspectives of creation of hybrid systems between traditions and theoretical approaches about technique and technologies, very much present in scientific speculation and futurology: how can this evolution be understood from philosophy of technology’s viewpoint? And how does it express itself in past and present techno-utopias? Is there continuity or a fundamental break between past and present technological forms and techno-utopian formulations? These questions are related to the existing technological environment, but also with the changes that loom as a possible future or fictional image: will new technologies be able to rebuild society and political systems, under the overarching categories of generalized rationality and post humanism? Can human beings and society be administered by highly efficient artificial systems, such as those present in science fiction? Assuming that the crisis, or at least the specter of a crisis of political and social institutions, is felt as fact, what promises or risks are present in the development of emergent technologies? And what is ICT’s role in this process?
Therefore, this text suggests a comprehensive view of communication and information technologies that includes its role as a mirror and driver of human ambitions for humanity and society. Given the complex interlocking of this questioning, it will be developed through a previous study of its diverse genealogy, regarding the scientific and technical knowledge embodied in ICTs and NBIC (nano-bio-info-cognitive sciences and technologies), the concepts of interaction and communication and the perspectives of philosophy of communication about these changes. This study is undertaken through the analysis of possible repercussions and new political and social questionings that may be brought to fruition by the emergence of these phenomena.
The solution to this crisis might be, in democratic contexts, a convivial view of technologies – and especially ICTs – the effects of which would be an enlargement of the discussion about these. This praxis is favorable to the construction or institution of a mature relationship between individual and ICTs (and, potentially, other technologies), but also to a new understanding of the public role of ICTs and emergent technologies (NBIC technologies). In this regard, it is particularly important an ethical and philosophical landscape of the effects of the colonization of human beings by NBIC technologies and the reduction – or enframing – of the natural and social world to technicity’s determinations.
KEYWORDS: NBIC, ICT, philosophy of technology, colonization, techno-utopia, posthumanism, conviviality
Papers by Artur Alves
Alves, Artur Matos (2016). "Online Content Control, Memory and Community Isolation", in Karatzogianni, A., Dennis Nguyen, and Elisa Serafinelli. _The Digital Transformation of the Public Sphere: Conflict, Migration, Crisis and Culture in Digital Networks_. Pp. 83-106. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Memory-building in cyberspace becomes more fragile under uncertain or insecure sociotechnological conditions. Vague or unfavourable legal frameworks for online expression, privacy, and data security, as well as dependence on service providers beholden to commercial and political interests, present serious challenges to the possibilities of speech and action of online activist communities. This raises much more alarming questions about user privacy, expectations of anonymity, and legal liability for opinions publicly expressed.
These findings suggest a need to reassess the sociotechnological and institutional frameworks of online activism. Communities woven into our fragmented globalized society require a set of conditions which includes technological mediation. Prospects for a strengthening of community cannot overlook the facts of contemporary life at the margins – connectivity without leisure, work without security, presence without sense of belonging. If community building and identity sharing move online to overcome these dilemmas, and in that process they become more exposed to the constraints of a shared sociotechnical system, aspects of the latter may and should be revised so as to not hinder the prospects of a more open and plural public life.
da última década. Procura dar uma perspectiva sociopolítica sobre o conflito no ciberespaço, a
representação de actores e dos contextos em que esta se desenrola, relacionando a emergência destas
representações com o contexto histórico actual da esfera digital. Adoptando uma perspectiva crítica com
elementos de análise retórica, semiológica e discursiva, a discussão centra-se nas seguintes questões:
que personagens, cenários e contextos de ciberconflito são representados no cinema de ficção científica
da última década? Como são representadas tecnologias, grupos sociais e indivíduos? Por fim, como são
representadas as relações de poder subjacentes, e quais os valores dominantes que dão forma a essas
representações?
(EN) This article seeks to reflect on the representations of ciberconflict in science fiction cinema of the
last decade. Seeks to provide a socio-political perspective on the conflict in cyberspace, representing
actors and contexts in wich it unfolds, relating the emergence of these representations with the current
historical context of the digital sphere. Adopting a critical perspective with elements of rhetoric,
semiotics and discourse analysis, the discussion focuses on the following questions: wich characters,
settings and contexts ciberconflict are represented in science fiction cinema of the last decade? As
technologies, social groups and individuals are represented? Finally, are represented as the underlying
power relations, and wich the dominant values that shape these representations?
'Singularity' thinking's ancestry can be traced back to the utopian thinking of Campanella, as well as positivistic utopianism, the works of eschatological thinkers such as Teilhard de Chardin, and the speculative writings of computer scientists.
More recently, it has become a common trope in speculative fiction. This heritage is acknowledged in the writings of V. Vinge, which have laid the conditions for the rise of a 'technological singularity'. As an heir to the utopian tradition, 'singularitarianism' espouses a theory of human history as progress towards better forms of existence.
Scientific and technological development would be destined to accelerate humankind into a post-human condition, with the creation of artificial intelligence as the milestone signalling the beginning of that new era.
The acceleration thesis of ‘singularitarianism’ and its inherent uncertainty have given rise to a variety of positions, ranging from the enthusiastic (as, for example, N. Bostrom, R. Kurzweil, or H. Moravec), to the sceptic (including B. Joy, J. Lanier, R. Penrose). Rarely have they been the object of a sustained philosophical approach (an exception would be D. Chalmers’ “The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis”).
The 'Singularity' scenario integrates images, metaphors, notions, and hopes also present in cyberculture: the central element of technology, its interfaces with humans, hybridization, mind-body dualism, the moral nature of AI, and the coexistence between humanity and AI. As a result, this paper addresses a needed critical characterization of 'Singularity' thinking, exploring some"
In these fictions, social stability rests on the trade-off between human autonomy latu sensu and material comfort provided by superhuman artificial intelligence.
The heteronomous character of life in the technological utopia reveals itself in the coexistence of physical protection and material comfort with social isolation, paranoia, reverence for authority and strict penalties (such as marginalization, death and exposure for humans). In this sense, relinquishment of political agency and an almost complete symbiosis translate into an apparent cessation of human history, which can only be resumed by breakdown or revolution. Specifically, the breakdown of the artificial super-intelligence not only brings about the end of a particular mode of being, but also reveals the true extent of a dependency hitherto unacknowledged. In its most extreme form, this dependency can become “homelessness” - i.e., the isolation of human beings in a hostile, non-mediated world.
This paper will focus on the fate of human communities after the institution of artificial agency as their leading force, and on the consequences of a high degree of reliance upon complex artificial systems. Drawing critically upon Agamben’s concept of “naked life”, as well as Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss’ theorizations of tyranny, to study in detail “The Machine Stops”, I will argue that this concept of “homelessness” can be analyzed in the light of political philosophy as a particular case of a techno-dystopic “end of history” in three steps: loss of autonomy, complete dependency, and systemic breakdown.
Conference Presentations by Artur Alves
Creator and creature: the role of information and communication technologies in the new context of emerging technologies
ABSTRACT:
This text will try to address the following issue: what is the role of the new ICTs in the context created by emerging technologies? The purpose of this questioning is to understand the relevance of ICTs in contemporary technological experience, in the general framework of science, technology and society studies that might be able to coherently integrate new knowledge about perception, representation and cognition. A secondary, albeit important, question presents itself, related to the clash of new perspectives of creation of hybrid systems between traditions and theoretical approaches about technique and technologies, very much present in scientific speculation and futurology: how can this evolution be understood from philosophy of technology’s viewpoint? And how does it express itself in past and present techno-utopias? Is there continuity or a fundamental break between past and present technological forms and techno-utopian formulations? These questions are related to the existing technological environment, but also with the changes that loom as a possible future or fictional image: will new technologies be able to rebuild society and political systems, under the overarching categories of generalized rationality and post humanism? Can human beings and society be administered by highly efficient artificial systems, such as those present in science fiction? Assuming that the crisis, or at least the specter of a crisis of political and social institutions, is felt as fact, what promises or risks are present in the development of emergent technologies? And what is ICT’s role in this process?
Therefore, this text suggests a comprehensive view of communication and information technologies that includes its role as a mirror and driver of human ambitions for humanity and society. Given the complex interlocking of this questioning, it will be developed through a previous study of its diverse genealogy, regarding the scientific and technical knowledge embodied in ICTs and NBIC (nano-bio-info-cognitive sciences and technologies), the concepts of interaction and communication and the perspectives of philosophy of communication about these changes. This study is undertaken through the analysis of possible repercussions and new political and social questionings that may be brought to fruition by the emergence of these phenomena.
The solution to this crisis might be, in democratic contexts, a convivial view of technologies – and especially ICTs – the effects of which would be an enlargement of the discussion about these. This praxis is favorable to the construction or institution of a mature relationship between individual and ICTs (and, potentially, other technologies), but also to a new understanding of the public role of ICTs and emergent technologies (NBIC technologies). In this regard, it is particularly important an ethical and philosophical landscape of the effects of the colonization of human beings by NBIC technologies and the reduction – or enframing – of the natural and social world to technicity’s determinations.
KEYWORDS: NBIC, ICT, philosophy of technology, colonization, techno-utopia, posthumanism, conviviality
Alves, Artur Matos (2016). "Online Content Control, Memory and Community Isolation", in Karatzogianni, A., Dennis Nguyen, and Elisa Serafinelli. _The Digital Transformation of the Public Sphere: Conflict, Migration, Crisis and Culture in Digital Networks_. Pp. 83-106. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Memory-building in cyberspace becomes more fragile under uncertain or insecure sociotechnological conditions. Vague or unfavourable legal frameworks for online expression, privacy, and data security, as well as dependence on service providers beholden to commercial and political interests, present serious challenges to the possibilities of speech and action of online activist communities. This raises much more alarming questions about user privacy, expectations of anonymity, and legal liability for opinions publicly expressed.
These findings suggest a need to reassess the sociotechnological and institutional frameworks of online activism. Communities woven into our fragmented globalized society require a set of conditions which includes technological mediation. Prospects for a strengthening of community cannot overlook the facts of contemporary life at the margins – connectivity without leisure, work without security, presence without sense of belonging. If community building and identity sharing move online to overcome these dilemmas, and in that process they become more exposed to the constraints of a shared sociotechnical system, aspects of the latter may and should be revised so as to not hinder the prospects of a more open and plural public life.
da última década. Procura dar uma perspectiva sociopolítica sobre o conflito no ciberespaço, a
representação de actores e dos contextos em que esta se desenrola, relacionando a emergência destas
representações com o contexto histórico actual da esfera digital. Adoptando uma perspectiva crítica com
elementos de análise retórica, semiológica e discursiva, a discussão centra-se nas seguintes questões:
que personagens, cenários e contextos de ciberconflito são representados no cinema de ficção científica
da última década? Como são representadas tecnologias, grupos sociais e indivíduos? Por fim, como são
representadas as relações de poder subjacentes, e quais os valores dominantes que dão forma a essas
representações?
(EN) This article seeks to reflect on the representations of ciberconflict in science fiction cinema of the
last decade. Seeks to provide a socio-political perspective on the conflict in cyberspace, representing
actors and contexts in wich it unfolds, relating the emergence of these representations with the current
historical context of the digital sphere. Adopting a critical perspective with elements of rhetoric,
semiotics and discourse analysis, the discussion focuses on the following questions: wich characters,
settings and contexts ciberconflict are represented in science fiction cinema of the last decade? As
technologies, social groups and individuals are represented? Finally, are represented as the underlying
power relations, and wich the dominant values that shape these representations?
'Singularity' thinking's ancestry can be traced back to the utopian thinking of Campanella, as well as positivistic utopianism, the works of eschatological thinkers such as Teilhard de Chardin, and the speculative writings of computer scientists.
More recently, it has become a common trope in speculative fiction. This heritage is acknowledged in the writings of V. Vinge, which have laid the conditions for the rise of a 'technological singularity'. As an heir to the utopian tradition, 'singularitarianism' espouses a theory of human history as progress towards better forms of existence.
Scientific and technological development would be destined to accelerate humankind into a post-human condition, with the creation of artificial intelligence as the milestone signalling the beginning of that new era.
The acceleration thesis of ‘singularitarianism’ and its inherent uncertainty have given rise to a variety of positions, ranging from the enthusiastic (as, for example, N. Bostrom, R. Kurzweil, or H. Moravec), to the sceptic (including B. Joy, J. Lanier, R. Penrose). Rarely have they been the object of a sustained philosophical approach (an exception would be D. Chalmers’ “The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis”).
The 'Singularity' scenario integrates images, metaphors, notions, and hopes also present in cyberculture: the central element of technology, its interfaces with humans, hybridization, mind-body dualism, the moral nature of AI, and the coexistence between humanity and AI. As a result, this paper addresses a needed critical characterization of 'Singularity' thinking, exploring some"
In these fictions, social stability rests on the trade-off between human autonomy latu sensu and material comfort provided by superhuman artificial intelligence.
The heteronomous character of life in the technological utopia reveals itself in the coexistence of physical protection and material comfort with social isolation, paranoia, reverence for authority and strict penalties (such as marginalization, death and exposure for humans). In this sense, relinquishment of political agency and an almost complete symbiosis translate into an apparent cessation of human history, which can only be resumed by breakdown or revolution. Specifically, the breakdown of the artificial super-intelligence not only brings about the end of a particular mode of being, but also reveals the true extent of a dependency hitherto unacknowledged. In its most extreme form, this dependency can become “homelessness” - i.e., the isolation of human beings in a hostile, non-mediated world.
This paper will focus on the fate of human communities after the institution of artificial agency as their leading force, and on the consequences of a high degree of reliance upon complex artificial systems. Drawing critically upon Agamben’s concept of “naked life”, as well as Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss’ theorizations of tyranny, to study in detail “The Machine Stops”, I will argue that this concept of “homelessness” can be analyzed in the light of political philosophy as a particular case of a techno-dystopic “end of history” in three steps: loss of autonomy, complete dependency, and systemic breakdown.