Philosophy of the Machine
On the Hidden Structure underlying Science and Technology
New Online Course begins May 14th, 2023
Enrolment is now open! Please visit our enrolment page on our teachable profile.
Seminars begin Sunday, May 14th 2023 at 6pm UK time / 1pm EST.
The Machine grips us with horror.
To some it promises salvation. To others the machine means doom. Philosophers have tried to rationalise technology or what should be called techno-science in various ways. It seems, however, as though no rational explanation is capable of grasping what appears to be happening to us and the whole world. Those with a more imaginative understanding cannot help but find themselves being devoured by a multi-limbed demonic and off-worldly entity.
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The machine has taken us onto a technological journey. A journey which is said to drive progress and allegedly is approaching an end point. This end point has been referred to as the technological singularity. It is the event after which technics runs off and escapes human agency. In times of deepfakes and ChatGPT, the voices are getting louder, prophesizing the arrival of AGI (artificial general intelligence) as well as the singularity.
But why? Where do these narratives originate from? How did technology attain this central role in our world? As always, philosophy mirrors what has been playing itself out within ourselves. Our science, ideology, technology, system and myth have been captured by the machinations of the machine. Join us in this years' course and we will dive into the depths of these machinations!
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Together we will read texts by Husserl, Heidegger, Spengler, Engels, Deleuze and others — to get to the bottom of what the hell is going on. What is Technology Heidegger explained is a realm to itself in which humans can learn to dwell.
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Your Teacher: Seán McFadden
Seán has is currently finishing his Masters in Neuroengineering at the Technical University Munich and the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig. He has a bachelor degree in theoretical astrophysics from Marburg University and
He worked for the Psychometrics Center in Cambridge,
before which he researched phenomenological theories of consciousness at the Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence in Cambridge University.
His academic studies of artificial intelligence, complex systems and the philosophy of mathematics combined with his private studies of myth, religion and psychology have lead him to go into the depths of attempting to make sense of the rapidly changing modern world.