Galanos Vassilis The Double Meaning of "Replacement" and the Moral Value of Human and Nonhuman Inforgs: Crossroads of Philosophy of Information and Actor-Network Theory Paper at BOBCATSSS 2017

1. The Double Meaning of “Replacement”
and the Moral Value of
Human and Nonhuman Inforgs:
Crossroads of Philosophy of Information
and Actor-Network Theory
Vassilis Galanos
University of Edinburgh
onesecbeforetheend@hotmail.com

2. Mechaphobia
● Fear of the unknown [monsters, savages, gods, etc]
● Fear of the nonhuman [wild animals, natural disasters, etc]
● Fear of the machine [automation, materialism, reification,
hylomorphism, malevolent robots, cyborgisation, addiction, etc]
is actually
● Fear of the known [human, male, white, European, adult, organic, etc]
● Fear of being replaced [technophobia, skepticism, potential of being interchangeable]

3. Replacement

7. Mechaphobia
“Spielberg’s movie mechas give us the
basis for a fine name for the fear
associated with machines: mechaphobia.
Mechaphobia that can be insidious is not
just fictional. Among its potent effects,
mechaphobia is a very real factor in the
progress, or lack thereof, toward
education on planet Earth”
(Breck, 2002, p. 34, original emphasis)

8. Mechaphobia

9. Being-with-ICTs
● We cannot think of humans apart from ICTs.
● “Making kin” with our artificial companions (Haraway, 2015).
● Paradox: Learning to live in the environment and seeing it as an existential
threat.

10. Conceptual Methods
● Heideggerian origin of words
● Philosophy of Information
● Actor-Network Theory

11. Martin Heidegger
“He occasionally coins new expressions
from older roots […] words which have
undergone a long history of semantical
change are used afresh in their older
senses” (Macquarrie & Robinson in
Heidegger, 1962, p. 13-14)
“over and above the attempt to determine
the essence of 'man' [sic] as an entity, the
question of his [sic] Being is rather
conceived as something obvious or 'self-
evident'” (Heidegger, 1962, p. 75)

12. Replacement, def. 1 [1753]
● New book in the library, new employee, new fiancé, new set of
cutlery [but never a book instead of a fiancé and vice versa]
● Element B replaces element A, but they are both of the category
X. [taxonomy, speciecism]
● Substitution

13. Replacement, def. 2 [1590]
● The cap on the pen or bottle, the book in the shelf, the vase on the
table [always in relation to a function]
● Element A returns to its initial position, not necessarily belonging
to category X.
● Reconstitution.

14. Re-placement of Replacement
● Substitute replacement with re-placement.
● Reconstitute replacement as re-placement.
● Replacement: operatively indistinguishable
function and form [no need to question – new
librarian, human or robot does exactly the
same]
● Re-placement: slight or intense differences of
function and form [new values, robot librarian
does better, what does the human do?]

15. What is irreplaceable?

16. Actor-Network Theory
● Generalised symmetry of agents against dichotomies
[human/nonhuman, organic/inorganic, individual/system,
nature/society, etc]
“the presence
of objects
which have
been
rendered
'able' to
object to
what is told
about them”
(Latour,
2000, p. 115)

17. Actor-Network Theory, cont.
“ANT states that if we wish to be a
bit more realistic about social ties
than ‘reasonable’ sociologists, then
we have to accept that the continuity
of any course of action will rarely
consist of human-to-human
connections (for which the basic
social skills would be enough
anyway) or of object-object
connections, but will probably zigzag
from one to the other” (Latour, 2005,
p. 75)
“To be symmetric, for us,
simply means not to
impose a priori some
spurious asymmetry among
human intentional action
and a material world of
causal relations” (ibid. p.
76)
‘Sociology may know
about class, or about
gender. But how much
does it know about
speciesism – the
systematic practice of
discrimination against
other species? And
how much does it
know or care about
machines?’’ (Law,
1991, p. 6-7)

18. Philosophy of Information/Information Ethics
“ICTs are not merely re-
engineering but actually
reontologizing our world.
[…] Human-Computer
interaction is a symmetric
relation” (Floridi, 2010,
p. 11) [agreement with
ANT]
Infosphere “denotes the
whole informational
environment constituted
by all informational
entities (thus including
informational agents as
well), their properties,
interactions, processes,
and mutual relations”
(Floridi, 2007, p. 59)
“Substitute now 'life'
with 'existence' and it
should become clear
what information
ethics amounts to. It
is an ecological
ethics that […]
replaces biocentrism
with ontocentrism. It
suggests that there is
something even more
elemental than life,
namely being – that
is, the existence and
flourishing of all
entities and their
global environment”
(Floridi, 2010, p.
112)

19. Conclusions: An Ontology of Re-placement as
Virtue Information Ethics
Replacement: (1) Threat (2) Substitution
Re-placement: (1) cross-species communication (2) mutual verification of the species
(3) reconstitution
Borders clash: the onlife condition, Ubiquitous Computing, Ambient Intelligence,
Internet of Things ||| Training! |||Exercise of “moral character” - Virtue Ethics

20. Conclusions: An Ontology of Re-placement as
Virtue Information Ethics
Ethical issues in AI, ICTs etc are “not just about rights
(deontology) and welfare (utility); they are often also
about issues of character” (Wallach, Allen, & Smit, 2008,
n.p.) - A Virtue Information Ethics… [to be introduced in
Information Ethics & Literacy curricula]
Techno-logies can be viewed as medicine to previous
patho-logies. Pathos (passion/passivity) is turned into
Techne (art/craft).
Technology is pharmakon [drug: poison+remedy] (cf.
Derrida, 1981)
Mechaphobia: Technology as pathology.
Re-placement: Technology as medicine.
“The essence of technology, as a destining of revealing, is
the danger” (Heidegger, 1977, p. 27)

21. Thanks a ton!
Questions?