Philosophy Matters: Is Your iPhone Making Your Life Worse?

Mobile forms of technology are embedded in our daily lives. Efficiency and availability are two key advantages that such technology provides given how seemingly easy it has become to communicate with other users and find out information instantaneously. But is this ease of functioning merely a façade? Have we become reliant on a specific medium that has shaped and determined us in ways that have made our life go worse?

Taking the iPhone as a symbol of modern technology, this workshop will explore the problems of technology, whether or not they are indeed problems at all, and if so, whether there are any solutions.

This workshop is open to the public and presents a great opportunity to explore a worthwhile issue with some of the best minds in the field of the philosophy of technology.

10.00-10.30: Coffee

10.30-11.30: Mechanising Thought

Beatrice Fazi (University of Sussex)

11.30-11.45: Crossover Break

11.45-12.45: Can You See Me Now? Artists Show Us behind the Scenes of Information Overload

Sarah Cook (University of Dundee)

12.45-2.30: Lunch Break (not provided)

2.30-3.30: Anxious About Automation? How Philosophy of Technology Might Help

Dominic Smith (University of Dundee)

3.30-3.45: Crossover Break

3.45-4.45: Invisible Monsters: Your Smart Phone is an Atom Bomb

Christopher Müller (University of Cardiff)

4.45-5.15: Roundtable Discussion