Mind, Machine and Morality

Subtitled 'towards a philosophy of human life and technology symbiosis', this is a penetrating but technical consideration of the relationship between human beings and the technology that we develop. We shape technology, but technology is also shaping us. Hancock asks who is providing the directions, intentions and goals of the human-machine partnership. Certainly not the creators, nor our social and political leaders. This raises the whole question of definitions of progress, purposes and process. We need to stand back and analyse our direction of travel, bringing the tools of analytical philosophy to bear on these questions. Already, the division between what we call work and leisure is dissolving, and Hancock proposes that this dissolution should be an explicit aim of technological design -- in other words future human-machine interaction should be enjoyable and designed to be so. A thoughtful and wide ranging work.