Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T11:43:09.053Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Should We Worry About Silicone Chip Technology De-Skilling Us?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2021

Elizabeth Fricker
Elizabeth Fricker*
Affiliation:
Magdalen College
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It is argued that many means-end skills are mere drudgery, and there is no case from well-being to regret that the advance of technology has replaced them with machines. But a case is made that for humans possessing some skills is important for well-being, and that certain core skills are important for it. It is argued that these include navigational skills. While the march of technology has tended to promote human well-being, there is now some cause for concern that silicone chip technology is de-skilling us to an extent that impacts negatively on well-being.

Type
Papers
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 89: How Do We Know? The Social Dimension of Knowledge , May 2021 , pp. 131 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aristotle trans. Rowe, C., ed. Broadie, S., Nichomachean Ethics. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, Roger, ‘Well-Being’. Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. ed. Zalta, E. N.. (Stanford University: Stanford, 2017).Google Scholar
Du, H. et al. ‘Self-Esteem and Subjective Well-being Revisited.’ PLosONE, 12(8) (2017), 1–17CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fricker, Elizabeth, ‘Epistemic and Practical Dependence and the Value of Skills Or: Satnavs, Good or Bad?’ in Trust in Epistemology. ed. Dormandy, K., (Routledge: New York and London, 2019) 64–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huth, John Edward, The Lost Art of Finding Our Way (Belknap Press, 2015).Google Scholar
Javadi, A. H., et al. ‘Hippocampal and prefontal processing of network topology to simulate the future.’ Nature Communications 8, (2017), 1–11CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, Leonard D., ‘Pleasure’. Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. ed. Zalta, E. N.. (Stanford University: Stanford, 2016).Google Scholar
Konishi, K. and Bohbot, V.D., ‘Spatial navigational strategies correlate with gray matter in the hippocampus of healthy older adults tested in a virtual maze.’ Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 5(1) (2013), 1–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mill, John Stuart, Utilitarianism. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998 (1863)).Google Scholar
O'Keefe, John and Nadel, Lynn, The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978).Google Scholar
O'Connor, M. R., Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2019).Google Scholar
Parfit, Derek, On What Matters. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).Google Scholar
Raz, Joseph, Engaging Reason. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).Google Scholar
Ryle, Gilbert, The Concept of Mind. (London: Penguin Books, 2000 (1949)).Google Scholar
Sosa, Ernest, Judgement and Agency (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Bernard, ‘Internal and External Reasons’ in Harrison, R. ed Rational Action: Studies in Philosophy and Social Science (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1979).Google Scholar