Content

In what ways are information and communication technologies changing our cultural, social and cognitive habits and processes? This module explores the ethical, epistemological and aesthetic implications of digital technologies from an applied perspective, to show the incidence that philosophical analysis can have in establishing a correct privacy policy in a social network, rethinking the museum due to the use of interactive installations, decide on the apparent neutrality of a recommendation algorithm or create new ways of distributing scientific knowledge.

Content by sessions

1) Basic concepts of digital culture 

Analysis of the main concepts associated with the idea of  digital culture, and the different mechanisms of cognitive, social and cultural transformation that these technologies entail.

2) Philosophical models from which to understand digital culture 

 There will be different philosophical approaches that currently applied philosophy used to analyze ethical, aesthetic and cognitive problems that involve the digital revolution. Among others we will consider models of identity and individualization from phenomenology, enactivism and biopolitics.

 3) Ethics applied to digital technologies. Privacy 

We will study in what ways digital technologies transform our relationship with public space and private space, how do tensions between basic rights are created and how can  weavoid falling into a state of continuous vigilance by governments and corporations.

4) Ethics applied to digital technologies. Big Data 

Linked to the previous session, we will see how massive data collection of all kinds, especially users, amplifies privacy threats and also generates other ethical dilemmas such as the question of ownership of data, algorithms such as the main mechanism for making social and political decisions, etc.

5) Ethics applied to digital technologies. The future of work 

More jobs are increasingly lost as a result of automation processes. The inclusion of artificial intelligence further complicates this scenario. We must rethink our social and economic model, establish what is a "pure" result of technology and what is, in fact, an application of the neo-liberal model of society, and use critical philosophical tools to analyze phenomena such as cognitive capitalism, attention economy or the basic income concept.

6) Reviewing the (cyber) ontology applied: what is reality? 

Is the universe a simulation? Where do we live and manage our identity? Can we differentiate between reality and virtuality? All these questions emerge in contemporary discourses from the revolution that we are experiencing in the modes of production and informational consumption. We will make a reflection on how the digital revolution requires a revision of the notion of ontology.

7) Artivism and electronic art. New forms of criticism and disobedience 

New forms and artistic channels allow and promote new forms of socially distributed reflection on the community values that govern us. Art in digital environments has adopted new forms and has increased its critical nature in relation to the previous paradigm. We will examine some of the most significant ideas and works, especially those related to identity and morality.

8) The academic revolution: universities, knowledge, and e-Humanities 

The production and diffusion of knowledge have undergone a profound transformation based on the expansion of work environments, generating new knowledge cultures, full of challenges, problems, and opportunities, in equal parts. We will enter into the revolution in the (capitalist) forms of producing (and selling) knowledge in the 21st century.

9) The ethical challenges of transhumanism. The world of cyborgs and conscious IA.

The technological possibilities in relation to the human transformation ofourselves demand a reconsideration of what is human nature and the modes of fusion between biological systems and engineering systems. We will discuss the main challenges in today's world about the future of humanity, perhaps its end as a species in the classical taxonomic sense. We will also discuss the positions (Western ones mostly) universalists confronted with the creation of communities (dynamically) homogeneous. We will also talk about how intelligent machines are changing our society.

10) The empirical lessons of some consequences of digitization

"Herbivorous men" in Japan, learning and gamification, personalized attention (or abandonment from educational liberalism?), Digital identity, informational law, the new digital economy or the deep network (Dark Web) are some of the alterations or changes that we can detect in the new digital societies and which point to some of the possible challenges involved in the digital revolution. By means of examples from societies with more digital implementation, we will review the philosophical and practical challenges of this new paradigm.