Work

Vertical Technologies and Relational Values: Rethinking Ethics of Technology in an Age of Extractivism

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Critical reflection on the material, environmental, and social conditions underlying technology remains peripheral to the field of technology ethics. In this commentary, I underwrite the diagnosis by Vandemeulebroucke et al. (2025) that the field suffers from an "extractivist blindspot", but propose a somewhat different cure. First, rather than focusing on the material ontogenesis of technical artefacts, a more radical turn away from artefacts is called for, towards layered socio-technical systems as the field's core object of analysis. Second, notwithstanding the merits of their intercultural proposal, I argue that in overcoming extractivism the conceptual resources of more adjacent philosophical traditions should not be overlooked.

Source: Philosophy & Technology

DOI: 10.1007/s13347-025-00962-w

Author: Jeroen Hopster

Institution: Utrecht University

Language: English

Topic: Environmental Philosophy and Ethics

Subfield: Nature and Landscape Conservation

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,290