Philosophy of Technology

 

Welcome to the home page of

Reilly Jones

Bookmark and Share

Several essays centered on how the world will cope with humanity’s natural drive towards cultural and physical speciation.

We cannot all culturally and physically speciate equally at once; therefore, such speciation occurs under conditions where excellence is the social ideal and not under conditions where equality is the social ideal.

Homeorhetic philosophy- a philosophy steering a course between idealism and materialism: the Tao, the Logos, the living arrow of creation. A conceptual flux between chaos and order approaching the source of coherency and intelligibility, the transcendent realm. The self-organizing honing in on a moving point of purposeful disequilibrium in a dynamic pattern of increasing complexity.

In Isaiah Berlin’s words: “An unstable equilibrium in need of constant attention and repair.... an open future.” Berlin adds, “The glory and dignity of man consist in the fact that it is he who chooses, and is not chosen for, that he can be his own master.”

Consider the consequences of the concept that we are not one world, that we are not one species, that we are not approaching one destiny, when thinking about the future... observe carefully the fences of a “one-world” philosophical stockyard that restricts our liberty, they are well camouflaged. Outside this stockyard, as J.R.R. Tolkien phrased it, “Resistance still had somewhere where it could take counsel free from the Shadow.”


Philosophy of Technology Study Guide

Guide to technological innovation and the future for interested individuals with limited time - streamlined access to: 1) my generalized preferences, 2) my recommendations for source material, 3) my evaluation methodology for source material and 4) short samples of my writing from this Website

Essays marked with * contain more technical material


“Divide et impera” (Divide and rule) - motto of Louis XI

“Salus gubernantium suprema lex esto” (Let the safety of the rulers be the supreme law )

“Post iure” (After the rule of law)

Selected Quotations- Thought provoking

Conceptual History Timeline: Part I- Born 9th cent. BC through 1860 AD

Conceptual History Timeline: Part II- Born after 1860 AD plus Addendum


Works in Progress

Ontology of Technology*- Foundational to the philosophy of technology, particularly in how technology both increases the scope and complexity of molecular ensembles subject to common volitional intentions and alters individual volitional intention itself

Early Transhumanist Philosophy within the Universe of Frank Herbert’s Dune - Themes of physical and cultural speciation within the 6 canonical books (1965-1985)

Education and Brain Structure- Updated and restated education initiative designed to maximize innovation in a knowledge-based economy; the metabolism of knowledge


2003 December - Proposal to Attract and Retain World-Class Intellect- Initiative for the Oregon Business Plan’s Leadership Summit 2003: Shaping Oregon’s Economic Future

2003 August - Purpose of Education- Preparing the individual for future conditions of extreme novelty

1998 March - Review of The Transparent Society by David Brin (1999)


Essays published in Extropy Journal

1996 2nd Half - A Critique of Barlow’s “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace”

1995 June - A History of Extropic Thought: Parallel Conceptual Development of Technicism and Humanism

1995 2nd/3rd Quarter *- Consciousness: Spontaneous Order and Selectional Systems - Part II

1995 1st Quarter *- Consciousness: Spontaneous Order and Selectional Systems - Part I 

1994 3rd Quarter *- Review of Origins of Order by Stuart Kauffman (1993)


Essays deriving from Internet Discussions

Science and Rationality- *The Philosophy of Biology (1993) by Elliott Sober & The Nature of Rationality (1993) by Robert Nozick

Ominous Crimson Glow- New Science (1744) by Giambattista Vico & The Crooked Timber of Humanity (1990) by Isaiah Berlin

Ethics of Human Speciation- Sapience, Intolerance and Volitional Freedom

Defining Human- Evangelium Vitae (1995) by Pope John Paul II

Recycled Nihilism and Determinism- The Life of Greece (1939) by Will Durant & The Killing of History (1997) by Keith Windschuttle

Epistemology- *Three Aspects of Reality, Conceptual Attractors, Search for Ground & Hermeneutics

Unity and the Death Wish- The Tragic Sense of Life (1913) by Miguel de Unamuno & Way to Wisdom (1951) by Karl Jaspers

Cyber-Chartres- Learning the Design Processes Which Cross the Line between Profane and Sacred Spaces

Conversation with a Physicist- The Revolt of the Masses (1930) by José Ortega y Gasset

Two American Traditions- Decline of the West (1918-1922) by Oswald Spengler & Dominations and Powers (1951) by George Santayana


Cultural Bootstrap

We must maintain the bootstrap to our past cultural history, to preserve the rich context necessary to be able to form and adapt consciences, aimed at a higher ideal than ourselves or than the state, during conditions of rapid technological innovation.

2005 November - Fabric Mosaic Art-Inspired by historical works showing the great range of differing aspects of women’s strength

2003 Summer - Prometheus Bound - by Aeschylus(updated rendition, complete with rich vocabulary, faithful to the original with humor and delightful illustration)

2001 Summer - Oedipus Rex - by Sophocles(updated rendition, complete with rich vocabulary, faithful to the original with humor and delightful illustration)


Biographical Information

 E-Mail: reillyjones@comcast.net

©2001-2012 Reilly Jones - All Rights Reserved

Last Updated 5/22/12