A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology

Philosophical Implications of Convergence

The technologies cannot unite unless the sciences also do so. This means that converging fields must develop shared languages, theories and educational curricula. The ultimate result could be the emergence of a universal set of scientific principles, the consensus of science about how the universe functions and the universal toolkit employed by engineers to transform the material conditions of human life. For example, the biological concept of evolution by natural selection from random variation has been adapted by computer scientists in genetic algorithms and evolutionary computing methods.

Importantly, the scientists and engineers who participated in the landmark NBIC and nano conferences expect substantial changes in human nature to result. Note the titles of two of the conference volumes: Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance and The Coevolution of Human Potential and Converging Technologies. In order to compete with each other, individuals, corporations and nations may need to embrace convergence, with the unintended consequence that the rules of competition may constantly change as human nature is altered by the NBIC technologies.

Already, in such areas as human–computer interaction and robotics, major fields of information technology research and development, the distinction between human and machine cognition is blurring. Smart machines from videogames to office information systems are progressively designed to ...