Humanoids Morals and Machines

Chapter 1

The Circle of Intent and Result

In this passage, Rothenberg discusses how humans mold the world in order to create things that will benefit them. The world is taken and from it, we construct it into our design in order to make our lives easier. This is constantly happening as new technology seems to arise one right after the other. As this is happening, humans are slowly learning more and more, and becoming extremely comfortable using the instruments that are being constructed from the world. As a result, with time, humans begin to get used to having these instruments in their every day lives. People then start to get used to doing things the easy way and begin to lose the appreciation for the devices. The more that we learn about it, the more we use it. With this, I fell like technology loses its value, it is no longer seen as man and nature coming together to create something, but another crutch to help man get though the day. People interact with nature by creating new pieces of technology, but the technology then brings the rest of humanity away from nature. For instance, television, computers, and video games cause people to stay indoors instead of going out and exploring nature. So in a way we become closer to the world by finding new ways to use its resources. However, at the same time, this results in humanity using the final product created from nature more and spending more time away from nature.

According to Rothenberg, “we see the world as we make it, and make the world into what we have seen and imagined through the tangible construction of technical possibilities.” He believes that the human desire to transform the world is what guides our actions towards actually transforming it. We create the things that we do from the world for a simple want and not because of a need. Through this want, humans are putting themselves into the technology because they are more or less thinking about themselves. As opposed to a need, where there...