# Philosophy of Technology Oral Exam Questions General course questions covering function, design aesthetics, ethics, and technological mediation. ## Function & Metaphysics 1. Can an artifact have a function that nobody intended it to have? 2. If two physically identical objects have different functions, what makes them different things? 3. Does the existence of repurposed artifacts (an old tyre used as a swing) pose a problem for any account of proper function? 4. If function is practice-dependent, does that make it less real than the physical properties of an object? ## Design Aesthetics 5. Can a beautifully designed object be functionally poor, or does functional failure undermine its aesthetic value? 6. Is there anything aesthetically valuable about design that cannot be reduced to functional beauty? 7. If two people disagree about whether a design is elegant, could one of them simply be wrong? 8. Can we aesthetically appreciate an artifact whose function we misunderstand? ## Design Ethics & Responsibility 9. Is a designer responsible for uses of their product they could not have anticipated? 10. If technologies mediate our moral choices, does that diminish human responsibility? 11. Can embedding values into design ever be a form of manipulation? 12. Is there a moral difference between designing a technology that enables harm and designing one that encourages it? ## AI & Technological Mediation 13. Does ChatGPT do anything that deserves to be called "understanding"? 14. If AI shapes how we perceive options, does that make the AI a moral agent? 15. Can you be fully responsible for a decision that was significantly shaped by AI recommendations? 16. If technologies structure our possibilities, is "negative freedom" from technology even achievable? 17. Is the instrumental view of technology naïve, or is mediation theory overstating technology's role? ## Cross-Cutting Questions 18. What, if anything, distinguishes artifacts from natural objects metaphysically? 19. Should we extend the concept of "moral patient" to include AI systems? Why or why not? 20. If good taste in design requires expertise, does that mean non-experts' aesthetic judgments are worthless?