# Values in Technologies ![rw-book-cover](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/media/uploaded_book_covers/profile_1188016/fBwDJ1GSez8mx2g-YkvJMzm4KEXZbDGy28NkXfiq_n8-cove_14oj08s.png) ## Metadata - Author: [[Joseph C. Pitt]] - Full Title: Values in Technologies - Category: #articles - Summary: insert summary - My notes: - Summary: The text explores whether technological artifacts can possess values, ultimately arguing that values are inherent to humans and not objects. Human decisions and actions are driven by values, shaping the creation and development of technology. The author contends that values are intrinsic to human decision-making processes, emphasizing the complexity and subjectivity of values in shaping technological advancements. - URL: https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/166612345 - Source File: Values in Technologies by Joseph C. Pitt.pdf ## LLM Chats ## NotebookLM ## LLM Audio ## Highlights > What I am going to do is examine the question of whether or not technological artifacts have, in some sense of “have”, values. This is because there is both something right about what the slogan says and something wrong. What’s right is that by itself guns don’t do anything. On the other hand, humans rarely kill anything with their bare hands and so, it is humans with guns that do the killing, not humans by themselves. Nevertheless, I am led to the conclusion that in fact it is people who do the killing, not the gun. That guns are used to kill is not in dispute. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwax5jxtvvry613bb3e7wvsy)) > From the start there arises an apparently insurmountable problem: whether we want to defend or deny the value neutrality thesis, we have to have an account of values. The problem is that I do not believe it is possible to develop such an account without begging the question, i.e., that values are the sorts of things that only humans have. And if this is true, then we have the beginnings of a potential dilemma: on the one hand, if values are the sorts of things that only humans have, then technologies cannot have values by defi nition. If, on the other hand, values are the sorts of things that humans have, then everything humans do and make, i.e., all our technologies, are, in some, as yet to be defi ned sense, at least tainted by human values. The fi rst horn of the dilemma leaves us with the issue of the factors involved in making decisions about which technologies to make and how to employ them. The second renders the value question trivial. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwax9gegcsqn2xswxq1wqwr1)) - Note: good discussion point > so many values are involved in the creation of an artifact that we might as well say it is value neutral. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwaxj4vvmfpv5462rr3262c2)) - Note: the main the thrust of the argument > To attempt to move the discussion further, I propose a different pragmatist account: a value is an endorsement of a preferred state of affairs by an individual or group of individuals that motivates our actions. To some this may sound like a defi ni- tion of “goal”. However, values differ from goals in that goals are objectives to be obtained. Once obtained, a goal is no longer a goal; it becomes something achieved. Values, on the other hand, as a motivation to achieve a preferred states of affairs, serve as action initiators, directing what we do in one direction rather than another. The preferred state of affairs serves as a regulative ideal. Thus, to be an honest person is a preferred state of affairs for most people and remains so even if sometimes we are less than honest. That we are sometimes less than honest does not mean we have given up honesty as a regulative ideal. Circumstances intervene. Furthermore, despite their differences, values, as action motivators, and goals can be rank ordered and those orders can change. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwaxsgjavzv61nmnmxxc0bax)) > Morality is a social virtue – your values mainly concern how you interact with others for their well being. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwaxykc0bg7gnpxg5ey0w633)) > So I endorse Aristotle’s view that the goal of moral theory is help us achieve The Good Life – and achieving the Good Life cannot be solely about my life – but the Good Life for all – not just for me, but for all of us. This is not a new thought, just a reminder of what we should be concerned about. Such a goal provides us ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hway11ewgsa44v2qcf6tbqhy)) > with the kind of leverage we need in tricky cases like Grandma’s. I ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hway15q1z50bhepktzsn6g40)) > By accepting the fact that values can be reprioritized in the light of the changing bigger picture puts us in a position to argue that since morals are a particular form of value instantiation, that morals can also be shifted around to accommodate the diffi culties we encounter when attempting to work our way toward The Good Life. The point about the Good Life is that when we contemplate achieving it, we have to factor in the fact that the other six billion people on the planet are trying to achieve the same goal. Two things here: fi rst, while we are all seeking the Good Life, it does not follow that we all have the same conception of the Good Life. Second, it is surely true that “no man is an island unto him or herself”. We live with others and must take them into account. Further looking beyond my wellbeing entails also looking beyond the consequences of a single action. That is, we need to look at the consequences of the consequences of our actions. Having a consistent, if movable, set of values is one piece of the puzzle of how to achieve that. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hway2dpwg14avsp6vy6cae9f)) > I want to argue that all human decisions are value-laden and that since any artifact will be the result of many decisions, many values will be involved, so many in fact that it becomes impossible to identify the one value that an artifact embodies, were artifacts to embody values. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hway8xcdm2kt0ftkcdbgxtm1)) > A preferred state of affairs is a goal to be achieved. It is not enough to say or write that, for example, eliminating poverty is our goal. Articulating such an objective is important, but unless you do something to achieve that goal, it is merely empty rhetoric. Endorsing the goal means acting in such a way as to bring it about, this is the pragmatism part. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hway9kjcq7wy4d25fsfwkmmx)) > All three of these values, however, are values of people. They may see the stadium as symbolizing their own values, but that doesn’t mean the values are in the stadium. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwaybg334dtpzh6866fwyhf3)) > Here at Virginia Tech some argue that the football stadium instantiates a value. But, and this is an impor- tant question: whose value? Here are some possibilities: (1) Football is important to the President, the alumni and the students, especially since if we have a winning team; it accords the university some sort of prestige. (2) The stadium is emblematic of the University – thus those who are proud of the university and being part of it in some way, see the stadium as a symbol for all that is good about Virginia Tech. (3) The stadium stands for the aspirations of the football players who have dreams of play- ing professional ball and making lots of money. All three of these values, however, are values of people. They may see the stadium as symbolizing their own values, but that doesn’t mean the values are in the stadium. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwcm9grgvycczkhtjk81j2gc)) > Let us now look at what it would mean for an artifact to embody human values. The problem, of course, lies in the lack of discerning empirical properties of values. We don’t know what they look like (hence the pragmatist move to actions – if you claim you have a certain value, then you must do something to show that you, in fact, endorse that value). In Langdon Winner’s examination of the construction of the Long Island Expressway (LIE), he claims that it was Commissioner of Parks and Recreation Robert Moses’ desire, i.e., his values, to keep inner city residents from the beaches of Long Island that resulted in the overpasses over the LIE being of such a height that city buses, the only mode of transportation available to inner city residents who wanted to visit the beaches, could not pass under them. 3 So Moses’ values are embed- ded in ….what? Are they to be found in the design, i.e., the working drawings, of the ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwayj53f8dk9tg97mj5sk63s)) > LIE? Where would we see them? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwayhzx6rmt37r980s4dfn2q)) > What are they? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwaymfgh629kwe9rkaqwqrvt)) - Note: this section is a terrible piece of philosophy > We started this discussion by laying out a potential dilemma – either values are the sorts of things that humans have or technologies are so value-laden that claiming technologies are embedded with human values is trivial. We have at least examined the fi rst part of the dilemma and discovered that it is, at best, very diffi cult to fi nd values in things. And, when we speak of humans possessing values, the best that I can do is look to what they do to achieve a professed desired state of affairs. In either case, our tentative conclusion is that humans have values and things don’t. So let us now turn to the second horn. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwaz9n2r0fnq5t4jtybe5twy)) > Look at the F-16 fi ghter jet. It is truly a marvel. It is not just fast, but maneuvers like a dream. It is a technological delight, full of all kinds of neat technological gizmos. The United States military authorizes fl y-overs at virtually all home football games at my university because we have a large military training program and many of the pilots are Virginia Tech graduates. It brings delight to all in this case. It is a “WOW!!!” inciting machine. And it can be used to kill. How it is to be used, to delight or to kill, is the result of decisions humans make. Further, what it is as a machine is the result of decisions humans made. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwazccbgykxkxay2vchzm8km)) > Choosing A over B, no matter what the circumstance, will always involve values. If asked to explain your choice of A, you will appeal to a value. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwazk8a0kgf25knqv24ya3t1)) > When we talk about the process of making technological artifacts, the road from the glimmer of an idea to successful production is long and complicated. Consider an engineering context. Someone in your company sees a call for proposals to build a whatsit. Essentially the description of the item is in terms of what it is supposed to do. We need a whatsit to do blah, blah, blah. Specifi cations are as follows: it must not weigh more than x; it must fi t into the following sized compartment; it must come in at or below (some monetary fi gure), etc. Management decides to turn in a bid. It calls the design team together and tells them to come up with a design that meets function and specs. The design team gets to work. This entails a lot of brain storming – a lot of proposals – a lot of arguments about whether this proposal or that will do the job. At each stage in the design process various options are considered by numerous members of the team and many decisions are made and remade. I propose that at no point can you point to the value that went into the object or that the object embodies because there are many and design is only part of the process leading to the eventual design ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwazpwjymhy8r7c9w1pxktbp)) > Robert Moses may have desired to keep inner city people from the beaches on Long Island, but the values embedded in the LIE, if values are embedded in things come from many people and who can tell which ones are Moses’? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwazqv4hwyh5v0w2casa8bxw))