FRACTAL_VERSING

TECHNOLOGY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF PHILOSOPHY AND DESIGN

By Austin Wiggins

In this example we are going to be giving a philosophical dive through the lens of technology and design. Instead of two ontologies, we will make a single ontology that is at the cross-section of design and technology.

Fraser's note: Also check out Austin's related series on our relationship with technology: Toward a Pragmatic Philosophy of Technology Pt. 3: Framework and Practices.

Technology and Design FractalVersing

IDENTIFY ENTITIES

Designer, User, Human Centered Design (HCD), Infrastructure, Knowledge, Power, Multistability

IDENTIFY DIFFERENCE-DIMENSIONS

Power, Skill, emobodiment, subject, object, direct access, visibility, support, ends, means

IDENTIFY BOUNDARIES, ENVIRONMENT, CONSTRAINTS

Implement, network, context, artifact, interface

IDENTIFY ACTIONS AND VERBS

Design, Plan, use, discard, interview, interface, strategize, know, embody, access, see, obscure, abstract, conceal, support, starve

TRANSFORM ENTITIES AND NOUNS INTO VERBS

Design, become-user, become-designer, become-designed, interfacing, enartifact, infrastructuring, being-knowledge, empower, multistabling

CREATE A MULTI-SCALE VERB HIERARCHY

• Level 1: Become-user, Become-designer
• Level 2: Design, empower, plan
• Level 3: interfacing, infrastructuring
• Level 4: multistabling, enartifacting
• Level 5: Become-designed, become-knowledge

CREATE INTERPRETATIONS

• become-user, interfacing: becoming part of a system through engagement
• Become-user, become-designed: we become as designed as the artifact
• empower, enartifacting: creating an artifact is an expression of power
• multstabling, become-knowledge: many potential states become opportunities for new knowledge to be expressed within an artifact

COMPOSE VERSES

• When we engage with a system, we become a part of it.
• Our interactions with an artifact design our mental models
• When we create an artifact, it is an act of power
• When we design for many potential states, we open ourselves up to the possibilitiy for new knowledge to be expressed

INTERPRETATION

For this example, we're going to use an idea as a point of exploration. This idea is: "How does the expression of multistability, affect how oppresive or liberatory a technology is and what does it say about the nature of technology?

We'll create an interpretation for each of the verses we created above.

When we engage with a system, we become a part of it.

Artifacts with more multistable features give users more agency to shape their experience, potentially leading to a more liberatory technology. On the other hand, artifacts with fewer multistable features may limit user agency and lead to a more oppressive technology.

Our interactions with an artifact design our mental models.

Complexity in system creates complexity in mind through the engagement with its parts.

When we create an artifact, it is an act of power

The design of an artifact is not a neutral process. It carries with it power dynamics through the lens of the designer and corporation. Liberation or oppression is a corporate choice.

When we design for many potential states, we open ourselves up to the possibility for new knowledge to be expressed.

Technological artifacts can be a form of exploration and experimentation with the potential to yield new insights and understandings.

CONCLUSION

Thinking through the verses and their implications on the specific topic at hand, it is clear that in this exploration that technology plays a significant shaping role in human dynamics. As I get closer to the formulation of theories of technology, I see the emergence of very particular themes: power, features, identity within a artifact/system, and flourishing.

There is still much for me to explore in order ot proceed with writing a cohesive theory. But through FractalVersing I have considered many perspectives and themes that I might have gone ignored.