WRITING SAMPLE
MORAL CODE: THE DESIGN AND SOCIAL VALUES OF THE INTERNET
MORAL CODE: THE DESIGN AND SOCIAL VALUES OF THE INTERNET
SYNOPSIS
While the Internet has not gone unnoticed in philosophy, philosophical investigations have mainly focused on social responses to the Internet and envisioning future forms of social life with technology. There has been less attention given to how the technical details of the Internet limit or expand these possibilities through its basic design. My philosophical framework for such a study, indebted to the work of Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, and Andrew Feenberg, investigates the social and historical relations that result in the embodiment of specific interests in the Internet.
Starting with a Marxian analysis, I contextualize the Internet as a system of production, distribution, and consumption of information, goods, and services involving both use-value and exchange-value. With this understanding, alienation can be facilitated through the growth of capitalistic enterprises on the Internet as well as oppression through the manipulation of the technology.
Also, integrating a social constructivist approach, I explore the Internet itself as neither neutral nor one-dimensional. The social and the technical are intertwined, so it is not simply conceived as a technical phenomenon or a social phenomenon. Social interests are embodied in the evolving design of the technology, although so are governmental, legal, and corporate interests. It is these latter interests that prove the significance and the influence of the technological design, along with the need for its careful study.
Many users of the Internet have become familiar with the empowering and emancipatory features of the Internet, engaging in positive relations through embodied social interests in the technology. However, since the 1990s, commercial commodification and globalization have created embodied interests in the Internet that more and more dominate its use. While potentially oppressive when appropriated to satisfy the needs of commercial advertising and dominant social relations, the Internet still can incorporate alternative interests and uses through dispersed collaboration and participation, which enables Internet technology to remain minimally coercive. However, user agency must extend beyond the passive, undiscerning use of the technology.
Starting with a Marxian analysis, I contextualize the Internet as a system of production, distribution, and consumption of information, goods, and services involving both use-value and exchange-value. With this understanding, alienation can be facilitated through the growth of capitalistic enterprises on the Internet as well as oppression through the manipulation of the technology.
Also, integrating a social constructivist approach, I explore the Internet itself as neither neutral nor one-dimensional. The social and the technical are intertwined, so it is not simply conceived as a technical phenomenon or a social phenomenon. Social interests are embodied in the evolving design of the technology, although so are governmental, legal, and corporate interests. It is these latter interests that prove the significance and the influence of the technological design, along with the need for its careful study.
Many users of the Internet have become familiar with the empowering and emancipatory features of the Internet, engaging in positive relations through embodied social interests in the technology. However, since the 1990s, commercial commodification and globalization have created embodied interests in the Internet that more and more dominate its use. While potentially oppressive when appropriated to satisfy the needs of commercial advertising and dominant social relations, the Internet still can incorporate alternative interests and uses through dispersed collaboration and participation, which enables Internet technology to remain minimally coercive. However, user agency must extend beyond the passive, undiscerning use of the technology.