In this paper, I argue for the impossible possibility of an ethical dwelling with technology. In arguing for an ethical comportment in our dealing with technology, I am not only arguing for the consideration of the ethical implications of technology (which we already do) but also, and more importantly, for an ethics of technological artefacts qua technology. Thus, I attempt to argue for a decentering (or rather overcoming) of anthropocentric ethics, urging us to move beyond any centre, whatever it may be-anthropological, biological, etc. I argue that if we take ethics seriously we must admit that our measure cannot be that of man. To develop the argument, I use an episode in Star Trek where the fate of the highly sophisticated android Commander Data is to be decided. I show how the moral reasoning about Data remains anthropocentric but hints to other possibilities. I proceed to use the work of Derrida and Levinas (with some help from Heidegger) to suggest a possible way to think (and do) an ethos beyond traditional ethics-an ethics of hospitality in which we dwell in a community of those that have nothing in common. © Springer-Verlag London Limited 2009.
CITATION STYLE
Introna, L. D. (2010). The “measure of a man” and the ethos of hospitality: Towards an ethical dwelling with technology. AI and Society, 25(1), 93–102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-009-0242-1
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