Philosophy of Engineering and Artifact in the Digital Age

Our world became engineered, remaining, nevertheless, human. Through the philosophy of engineering, both Engineering and Philosophy are profoundly involved in the transcendental curve of the debates on the future of humankind in the Era of the Artifacts, brought by the emergent technologies of robotics, genetic engineering and nanotechnology. In the Era-Just-Before-Singularity, while engineering is improved by philosophy (as Peter Simons has demonstrated), the 'respected system of perplexities we call philosophy' (Jorge Luis Borges) are encouraged by engineering. This book is an anthology of papers presented during PHEADE 2009 (Philosophy of Engineering and Artifact in the Digital Era) an exploratory workshop organized in the mythical county of Bucovina (in the northern Romania). Registered by The Reasoner as one of the first East European meetings of Philosophers and Engineers of the third millennium, the event was organized by the Romanian Society for Philosophy, Engineering and Technoethics, in an original attempt to redefine the engineered future of the humankind.