Philosophy of Technology

Yuk Hui's 'Kant Machine': reading Kant again in the age of artificial intelligence

The new book by the Erasmus University philosopher of technology asks whether machines can be moral, and whether there is an algorithm for perpetual peace.

Yuk Hui

This Day in Philosophy — 16 August: the first transatlantic telegraph message

On 16 August 1858 Queen Victoria sent a message to President Buchanan along a cable laid beneath the ocean. It took seventeen hours to arrive — but for the first time communication had come loose from transport.

This Day in Philosophy — 13 August: the birth of John Logie Baird

The Scottish inventor John Logie Baird, the first man to make television work, was born on 13 August 1888. Once it became possible to see at a distance, the argument about perception and reality changed too.

This Day in Philosophy — 12 August: IBM unveils the personal computer

The IBM PC went on sale on 12 August 1981. The passage of computing power from institutions to individuals also altered arguments running from the philosophy of mind to the theory of knowledge.