作为认知人造物的信息技术——一种技术哲学的反思

Taking Information Technology as Cognitive Artifacts:A Reflection from Philosophy of Technology

当今信息技术的发展对人类认知能力的影响是技术哲学试图回答的一个问题。一种可行的方式是,把信息技术当作认知人造物,探讨其设计、功能及其与环境的互动与适应。尽管这种研究方向的确为我们理解当代信息技术对人类认知的影响提供了十分有用的起点,但它的说明力由于其静态特征而有其局限性。更为全面的说明需要考虑到认知人造物的动态和演化,尤其是人造物与人类认知的共演化的事实。

One of the research topics that philosophy of technology tries to deal with is how the development of contemporary information technology affects human cognition. A plausible approach of this research consists in taking information technology as cognitive artifacts and investigating their designs, functions, interactions with and adaptations to the environments. Even though the approach has been a very useful starting point for doing this research, it has limitations due to its static character. A more comprehensive strategy requires us to take into consideration the dynamic and evolutionary character of cognitive artifacts, especially the fact that artifacts co-evolves with human cognition.