Javier Echeverría

Empirical Methods in Mathematics

Philosophy of mathematics has changed considerably during the last few years. The classical distinction between logicism, formalism and intuitionism, a major topic a few decades ago, has become less outstanding. The search for the logical foundations of mathematics belongs to the history of logic and mathematics. There is no more crisis concerning the foundations of mathematics. Conversely, the “fundamentalist” program of research in philosophy of mathematics seems to be currently stagnant. In 1967, Putnam published a celebrated paper, “Mathematics without Foundations”, where he claimed vigorously that: I don’t think mathematics is unclear; I don’t think mathematics has a crisis in its foundations; indeed, I do not believe mathematics either has or needs ‘foundations’2.

Artificial Intelligence, Cybercities and Technosocieties

Information technologies have made possible the rising of new forms of communities, cities and societies. These changes are analyzed from the perspective of innovation studies, as technological but also social innovations. Starting from the contributions of Ortega y Gasset to the philosophy of technology, and applying these ideas to the information and communications technologies (ICT) system, this article introduces the notions of technosocieties and cybercities. Our aim is to deeply examine the Telepolis project; a digital and global city supported by ICT and artificial intelligence (AI). We pay attention to the different challenges that AI will have to face in upcoming years in technosocieties and cybercities. In our opinion, the future of AI is tightly related with the technological support of this kind of new city and their cybercitizens. Finally, we claim that there won’t be a shared public space in the infosphere till public organizations acknowledge the importance of promoting and maintaining this new and already needed digital agora.

Interdisciplinariedad y convergencia tecnocientífica nano-bio-info-cogno

The emergence of technoscience in the twentieth century changed scientific practice and the concept of interdisciplinarity. This article examines an important example of contemporary technoscience, which is the National Science Foundation (NSF) report Converging Technologies for improving Human Performance (CTIHP), and its support for a new kind of interdisciplinarity, the nano-bio-info-cogno (NBIC) technologies. The analysis of this report shows that the NSF concept of interdisciplinarity is instrumental, selective, and apparently reductionist, in detriment of the social sciences, arts and humanities. In the thesis, it is suggested that the concept of interprofessionality is more suitable for technoscience than that of interdisciplinarity.

The Philosophy of Technoworlds and Technopersons

After first reexamining Ortega’s philosophy of technique and Quintanilla’s philosophy of technology, this article will propose a philosophy of technoscience that distinguishes between different scales in present-day technological worlds. There are macro-, meso-, micro-, and nano-cosmic scale technoworlds whose properties and structures are still being researched by contemporary technosciences. The philosophy of technology needs to be specific for each kind of world under study, including the social worlds, not only those of nature or the biosphere. An important example in this respect comprises technopersons, artificial entities that superimpose themselves on physical and legal persons and interact in today’s major technoworld: the digital world. At the end of the article, some of the possible consequences and risks of the expansion of the information and communications technologies (ICTs) to microcosms and nanocosms, specifically, to the human brain, will be highlighted.

Technomathematical Models in the Social Sciences

The sciences that universities and scientific societies developed during the modern era underwent a radical transformation over the twentieth century. They experienced a structural mutation that affects, above all, the organization of scientific practice, as well as the ways of producing, distributing, teaching, and using scientific knowledge. As a result, the technosciences, a hybrid between science and technology, have appeared. Because science has changed, the philosophy of science must also change. These are the basic hypotheses that I will use as a starting point for this contribution.