| Front | Back | | --- | --- | | What does Marshall McLuhan mean by his famous dictum 'the medium is the message' regarding knowledge? | The form of a communication technology (the medium) shapes human thought and sets the limits of what can be known more profoundly than the actual content it transmits. | | Compare Marshall McLuhan's view of communication technology with the view that technologies are neutral carriers of ideas. |

Neutral view: Technology is merely a delivery tool that does not alter the ideas themselves.
McLuhan's view: Technology is a constitutive factor that actively redefines human consciousness and the nature of knowledge.

| | How does Luciano Floridi's concept of the 'infosphere' change the primary challenge of acquiring knowledge? | The primary challenge shifts from a lack of information to an inability to filter signal from noise due to information overload and the blurring of online and offline boundaries. | | What is Neil Postman's core argument in Technopoly regarding technology's impact on cultural institutions? | Modern societies surrender their cultural institutions to technology, leading to a culture that assumes every problem needs a technological fix and redefines knowledge as only what can be quantified. | | How does Neil Postman use standardized testing to illustrate his concept of 'technopoly'? | The technology of standardized testing does not merely assist education; it redefines what education means by replacing a teacher's qualitative human judgment with machine-scored quantification. | | How can digital technology mitigate inequalities in access to knowledge, according to Freire's critical pedagogy framework? | It allows learners to access open-access resources independently, bypassing state or institutional gatekeepers and disrupting the traditional 'banking model' of education. | | State the primary argument for why digital technology exacerbates epistemic inequality despite the low marginal cost of digital information. | The digital divide: the physical infrastructure, devices, and digital literacy required to access online knowledge remain unevenly distributed along existing lines of economic inequality. | | What is Cass Sunstein's concept of 'echo chambers,' and how does it threaten democratic debate? | Echo chambers are digital environments where users are exposed primarily to beliefs that confirm their own, undermining the shared epistemic foundation (common facts) required for democratic debate. | | What is Eli Pariser's 'filter bubble,' and how does it differ from traditional external censorship? | A filter bubble is automatically generated by personalization algorithms based on user preferences, creating invisible epistemic isolation without the user's conscious knowledge or consent. | | Compare Cass Sunstein's 'echo chambers' and Eli Pariser's 'filter bubbles' in terms of how they are formed. |

Echo chambers: Formed primarily by social dynamics and users active choices to self-select into like-minded groups.
Filter bubbles: Formed automatically and invisibly by predictive platform algorithms.

| | What is Jaron Lanier's argument regarding the business model of social media and the pursuit of truth? | Platforms profit from user engagement rather than accuracy, structurally incentivizing them to promote sensational and divisive content over careful, nuanced facts. | | How does the YouTube recommendation algorithm illustrate Jaron Lanier's critique of tech platform incentives? | The algorithm is structurally designed to recommend increasingly sensational or extreme content to maximize watch time, prioritizing economic engagement over accurate information. | | How does Miranda Fricker's concept of hermeneutical injustice apply to digital spaces? | Online platforms and vocabularies still reflect the perspectives of dominant cultures, leaving marginalized groups without the digital frameworks to articulate their own experiences. | | How does artificial intelligence challenge the traditional 'justified true belief' (JTB) framework of knowledge? | If belief requires conscious subjective experience, AI outputs cannot be genuine knowledge, but rather sophisticated information processing without understanding. | | What is the danger of 'epistemic automation' for human cognition? | Delegating intellectual tasks (like diagnostics, writing, or legal analysis) to algorithms risks weakening the human capacity for independent critical thinking through disuse. | | What is the debate regarding 'epistemic responsibility' in the curation of digital beliefs? |

Individual view: Users have an obligation to critically evaluate sources.
Systemic view: Tech companies bear responsibility for designing engagement-driven algorithms that exploit human cognitive biases.

| | Luciano Floridi coined the term infosphere to describe an environment saturated with information where the boundary between online and offline existence is blurred. | Luciano Floridi coined the term infosphere to describe an environment saturated with information where the boundary between online and offline existence is blurred. | | Neil Postman coined the term technopoly to describe a society that surrenders its cultural institutions to the sovereignty of technology. | Neil Postman coined the term technopoly to describe a society that surrenders its cultural institutions to the sovereignty of technology. | | While Cass Sunstein focuses on the democratic threat of echo chambers, Eli Pariser highlights how personalization algorithms create invisible filter bubbles. | While Cass Sunstein focuses on the democratic threat of echo chambers, Eli Pariser highlights how personalization algorithms create invisible filter bubbles. | | Jaron Lanier argues that the economic model of social media is fundamentally incompatible with truth because platforms monetize engagement rather than accuracy. | Jaron Lanier argues that the economic model of social media is fundamentally incompatible with truth because platforms monetize engagement rather than accuracy. |

1. Being human6 subtopics

2. Aesthetics3 subtopics

3. Epistemology3 subtopics

4. Ethics3 subtopics

5. Philosophy of religion3 subtopics

6. Philosophy of science3 subtopics

7. Political philosophy3 subtopics

8. Social philosophy3 subtopics

9. HL extension: Philosophy and contemporary issues3 subtopics

10. Prescribed philosophical texts12 subtopics

IB Philosophy 3.3.3 Knowledge and Technology Flashcards