Philosophy of technology (PoT) analyzes the nature of technology, its significance and consequences, and its mediation of human experiences of the world. Classical philosophers of technology describe mechanization as alienating: Technology causes humans to lose their connection with the natural world. Tehno-rationality replaces critical engagement and creativity. Failing to comprehend the essence/nature of Technology, and its consequences, portends disastrous social, political, and economic consequences. Such perspectives, however, neglect individual experiences of technologies. Filling that lacuna, contemporary philosophers of technology challenge the sweeping determinism of their intellectual forerunners and investigate how specific technologies mediate particular human experiences. Their descriptive prowess, however, lacks the normative engagement of classical PoT, and they emphasize micro effects of technologies to the detriment of macro implications. This dissertation describes an 'un-disciplined' philosophy of technology (UPoT) that unites the macro and micro perspectives by providing narratives of human-technology symbiosis and co-development. Un-disciplined philosophers of technology present posthuman and transhuman perspectives that emphasize the symbiotic relationships between humans and technology. Thus, they deny disciplined philosophy's first critical maneuver: define and demarcate. UPoT enables conversations and debate regarding the ontological and moral consequences of imagining humans and technologies as hybrid, co-dependent things. UPoT builds upon environmental and animal rights movements, and postphenomenology, to emphasize pluralist accounts that emphasize the dynamism of human-technology relations. UPoT argues we should imagine technologies as extensions/parts of living things: they do the shaping and are shaped in turn. I argue that such thinking reinforces the habit, already proposed by contemporary PoT, that emerging human-technology relations demand active interpretation and engagement because the relationships constantly change. Thus, we need to imagine a moral theory that best matches the hybrid/connected condition of the present century. Increasing automation in agriculture and surgery, for instance, exemplify technologies mediating human experiences of food and health, thus affecting how we understand and define these categories. / Ph. D.

Technological advancements reshape societies at large and with that changes in behavior and the way in which people live and work follow. Education is no exception; technology enables students to attend courses independent of time and place. This thesis attempted to explore and develop an understanding of how students who study at a distance in higher education use technology to collaborate and how they experience collaboration. The philosophical base is postphenomenology and both interviews and observations have been conducted in order to collect data. Findings showed that a range of technologies were used to collaborate; both technologies for communication, storing of documents, brainstorming and screen sharing. Only the initial contact between fellow students were made through the technology that the university itself provided whereas the continued communication often took place elsewhere, chosen by the students. Although emerging technologies offer a vast range of opportunities for communication and collaboration, these were not always experienced as seamless. Diverging from previous literature where distance education has received critiques on not being able to fully replicate traditional studies; findings showed that the differences from traditional studies made students choose distance studies over traditional studies. Thus the value of distance studies relies on what actually differs them from traditional studies.

This thesis applies an interdisciplinary cybernetic and phenomenological analysis to contemporary theories of representation and interpretation of architecture, resulting in a speculative theoretical model of architectural experience as a behavioural system. The methodological model adopted for this research defines the main structure of the thesis where the narrative and the contributing parts of its complexity emerge. The narrative is presented through objectives and hypotheses that shift and slide between architectural representation and its experience based on three key internal components in architecture: the architectural forms and spaces, the active observers that interact with their environment, and finally, the responsive environment. Three interrelated research questions are considered. The first seeks to define the influence of the theoretical instability between complex life processes, emerging technologies and active perception upon architecture. The second questions the way in which the architectural experience is generated. The third asks: Does architecture behave? And if so, is it possible to define its behavioural characteristics related to its representation, experience and the medium of communication in-between? The thesis begins by exploring the effect of developments in digitally interactive, biological, and hybrid technologies on representation in architecture. An account of architectural examples considers the shift in the meaning of representation in architecture from the actual and literal to the more conceptual and experimental, from the individual human body and its relations to the multifaceted ecosystem of collective and connected cultures. The writings of Kester Rattenbury, Neil Leach, and Peter Cook among others contribute to the transformation of the ordinary perceptual experience of architecture, the development of experimental practices in architectural theory, and the dynamism of our perception. The thesis goes on to suggest that instability in architectural representation does not only depend on the internal components of the architectural system but also on the principles and processes of complex systems as well as changes in active perception and our consciousness that act as the external influences on the system. Established theoretical endeavours in biology of D’Arcy Thompson, Alan Turing, and John Holland and philosophies of Merleau-Ponty, Richard Gregory, and Deleuze and Guattari are discussed in this context. Pre-programmed and computational models, illustrative and generative, are presented throughout the thesis. In the final stage of the development of the thesis architecture is analysed as a system. This is not an unprecedented notion, however defining the main elements and components of this system and their interactions and thereafter identifying that the system behaves and defining its behavioural characteristics, adds to the knowledge in the field of theoretical and experimental architecture. This thesis considers the behavioural characteristics of architecture to be derived from the hypothetical links and unstable thresholds of its non-dualistic notions of materiality and immateriality, reality and virtuality, and finally, intentionality and interpretation.

This thesis aimed to study the everyday use of ICT-enabled memory aids in order to understand and to describe the technological mediations that are brought by them (i.e. how they shape/mediate experiences and actions of their users). To do this, a post-phenomenological approach was appropriated. Postphenomenology is a modified, hybrid phenomenology that tries to overcome the limitations of phenomenology. As for theoretical framework, ‘Technological Mediation’ was adopted to conduct the study. Technological Mediation as a theory provides concepts suitable for explorations of the phenomenon of human-technology relation. It was believed that this specific choice of approach and theoretical framework would provide a new way of exploring the use of concrete technologies in everyday life of human beings and the implications that this use might have on humans’ lives. The study was conducted in the city of Växjö, Sweden. Data was collected by conducting twelve face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Collected data was, then, analyzed by applying the concepts within the theoretical framework – Technological Mediation - to them. The results of this study provided a list of ICT-enabled devices and services that participants were using in their everyday life in order to support their memory such as: calendars, alarms, notes, bookmarks, etc. Furthermore, this study resulted in a detailed description of how these devices and services shaped/mediated the experiences and the actions of their users.

This thesis studies the phenomenon of human-system interaction in smart homes as a practice of Internet of Things. The research was conducted through interviews, workshops and observations and followed an interpretive research paradigm of phenomenologically-situated paradigm of HCI and a qualitative research approach. The theories of Phenomenology and Postphenomenology were used to interpret the experiences, beliefs and views of the participants. The empirical findings were processed and a thematic analysis was followed in order to identify the main themes that emerged out of the interviews, workshops and observations. The discussion of the findings showed that the research questions were answered to the grade that the participants of the research design, use and interact with smart homes in a multiple and complex way.

Digital technology has changed the nature of how humans live as a society with lives orbiting a digital core of internet, smartphones, social media etc. There is now not only a physical world but a digital one too. This far-reaching transformation also applies to cultural institutions to digitize their activities, a result of responding to the expectations of a contemporary audience. The aim of this study is to examine the digitization of art- and cultural heritage in a digital world. The essay examines the digital activities of the Swedish National Museum of fine art that has developed before, during and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is done through visual analysis and the theoretic framework of postphenomenology and social semiotics. The study finds that cultural heritage can be digitized in many different ways but that the digitization can’t replace the physical encounter with an artwork. Yet it can constitute new ways and perspectives on how to experience, see and discuss traditional works of art. Digitization of cultural heritage can therefore work to enhance its general interest, disseminate and influence an increase in availability of knowledge about cultural heritage and art history.

Smartphone technology has transformed the process by which women understand themselves, manage their care decisions and access health information, while also creating a space for more integrated and individualized understandings of wellness. Using exploratory, semi-structured interviews (n = 27) and observation of phone use, this study examines how minority women in Boston engage with smartphones through health-related mobile applications and web searches. Drawing upon postphenomenology, I examine the way smartphones have become both a regulatory force and motivational tool in the formation of self. I argue that the integration of smartphones into user identity positions them as the primary entryway for health decision-making (Garro, 1986, 1998) and patient-clinician interactions.

This thesis investigates the relation between human and smartwatch by exploring the experiences of four Swedish long-distance runners who use digital technology to self-track their running activities. By examining the participating runners’ use of their smartwatches and smartwatch data as postphenomenological human-technology relations (Ihde, 1990), this thesis offers a perspective on the use of wearable self-tracking technology as augmenting human experience through digital data. The empirical material was gathered through semi-structured interviews with the participating runners. In the analysis of the material, a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software is used to transcribe and code the material following a concept-driven approach influenced by Ritchie and Lewis’ Thematic Framework Method (2003). The coded transcripts are summarized in thematic charts based on postphenomenological human-technology relations developed by Ihde (1990) and Verbeek (2008) along with an understanding of data influenced by the field of critical data studies and adjacent work (e.g. Iliadis & Russo, 2016; Kitchin, 2014; van Dijck, 2014; Edmond et al., 2022). The runner-smartwatch relations that are analyzed in this thesis showcase how the digital data produced in self-tracking practices become part of the self-tracker’s experiences by being incorporated in a runner-data assemblage. Viewing the runner-smartwatch relation as a type of augmentation relation (Verbeek, 2008), this thesis further suggests that the digital data function as an augmenting layer through which the running activity is experienced.

There is a common theme at play in our talk of data generally, of digital earth data more specifically, and of environmental monitoring most specifically: more data leads to more action and, ultimately, to societal good. This data-to-action framework is troubled. Its taken-for-grantedness prevents us from attending to the processes between data and action. It also dampens our drive to investigate the contexts of that data, that action, and that envisioned societal good. In this dissertation, I deconstruct this data-to-action model in the context of Landsat, the United States' first natural resource management satellite. First, I talk about the ways in which Landsat's data and instrumentation hold conflicting narratives and values within them. Therefore, Landsat data does not automatically or easily yield action toward environmental preservation, or toward any unified societal good. Furthermore, I point out a parallel dynamic in STS, where critique is somewhat analogous to data. We want our critiques to yield action, and to guide us toward a more just technoscience. However, critiques—like data—require intentional, reconstructive interventions toward change. Here is an opportunity for a diffractive intervention: one in which we read STS and remote sensing through each other, to create space for interdisciplinary dialogue around environmental preservation. A focus on this shared goal, I argue, is imperative. At stake are issues of environmental degradation, dwindling resources, and climate change. I conclude with beginnings rather than endings: with suggestions for how we might begin to create infrastructure that attends to that forgotten space between data, critique, action, and change. / Doctor of Philosophy / I have identified a problem I call the data-to-action paradigm. When we scroll around on Facebook and find articles –– citing pages and pages of statistics –– on our rapidly melting glaciers and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, we are existing within this paradigm. We have been offered evidence of looming, catastrophic change, but no suggestions on what to do about it. This is not only happening with climatological data and large-scale environmental systems modelling. Rather, this is a general problem across the field of Earth Remote Sensing. The origins of this data-to-action paradigm, I argue, can be found in old and new rhetoric about Landsat, the United States’ first natural resource management satellite. This rhetoric often says that Landsat — and other natural resource management satellites’ — data is a way toward societal good. The more data we have, the more good will proliferate in the world. However, we haven’t been specific about what that good might look like, and what kinds of actions we might take toward that good using this data. This is because, I argue, Earth systems science is politically complicated, with many different conceptions of societal good. In order to be more specific about how we might use this data toward some kind of good we must (1) explore the history of environmental data, and figure out where this rhetoric comes from (which I I do in this dissertation), and (2) encourage interdisciplinary collaborations between Earth Remote Sensing scientists, social scientists, and humanists, to more specifically flesh out connections between digital Earth data, its analyses, and subsequent civic action on such data.

Pregnant people are increasingly turning to mobile apps for support and guidance throughout their pregnancy. The popularity of pregnancy apps in society and their potential influence on how users engage with and perceive their pregnant bodies underscore a public interest in investigating the effects of these apps. However, little attention has been given to how pregnancy apps are involved and influence the pregnancy experience. This study aimed to investigate the role of pregnancy apps in the embodied pregnancy experience. Data was collected by eight interviews with pregnant people and an examination of six pregnancy apps using the walkthrough method. By employing a postphenomenological perspective, the relationship between user and technology was analysed, focusing on technology as a mediating character. The findings indicate that pregnancy apps are intimately involved in the pregnancy experience by mediating (1) a bond between parents and the unborn baby, (2) a shared experience between partners, and (3) knowledge about the pregnant body. However, the pregnant body is constructed around medical measurements, norms, and expectations about what it means to be pregnant and provides little support to the lived bodily experience.